Headaches And Migraines - Know The Difference

Hello steemians, I would like to take the opportunity to officially welcome everyone to our community. The steem health style community aims to bring health news and discuss health related topics on the platform.

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For my first post on the steem health style community, I would like to talk about headaches and migraines. Migraines and headaches are sometimes considered the same and I think it is important we learn what both of them are and their differences.

What are Headaches?

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A headache is a feeling of pain in your neck. The pain can be described as an ache in the head hence the term headache. An ache is basically a pain. The pain in the head can just be a sharp minor pain or a very severe pain that can last for minutes, days, months or years.

Headaches are grouped into 2; primary and secondary headaches. Primary headaches are aches, pains or disorders that are not caused by any other disease or disorder but result from their own as stand alone health problems. On the other hand secondary headaches are pains that are caused by existing disorders. Secondary headaches are symptoms of disorders but primary headaches are not symptoms of existing disorders.

There are 3 main very common types of headaches; sinus, tension and cluster headaches.

Tension headaches are the pains we experience from headaches usually caused by hunger and stress. Tension headaches occur in both sides of our heads.

Sinus headaches are the pains we experience from headaches usually caused by sickness. When the sinus passages swell, they can result into pains behind our eyes, nose and cheeks.

Cluster headaches are the pains we experience from headaches that are very painful. They are usually the headaches that occur on side of our heads. They are called cluster headaches because they occur a lot of times daily.

How to Treat Headaches.

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• Take over the counter treatment drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

• Reduce stress.

• Having massages and meditation.

What are Migraines?

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Migraines are severe forms of headache that are not just characterized with head pains but also with some other symptoms like nausea. They are sometimes confused with cluster headaches because it also occurs on one side of our heads. However, unlike cluster headaches, migraines display other symptoms like nausea and vomiting.

Migraines can be put into 2 common categories; migraines with aura and migraines without aura. Migraines with aura are migraines which give off warning signals before they occur. A warning signal or sign can be seeing flash lights, feeling numb in the hands, etc. Migraines without aura are migraines which do not give warning signs before they occur.

Causes or Triggers of Migraines.

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• Gender. It is known that women are more likely to get migraines than me. The ratio is 3:1 meaning women are at three times the risk of having migraines than men. It is believed by Brockman that because of menstruation, women are more likely to have migraines.

• Environmental factors. Changes in weather, unpleasant smells, stress, etc are environmental factors that can cause migraines.

• Genetics. Parents with migraines disorders are more likely to pass it on to their offspring due to a certain genetic mutation.

• Intake of alcohol could cause migraines.

• Dehydration and hunger could cause migraines.

How to Prevent and Treat Migraines.

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The best way to prevent a migraine is to try as much as possible to identify your migraine triggers. Upon identification of such triggers say stress, it is best to try as much as possible to avoid stress. So generally the best way to prevent migraines is to avoid your triggers.

Migraines have no known permanent cure but some treatments can be used to reduce their severity and occurrences;

• Taking over the counter drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin and acetaminophen.

• Taking prescription drugs like beta blockers, anti-seizuress, antidepressants, etc .

• Adopting new lifestyles like exercising, resting, eating healthy foods, etc.

I am very excited to be a member of this community and helping to bring health education to steemians. I hope you find this post educative.

Thank you and please leave your comments in the comments section.