Who does not have a headache? Probably, only a woodpecker. There are many classifications of headaches. They divide it by origin or, as it is customary to say in medical circles, on the etiology. Headaches can be primary, so-called essential (without a specific cause), there may be secondary, that is, against a background of some disease (arterial hypertension, intracranial hypertension, brain tumor, infectious diseases, and so on).

The brain itself does not hurt, because it does not have nerve endings, pain receptors. But in the head, except for the brain substance, there is a bone with the periosteum, which can give very intense headaches. There are muscles, they are many - a thin muscle of the scalp, the muscles are temporal, occipital, chewing. There are shells of the brain - hard (dura mater encephale), soft (pia mater encephale) and arachnoid (arahnoidea encephale). Everyone knows such diseases as meningitis and encephalitis, is an inflammation of the soft and arachnoid membranes, respectively. The leading symptom of these diseases is a headache of very high intensity, with pronounced vomiting and other menacing signs, which we will not talk about here.

The head has a lot of blood vessels, the blood supply is extremely intense - both the brain itself and all other parts, regions, structures of the head. And we must immediately say that the headaches in the vast majority of the vascular nature. There is also a complex nervous system of the brain. A complex network of nerve fibers covers the skull. Everyone knows nerves such as the trigeminal and facial nerves, the inflammation of which can produce severe headaches and even paresis and paralysis (facial distortions) due to inflammation (often after the transferred neuroviral infections, for example, the influenza virus).

What else can hurt in the head? Sines, several of them. The maxillary sinuses, frontal sinuses, etmoidal, middle. If their inflammation occurs (after or during viral infections), there are painful sensations of a very different intensity. Lost more teeth and ears. But it's understandable: they hurt - the whole head hurts.

Let's talk in more detail about vascular headaches We will not dive into the classification of vascular headaches, consider their types. Depending on the duration, that is, the time during which pains are observed, they are divided into acute and chronic, that is, long. Depending on the intensity - light, medium, pronounced. Depending on the perception (it all depends on the subjective sense of a person) - stabbing, aching, pressing, pulsating, shooting, peeling, sawing and t.

Localization is also very important. Pain can be local, that is, occupy a certain area, and sometimes even point, and can be common, when the whole head or half of the head hurts (hemicrania, as happens with migraine).

Pain can be linked clearly with some reason, but can be without a specific reason. For example, a sharp smell, a loud sound, a flash of bright light, physical activity, sex, etc.). There is such a thing as a tension headache. These are headaches that arise due to a large (for a given, specific patient) intellectual, psycho-emotional stress. The same applies to vascular headaches.

What to do if you suffer from headaches?.

They prevent you from functioning properly, reduce the quality of life? It's one thing - rare headaches, episodic, which disappear after rest and do not violate your normal way of life. But if the pain is frequent (several times a month) and disturbing the state of health, one should go to the doctor, it is necessary to be examined. For the beginning - examination of the doctor, measurement of blood pressure, examination of the vessels of the head and neck (transcranial duplex ultrasound dopplerography of the vessels of the neck and head - UZDG), and then, according to the doctor's advice, depending on the results - possibly an MRI or CT of the brain.

Then again, based on the results, appointments and recommendations.

And believe me, very often these recommendations are reduced to observing the regime of the day, the correct change of labor and rest, limiting the time of work and playing with gadgets, normalizing sleep. Especially the last. I already wrote that chronic lack of sleep significantly affects our state of health, provoking and provoking various somatic ailments. A normal, full-fledged, long enough sleep is the most important condition for well-being.

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