Headaches
What Triggers
Headaches?
Almost everyone has had a headache some
time in life. If you get them on a regular basis, you may be
predisposed to headaches because of your genetics, your
perception of life stress, or your body's own
metabolism.
If you've had headaches for some time,
you're probably already aware of some things that can trigger
them. Although everyone's situation is different, there are
several factors that are almost universal when it comes to
bringing on a headache. In a recent study, 199 chronic
headache sufferers filled out a questionnaire about the
conditions that they experienced just before a headache. The
results show us that the most frequently cited precipitating
factors were, in order of frequency:
-
Anxiety
-
Glare
-
Noise
-
Anger
The least common factors cited were:
sneezing, relaxation, pollen and sexual
activity.
The best way for you to control your
headaches is to determine what triggers them. Here are some
other factors known to trigger headaches:
-
Emotions
-
Eating and sleeping
patterns
-
Diet
-
Medications
-
Environmental factors
-
Hormones
-
Physical exertion
Emotions
There is a link between headaches and
emotional distress. Emotions can bring on headaches, keep
them going, and make them worse.
Emotions don't cause your headaches;
rather, they just make you more vulnerable to them. When the
mind influences the body, the result is called a
psychosomatic condition. You may have heard this term
used negatively to describe people who believe they have
illnesses that they really don't. This is an incorrect use of
the word. Psychosomatic simply means that the state of the
mind (the
psyche) can influence the biological mechanisms of the
body (the
soma). In this sense, several other medical
conditions, including peptic ulcer disease, asthma, and some
irregularities of heart rhythm are
psychosomatic.
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SINUSES AS SCAPEGOATS
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Many people who suffer from
headaches erroneously blame it on their sinuses. It is
estimated that as many as 95 percent of people who
believe they suffer from “sinus headache”
really have no problem with their sinuses at
all.
Migraine and cluster headache can
cause the same symptoms as sinus infection, notably pain
around the eye, forehead or temple; sense of nasal
stuffiness; and even nasal drainage. Adding to the
confusion is the fact that many decongestant-containing
sinus medications can relieve all kinds of
headaches.
To find out if your headaches are
caused by your sinuses, get a checkup from a
physician.
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