Life Research News : Headaches
Recurring headache may be the most common reason for seeking medical care. Headaches account for about 10 million visits to physicians’ offices each year—not counting visits to nonphysicians, chiropractors, hypnotists, or other health care providers who offer headache relief. But as common as the condition is, it is still in many respects a mystery. Researchers aren’t exactly sure what causes headaches or which people are more susceptible, though they believe a biological predisposition may be responsible and that overuse of pain-relievers and caffeine can make them worse. Likewise, doctors can’t always tell what kind of headache an individual has and therefore what kind of medicine would be best.
You’ve probably heard headaches described in various ways; terms often used include tension headache, muscle contraction headache, stress headache, daily chronic headache, migraine headache, and cluster headache. Specialists also deal with posttraumatic headache and disease-related headache.
Type of Headaches
Cluster headache, posttraumatic headache, and disease-related headache are not as confusing as the others, because they have more distinct characteristics. Diagnosis is often more difficult, when it comes to tension headache (which is the same as muscle contraction and stress headache), daily chronic headache, and migraine.