Headaches as Warning Signs

Posted: Dec. 1, 2004

Not all headaches require medical attention. Some result from occasional muscle tension and are usually remedied with rest or over-the-counter medications. But some types of headache are signals of more serious disorders, and call for medical care. These include:

• Sudden, severe headache
• Sudden, severe headache associated with a stiff neck
• Headache associated with fever
• Headache associated with convulsions
• Headache accompanied by confusion or loss of consciousness
• Headache following a blow on the head
• Headache associated with pain in the eye or ear
• Persistent headache in a person who was previously headache free
• Recurring headache in children
• Headache which interferes with normal life

A headache sufferer usually seeks help from a family practitioner. If the problem is not relieved by standard treatments, the patient may then be referred to a specialist, perhaps an internist or neurologist. Additional referrals may be made to psychologists.

Why does a headache hurt?
The bones of the skull and tissues of the brain itself never hurt, because they lack pain-sensitive nerve fibers, but several areas of the head can hurt, including a network of nerves which extends over the scalp, and certain nerves in the face, mouth and throat.

Also sensitive to pain, because they contain delicate nerve fibers, are the muscles of the head and blood vessels found along the surface and at the base of the brain.

The ends of these pain-sensitive nerves, called nociceptors, can be stimulated by stress, muscular tension, dilated blood vessels and other triggers of headache. Once stimulated, a nociceptor sends a message up the length of the nerve fiber to the nerve cells in the brain, signaling that a part of the body hurts.

A number of chemicals help transmit pain-related information to the brain. Some of these chemicals are natural painkilling proteins called endorphins. One theory suggests that people who suffer from severe headache and other types of chronic pain have lower levels of endorphins than people who are generally pain free.

Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

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