Tension Headaches: Everything You Need To Know

Tension headaches are the most common type of headaches
It causes pain in your head and neck and behind your eyes. The pain can be mild, moderate, or severe.
It also feels like a tight band around your forehead.

There’s no exact known cause of tension headache
Although it can be linked to multiple tension in the head and neck and can also be caused by poor posture
According to research, infrequent tension headaches are caused by the activation of hyperexcitable peripheral afferent neurons. These are the neurons that send sensory information from pain receptors to the brain.
Genetic factors can also increase your susceptibility to tension headaches.
Triggers include eyestrain, stress, dental problems, fatigue, smoking, migraine attacks, a sinus infection, poor postures, lack of sleep, emotional stress, and many more.

The symptoms of a tension headache include pressure around your forehead, dull head pain, and tenderness around your scalp and forehead.
Tension headache can sometimes be confused with migraine when the pain is intense.
Tension headaches can sometimes lead to sensitivity to light and loud noises just like migraine but this is rare.
However, tension headaches don’t have all the symptoms of migraine like nausea and vomiting.

You can start by drinking a lot of water. The headache might be due to dehydration and all you need to do is to increase your water intake.
You should also consider how much sleep you’re getting because lack of sleep can lead to tension headaches.
Also, make sure you don’t skip meals since hunger triggers headaches.
If you’ve tried all these and they don’t work then you can take over-the-counter pain medications to get rid of the headache. However, this should not be done frequently.
In some cases, over-the-counter drugs are not enough to treat recurring tension headaches. Your healthcare professional may then give you a prescription for medication like beta-blockers, tricyclic antidepressants, divalproex sodium, naproxen, ketorolac, or indomethacin.
If pain relievers don’t work then your health care professional will prescribe a muscle relaxant which will help stop muscle contractions.

They may recommend other strategies like:

Stress management classes which teach you different ways to deal with stress and how to relieve tension.
Biofeedback which is a relaxation technique to manage pain and stress
Cognitive-behavioral therapy which is a talk therapy that helps you recognize the cause of your stress, tension, and anxiety
Acupuncture which uses fine needles at specific areas of your body to lower stress and tension.

Since tension headaches are caused by specific triggers, identifying these triggers is one way to prevent future episodes.
A headache diary where you record your activities, daily meals, beverages or any situation that triggers stress can he’ll you know the cause of your tension headaches
For each day that you have a tension headache, you record it then after several weeks, you may be able to make a connection.
For example, if your journal shows that headaches occurred when you were stressed, then stress may be your trigger.

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