News At-A-Glance
Brighton, Colorado
Health News: Headaches Are Not Normal!
Article By Dr. Jim Campbell
Headaches are not normal—they are a sign that something is wrong! Did you know that your body is supposed to be free of pain? Feeling good is the normal state. A stabbing head pain, pounding in your temples, sensitivity to light, a nauseous feeling…these are not normal. Do you know that one in six Americans is a victim of chronic headaches? That’s an awful lot of people needlessly suffering.
People have a lot of misconceptions where headaches are concerned. One common misconception is that over-the-counter medications treat the causes of your headaches. The reality is that headache relieving drugs don’t target the cause of the headache; they cover up the headache by disabling your brain’s ability to feel your headache. That’s why your headache comes back when the pills wear off. Some people believe that stress causes headaches. Well, stress is a part of daily living but it is not the cause of headaches. It’s how your body adapts to stress that determines if stress will affect your health or how you feel.
Another misconception is that your problem is always where your pain is. Even though you may be feeling your headache in your sinuses for example, or on the top of your head or in your temple, that does not necessarily mean that is where the cause of the problem is located. For instance, sometimes people with a disc problem in their lower back get pain, numbness or weakness in their legs, even if there’s nothing physically wrong with their legs.
One of the most common causes of headaches that do not originate in the head is called a “cervicogenic” headache. That’s a headache which has its origin in the area of the neck. The source of pain is found in structures around the neck which have been damaged. These structures can include joints, ligaments, muscles, and cervical discs which all have complex nerve endings. When these structures are damaged, the nerve endings send pain signals up the pathway from the upper nerves of the neck to the brain. During this process they intermingle with the nerve fibers of the trigeminal nerve. Since the trigeminal nerve is responsible for the perception of head pain someone might then feel the symptoms of a headache.
If you have ever experienced neck trauma, been in a car accident, played contact sports, experienced many minor injuries, have experienced a “stiff” neck from time to time or, as a child, had a fall off a swing, down stairs or off a porch or other minor accident, your headaches might be caused by a hidden problem in your neck....Read More