10 Crazy Reasons You Have a Headache
Top docs explain your temples of doom
Off the top of your head, you can name a few obvious headache triggers: endless traffic, crying babies, and large rocks falling on your cranium. But there are other, more insidious reasons your noggin keeps pounding—like these:
1. You coughed.
It seems innocent enough, but a cough can sometimes be followed by a sudden sharp, splitting, or stabbing headache. The condition is called primary cough headache, and it’s most common in guys over the age of 40. “It’s thought to be the result of increased pressure within the veins surrounding the brain and skull,” says Brian Grosberg, M.D., director of the Montefiore Headache Center and Associate Professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
The pain may last anywhere from a few brutal seconds to 30 minutes. While it can come at random, if you frequently hack because of an infection, allergies, or asthma, seeking treatment for the underlying condition can help quell your cough-induced headaches. “If it’s not related to any specific symptoms, but the pain happens regularly, talk to your doctor about medication that may be able to treat the pain,” Grosberg says.
2. You’re constipated.
Like coughing, straining on the toilet may lead to a sudden increase in pressure in the veins of the head and pull on pain-sensitive structures in the brain, Grosberg says. The real issue, of course, is constipation—so focus on, uh, smoothing things out. Up your fiber intake with more fruits and vegetables, drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day to soften stool, and hit the gym to get things moving again.
3. You skipped a proper warmup.
A sudden headache can seriously derail a workout. Exercise-induced brain pain usually affects both sides of your noggin. “It could be related to sudden changes in the adrenaline system during intense exercise,” says Matthew Robbins, M.D., director of Inpatient Services at Montefiore. These sudden changes are most likely to occur if you dive into a workout without a warmup, which gives your brain a chance to adjust to rising adrenaline levels.
So be sure to take five to 10 minutes to stretch, walk, or jog before exercising more intensely. “If you notice you get a headache once your heart rate passes a certain point, you may benefit from building up to a point where you know you’re comfortable and maintaining a steady pace instead of continuing to increase the intensity,” Grosberg says.
4. You're having rough sex.
Mind-blowing sex can do exactly that: You may experience a sudden, severe, explosive headache right before or during orgasm. “It’s likely due to short-lived increased pressure inside the brain during sexual excitement,” Grosberg says. It’s a bigger possibility when you’re having a lot of sex in a short period of time, possibly because your brain doesn’t have as long to recover between sessions in the sack. “If you notice certain positions are more likely to bring them on, you may want to avoid those positions or take a more passive role during sex,” he adds.
5. You take Viagra.
If you’ve been popping ED medications such as Viagra or Cialis and experience headaches, talk to your doc. The drugs work by dilating blood vessels, which enables you to successfully pitch a tent on demand. Problem is, they can also expand blood vessels in and around the brain and can cause a headache. Your doctor may be able to change your meds, adjust your dose, or add another drug to help dull the pain.
6. It’s Saturday morning.
A few extra hours between the sheets may seem like an ideal way to kick off the weekend, but it could have the opposite effect and give you a headache. The culprit: caffeine withdrawal. “If every morning you have a Venti Starbucks at 7 a.m., but don’t have any caffeine until you go to brunch at noon on the weekends, you could experience withdrawal,” Robbins says. Aside from getting up earlier for a cup of Joe, the best approach is to decrease your coffee consumption altogether so you’re less likely to suffer symptoms. The key to doing so pain-free is to cut back gradually. “If you’re used to three cups per day, start with two and a half cups for a week. Decrease your intake by about half a cup each week until you’re drinking just one to two cups per day or none at all,” Robbins adds.
7. You’re not stressed anymore
Stress has one upside: it protects against pain. You’re actually more likely to suffer a throbber in the days after a period of heavy stress is over. A recent study in the journal Neurologyfound that among migraine sufferers, the risk of headache increases five-fold in the 6 hours after a stressful experience. When stressed, your body churns out the hormone cortisol, a natural steroid that protects against pain. When you start to relax—a time known as stress letdown—levels of cortisol subside and you may become more sensitive to pain. Managing stress with regular exercise, adequate sleep, or deep breathing can help keep cortisol levels more stable.
8. You have a corner office.
Congratulations, you scored the corner office! Now you just need a giant bottle of ibuprofen to go with your newly acquired executive chair. All of those windows, along with overhead fluorescent lighting, create glare off of your computer screen, which triggers frequent pounders. “Glare affects certain cells in the retina that interact with different pain pathways in the brain and can lead to headaches,” Robbins says. Fortunately the fix is an easy one: Cover your computer screen with a glare shield to block out the caustic light.
9. You chew too much gum.
When researchers from Israel asked gum-chewing headache suffers to give up their habit for a month, 86 percent reported improvements in their symptoms and many experienced total relief. The artificial sweetener aspartame found in many brands may trigger the throbbing, and the repetitive act of chewing could create muscle tension in your jaw and skull. Ditch the sticks or replace them with aspartame-free mints for a month and see if your symptoms improve.
10. You’re overweight.
Frequent headaches are nearly twice as common among obese people as they are among normal-weight adults, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Being obese is associated with an 81 percent higher chance of having episodic migraines. “Excess weight heightens the inflammatory state throughout the body including in the brain,” Robbins says. Losing weight can help. Researchers are even looking into whether gastric bypass reduces headaches in people after they go under the knife.
Source: http://www.menshealth.com/
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