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ORIGINAL: mistoferin

Have you had your blood pressure checked?

Aside from that you really need to have your doctor do a work up on you to get to the root of it. Headaches are very complicated things and can by caused by thousands of different things. First have your doctor determine what type of headaches you are having and then it will make finding a proper treatment for them easier.

Finding the root cause of headaches is a complicated process that requires going over your history, testing, keeping a very detailed log and some trial and error. It's worth it in the end if you can get some relief. Without going through the process though there is no way to say what kind of headaches you are having or what they are caused by. You will hear many people, for instance, say that they get horrible migraines....and yet I would bet less than 20% of those people actually have migraines.

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ORIGINAL: cantilena

quote:

ORIGINAL: mistoferin

Have you had your blood pressure checked?

Aside from that you really need to have your doctor do a work up on you to get to the root of it. Headaches are very complicated things and can by caused by thousands of different things. First have your doctor determine what type of headaches you are having and then it will make finding a proper treatment for them easier.

Finding the root cause of headaches is a complicated process that requires going over your history, testing, keeping a very detailed log and some trial and error. It's worth it in the end if you can get some relief. Without going through the process though there is no way to say what kind of headaches you are having or what they are caused by. You will hear many people, for instance, say that they get horrible migraines....and yet I would bet less than 20% of those people actually have migraines.

Why do you bet that?  Just curious.

In my case, a full medical workup was done and the diagnosis was migraine.  Because of a licensing issue, I choose not to take prescriptions for it and admittedly, that's my own choice and sometimes live with the consequence. 

A medical diagnosis of migraine is also the case for several acquaintances of mine as well.

I'm wondering where you're getting that less than 20% of people who say they suffer migraine do not suffer such.

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ORIGINAL: mistoferin
Because I have heard so many people say "Oh, I have a terrible migraine" while they are at work, laughing and joking, working on their computer, talking on the phone or even doing manual labor. A migraine is a very specific type of headache with very specific symptoms that is debilitating and incapacitating.

The work up, history and testing required to diagnose them is very intensive and costly. X-rays, CT Scans, MRI's, Lumbar punctures to rule out other possible conditions. Hours pouring over medical histories, headache logs, special diets, trial and error to see what medications are effective. It's not as simple as walking in to a Dr's office and saying "I get these headaches" and walking out with an accurate diagnosis.

I had Lyme disease for a very long time that went undiagnosed. One of the ways that it affected me was chronic migraine/cluster headaches that would last anywhere from a few hours to weeks at a time. I was literally hospitalized for over a year in a hospital that was dedicated to the treatment of head pain because of them. Those headaches entirely dominated my life. Laughing, joking, socializing, talking on the phone or typing on the computer were not options. The only things that I could manage to do during one were hide in the dark, pack myself in ice/hot packs, cry, puke and wonder if I was going to die.....sometimes even praying that I would do just that.

I remember attending a presentation at the hospital that gave that 20%. estimate. They said that "I have a migraine" has become a catch-all phrase to indicate one has a headache, but in reality it is more often not the case.

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ORIGINAL: YourhandMyAss


Which doesn't tell me why the pain seems to move, or sometimes pulse like a heart beat.:P