HEADACHE

Pain that occurs over various parts of the head is called headache. It is one of humankind’ s most common afflictions. In the united State alone, up to 50 million person seek medical help for this problem every year, and about half a billion dollars is spent on headache remedies annually.

Most headache are caused not by organic disease but by fatigue, emotional disorder, or allergies. Intermittent tension headaches are caused by worry, anxiety, overwork, or inadequate ventilation. The most common type – a chronic tension headache- is often caused by depression. Only about 2 % of all headache result from organic disorder, including diseases of the eye, ear, nose, throat, and sinuses; brain tumors, hypertension, and aneurism (the ballooning of artery, brought about by a weakness in the arterial wall)

Brain tissue itself is sensitive to pain, as is the bony covering of the brain (the cranium) Headache pain result from the stimulation of such-pain sensitive structures as the membranous lining of the brain (the meninges) and the nerves of the cranium and upper neck.

This stimulation can be produce by inflammation, by the dilation of blood vessels of the head, or by muscle spasms in the neck and head. Headache brought on by muscle spasms are classified as tension headache; those caused by the dilation of blood vessels are called vascular headache. These are the major grouping of headache, besides those brought on by organic disorder.