Word: tensions
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...most common type of primary headache is the familiar tension headache, which is usually stress related. (Doctors now label it a tension-type headache to counter the idea that knotted muscles are the principal cause.) In most cases, a couple of aspirin and a good night's sleep are all that's required...
Somewhere between tension and cluster headaches are migraines. Typically, the pain from a migraine is a throbbing one, restricted to one side of the head, that gets worse with movement and lasts from four hours to three days. Migraines are usually accompanied by either nausea and vomiting, as they were for TV producer Schipper, or extreme sensitivity to both light and sound. By contrast, patients suffering from tension-type headaches may react badly to either light or sound but not both...
...mistake, however, to stick too rigidly to these definitions. "At one time people thought that migraine was a disorder all its own and that tension-type headache was totally separate," says Dr. Ninan Mathew, director of the Houston Headache Clinic. "Now we realize that headaches are not that clear cut." Indeed, Mathew says, nearly any recurring headache that is debilitating enough to keep you away from work or the things you enjoy is probably a migraine...
...forehead to the brain. During the course of a migraine, scientists discovered, the trigeminal nerve practically floods the brain with pain signals. The more researchers learn about the trigeminal nerve, the more they believe that it is involved in all types of primary headaches, including tension and cluster headaches. The differences in the headache types seem to stem from what activates the trigeminal nerve and how it responds...
...this view, people who are prone to migraine have a low threshold for activating the trigeminal nerve. Those who suffer only an occasional tension-type headache have a much higher threshold. Persistent treatment of acute attacks and prevention of additional ones may reset the brain's threshold point at a higher level...