Tension headaches are one of the most common forms of headaches and are more likely to occur in adults and adolescents also statistics show that they are 40% more likely to occur in women than men which could be because woman tend to worry more about the family, bills and overall health. Tension headaches are usually triggered by some type of environmental or internal stress and are not associated with structural abnormalities in the brain.



What are Some Causes of Tension Headaches?

Tension headaches are often a response to stress, anxiety, and emotional conflict in a person's life. Many occur when you already have a migraine headache and often in the middle of the day which just adds fuel to the fire, causing a more intense pain. They can last for a few hours, several days, weeks, or even months.

What are the symptoms of a tension headache?

While symptoms may differ, the following are common symptoms that you could experience: pain on both sides of your head around the temple area, neck pain, change in vision, numbness or tingling in your arms or legs, a sudden fever or vomiting, blurred vision, headaches that seem to be increasing in intensity or frequency over time, difficulty walking or speaking and a thunderclap headache or a headache associated with loss of consciousness. These symptoms could resemble other conditions or medical problems and could be severe, so please notify your doctor immediately if you have any of the symptoms above. Tension headache symptoms are very different from a migraine headache so let's determine how they differ. A migraine headache is usually a pulsating type of pain where tension headache symptoms are a continuous pain that can last for weeks or months.

Medications

Managing a tension headache is often a balance between fostering healthy habits, finding effective herbal treatments and using medications appropriately. Rebound headaches may occur from overuse of analgesic medications. Caffeine and codeine containing medications should be avoided in cases a chronic tension headache occurs and due to the risk of overuse in medication which could cause a rebound headache. Your health care provider may prescribe one or more of the following medications.

Analgesics - These medications reduce the pain of a tension headache.

Muscle Relaxants - These medications aid in relaxation by causing sedation and decreasing anxiety. They have little or no direct effect on relaxing the muscles of the head and neck that contribute to the headache. Some of these medications can become addictive.

Tension headaches are sometimes related to contraction or spasm in the muscles of the head and neck and can come from bad posture or stress, which causes tightening of the muscles in the neck and the scalp. Make sure you understand what is causing your headaches because if either depression or anxiety plays an underlying roll that you should seek treatment right away. Even if your tension headaches are responding nicely to over-the-counter pain medications, look at whether other triggers are contributing to your headache and try and find a natural way of helping your tension headaches.