A highly demanding and stressful life comes in a package with certain annoying compliments. Headache has become the most common ailment people suffer in this lifestyle. The headaches are utterly painful and annoying most of the times till you have succeeded in suppressing it. Some people may suffer from headaches daily and are forced to endure the pain and annoyance of the headache quite often; others only get them rarely. Whatever is the case, here are certain facts that would help you understand tension headaches, learn about risk factors, and discover efficient ways to manage your headaches.



Symptoms and Signs

A tension headache has a unique and distinct cause associated. These are known to occur on as often as a daily basis, and may last from thirty minutes to one week. The level of pain associated with tension headaches varies between people. There are two types of tension headaches recognized by the International Headache Society; episodic and chronic, depending whether it occurs less than half of a one month period, and more than half of a one month period respectively.

The headache is generally felt as a bilateral and pressing, as if there is tightening or squeezing in a band-like pattern around the head and neck. However, this type of headache is not usually associated with nausea, vomiting or photophobia, but the symptoms can vary slightly with each person.

Risk Factors

Getting headaches out of stress may make you even more likely to risk of have it in future. The most common risk factor for is stress. Stress is anything that causes a person to react in a way that their body is not used to. This can be psychological stress, physical stress, or emotional stress. This can also include muscular stress, like lifting weights excessively, or general stress including lack of sleep and rest.

Though females are more likely to tension headaches, but males also get them quite frequently. Age also appears to be a factor in the etiology of these headaches, as approximately 60 percent of tension headaches appears in young adults from ages 20 to 50. There are several remedies that can palliate this situation.

Managing Tension Headaches

The effectiveness of the remedies depends on the patient individually. The most common remedy for headaches is ibuprofen which may sometimes be rough on the stomach if used too often. For those who get headaches frequently, the more natural treatments would be Chiropractic treatment and spinal manipulation whose effect is observed immediately. The treatment of tension in the neck and back, massage therapy and IFC, interferential current, are the most commonly used treatments because they loosen up the muscles often associate with this headache.

However the quick, home made remedies would be, placing cold packs for no more than 20 minutes on the affected area can get rid of the headache by relaxing the muscles surrounding the neck. The effectiveness of these remedies may however differ with each person depending what suits to them the best.