Headaches Health Video

Headaches can be part of living a busy, hectic lifestyle. Learn about the different causes, symptoms, and treatments of headaches in this video.

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Make healthy lifestyle decisions
Learn ways to relax
Take medications as needed

About this Author

Dr. Susan McGladdery is a medical graduate from Oxford University in the UK and has a Master's Degree in Medical Sciences from Cambridge University. She has been a member of the Royal College of Physicians since 1991 and a member of the American Academy of Urgent Care since 2006. She trained as a Family Physician in the UK in Oxford and then in London. In a medical career that spans over 20 years, she has worked as a doctor in 5 countries on 3 continents and cared for patients from a multitude of different nationalities and backgrounds. Dr. McGladdery joined FirstMed Centers in mid 2002 and became Regional Medical Director in 2003.

SUSAN MCGLADERRY, BM, BCH, MRCP: Hello. My name is Dr. Susan McGladerry. I'm the medical director from FirstMed Centers in Budapest, Hungary. I'd like to talk to you briefly about headaches. Headaches are a very common problem characterized by pain in the head to the scalp or the neck. Fortunately, serious causes of headache are rare. Some of the types of headache that we suffer from include tension headache; this is one of the most common, and it's due to tight contracted muscles in the shoulders, the neck, and the scalp and the jaw. Often, it can be related to problems such as stress, depression, or anxiety. It's also cause by overwork, lack of sleep, skipping meals, alcohol, or using street drugs. It may be triggered by certain foods including chocolate, cheese, and monosodium glutamate or MSG. It feels like a band squeezing the head. Migraine headaches are another kind of headache. This is a severe recurrent headache that is usually one sided. It's often with a visual disturbance or nausea and may have an aura or warning symptom that starts before the headache. Patients may feel a throbbing, pounding or pulsating pain on one side of the head. Another form of headache that's not so common is cluster headache. This is a sharp, extremely painful headache that occurs several times per day for months. It's very distressing and is often felt at in or around one eye. Sinus headaches are another cause of headaches and in this case, there is pain in the front of the head in the face, in the frontal and maxillary sinus areas and commonly, that kind of headache is associated with cold or flu and fever. If you have a headache, when do you need to see your doctor? There are some symptoms that can indicate a much more serious problem and in this case, you should see your doctor urgently. These include things like a sudden explosive or violent headache or a feeling that this is your worst ever headache even if you get headaches quite frequently. Symptoms such as slurred speech, a change in vision or loss of balance, confusion or loss of memory are also serious signs. Headache with fever, neck stiffness, nausea and vomiting can indicate meningitis. Headache following a head injury can also be a serious sign as is severe localized headache affecting one eye with redness in that eye. If you are aged over 50 with a new headache, especially if there is disturbance of vision and pain on chewing, that's another serious or potentially serious cause of a headache and you do need to see your doctor urgently. Generally though, headaches fortunately are not serious and for most of us we can get relief from our headache with some simples steps, these includes making healthy lifestyle decisions, learning ways to relax, and occasionally taking medication to relieve pain.

Headaches Health Video

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