Headache… or when your head explodes

Basic prevention measures are often insufficient when it comes to managing a headache. That is the name that most of us mortals use to refer to the headache, but the headache is much more than an annoyance on a specific day. Patients who suffer from it, in its different forms, speak of intense, very strong damage, which becomes unbearable, does not stop with traditional painkillers and complicates their lives in unsuspected ways. You can come and go several times a day; and often it seems like it just never gets out. Avoiding it is not always possible, but you have to try, because sometimes the simplest solutions can be a great relief. Regulate sleep, improve diet, control stress…

Almost half of the Spanish population suffers or has suffered from some type of headache, which, according to the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), is the most frequent form of expression of headache in humans. Medical science has classified more than 200 different types of pain located between the skull, the neck and the upper half of the neck. Almost nothing! But there is a definitive fact, which gives an idea of ​​the dimensions of the health and social problem that this pathology represents: 5% of the population suffers from it for more than 15 days a month.

The home medicine cabinet

Most of us react the same way to a headache. We go to the home medicine cabinet and solve the problem with paracetamol, which is better indicated than ibuprofen if it is a moderate discomfort. But this solution, which may be valid at a specific time, can even become a serious mistake when the complication becomes a constant pounding, according to specialist Pablo Irimia, coordinator of the SEN Headache Study Group. Because the abusive consumption of traditional analgesics not only damages the liver, but it can also favor that pain, far from lessening, it grows.

“It is normal that at first you feel a certain improvement,” explains the specialist from the University Clinic of Navarra. “In the long run, however, the natural mechanisms of damage management can be altered and it is very possible that we need to take a higher dose to obtain the same therapeutic benefit,” he warns. What is expected, moreover, is that over time the duration of the drug’s effect decreases and that when the drug is stopped, the discomfort returns more intense.

What can be done to avoid it? Faced with persistent headaches that do not subside with conventional measures, the first thing that is usually done, from a therapeutic point of view, is to try a preventive therapy and rehearse the adoption of hygienic measures. You cannot take just any medication, but if you have to start doing it, it must be accompanied by a change in habits that often help to improve the situation.

The withdrawal of conventional drugs must be supervised by a specialist, who will prescribe preventive medication. These are not “pure analgesics, but medications that can be taken continuously” and avoid the undesirable effects of unsupervised analgesia.

everyone knows each other

In parallel, we must try to avoid situations that favor the appearance of headaches. When it comes to prevention, doctors seem to always issue the same prescription; And actually, they do it because it works. The first line of therapeutic intervention requires adequate sleep hygiene, “something very important”, which implies maintaining regular rest hours, not exercising late in the day and, among other measures, avoiding heavy dinners and the consumption of exciting substances such as coffee before going to bed.

You have to control stress, perform physical activity on a regular basis and eat according to the Mediterranean pattern of vegetables, fruits and more fish than meat. “Each one, in addition, has to identify the circumstances that favor the headache to avoid them,” recalls Irimia.

The current pace of life, with endless work schedules, “especially for younger patients”, prevents them from leading an orderly life very often. “It is not always easy to change habits,” the specialist acknowledges comprehensively. “Unfortunately, in addition to changing habits, other measures are often necessary. Fortunately, medicine has improved so much in this 21st century that we are in a position to offer a wide range of therapies », he underlines.