It's a Headache!

The slang phrase, “It’s a headache,” means that something is an annoyance. Today we want to discuss that annoyance or bothersome nagging feeling of (pause), a headache!A headache is defined as pain or discomfort in the head or face area. Headaches are pretty common for many people; In addition, they are categorized into 2 main types:

1. Primary- these are conditions where the headache is the main problem, not a symptom of another illness. The 3 types of primary headaches are tension, with mild to moderate pain often caused by stress or muscle tension in the neck/shoulders. Migraines which are moderate to severe; they are often throbbing sometimes one sided with nausea, light/sound sensitivity, visual disturbances and all of this comes prior to the pain. And lastly, the cluster headaches which produce extremely severe & sharp pain, pain is usually around one eye, and occurs in clusters over weeks or months

The causes of primary headaches are often linked to brain chemistry, genetics and triggers like stress, lack of sleep, foods or hormonal changes.

 

2. Secondary-these are symptoms of an underlying medical condition; for example, sinus headache is due to sinus infection/inflammation; there are also headaches that occur with medication overuse and dehydration. Then you have the more serious headaches due to brain tumors, aneurysms or meningitis.

The causes of secondary headaches are the underlying condition itself such as infection or other medical disorders

 

Having a headache is a distraction and can be so much of a distraction that you forget that we can go to God in prayer. In lieu of medication, depending on the cause of the headache, you can take some deep breaths in and exhalations out.  Deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for helping to lower heart rate and blood pressure. It also increases oxygen intake, which can improve mood, focus, and even pain management, according to some studies.