When to Call the Doctor About Your Migraines or Headaches

Any kind of pain is your body’s way of warning you about an injury or illness. Although migraines and headaches are rarely the symptoms of a serious illness, occasionally they may indicate a serious medical condition such as a tumor or aneurysm (blood vessel rupture). It is important for you to become familiar with your personal headache symptoms, and those that require immediate medical attention.

If you or a loved one has any of the following headache symptoms seek medical care immediately:

• A sudden, new severe headache
• A headache that is associated with neurological (nerve) symptoms such as weakness, dizziness, sudden loss of balance or falling, numbness or tingling, paralysis, speech difficulties, mental confusion, seizures, personality changes/inappropriate behavior, or vision changes (blurry vision, double vision or blind spots)
• Headache with a fever, shortness of breath, stiff neck, or rash
• Headache pain that awakens you at night
• Headaches with severe nausea and vomiting
• Headaches that occur after a head injury or accident
• Getting a new type of headache after age 55

The following migraine or headache symptoms do not require urgent care, but you should contact your doctor if you, or your loved one, have any of these symptoms.

• Have three or more headaches per week
• Have headaches that keep getting worse and won’t go away
• Need to take a pain reliever every day or almost every day for your headaches
• Need more than 2-3 doses of over-the-counter medications per week to relieve headache symptoms
• Have headaches that are triggered by exertion, coughing, bending, or strenuous activity
• Have a history of headaches, but have noticed a recent change in your headache symptoms

Tags: doctor, headache, medication, migraine

Migraines May Up Risk of Painful Skin

A new study shows migraine sufferers are more likely to have a type of pain condition called “allodynia” — pain from something that normally should not evoke pain, such as rubbing the head, combing hair, or wearing necklaces and earrings.

The study looked at questionnaire answers from 16,573 people who have headaches; 11,737 of them have migraines, 1,491 have probable migraines, and 3,345 have other types of headaches.

Researchers explored what types of headaches these people have and how often they get them, among other things.

When it came to allodynia, here’s what the researchers found:

• 68% of respondents who had migraines every day reported allodynia.
• 37% of those who had chronic daily headaches said they experienced allodynia.
• In people with migraines, allodynia was more common in women and people who were obese.
• Depressed people reported more extreme skin sensitivity and pain.
• Extreme skin sensitivity and pain decreased with age.

Skin Pain and Headaches

Exactly what causes brain pain and extreme skin sensitivity? Researchers speculate that the constant activation of certain neurons in the brain may eventually damage those neurons, which could play a part.

Researcher Marcelo E. Bigal MD, PhD, from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., says allodynia may be a “risk factor for migraine progression, where individuals have migraines on more days than not.”

This type of pain and sensitivity seems to decrease as we age. Why? According to researchers, one reason may be that “the activation of pain pathways in the brain decline as attacks become less frequent and severe.”

Study researchers say identifying risk factors for how migraines progress can lead to better treatment. 

Researchers believe that there may be a link between female hormones and skin pain associated with headaches.

The study shows that the pain areas in the brain changed as women went through their menstrual cycle, with the most pain being reported during menstruation.

The study was sponsored by the National Headache Foundation and appears in the April 22 edition of Neurology.

Tags: headache, migraine, Pain, skin

Low Back Pain – Medications

Low Back Pain – Medications

Tags: Acetaminophen, back pain, drug, medication, muscle

What Is Back Pain?

We’ve all experienced back problems from time to time — a pain in the lower back or strain of the neck. In fact, problems from back pain are the most common physical complaints among American adults and are a leading cause of lost job time — to say nothing of the time and money spent in search of relief. Back pain includes sore muscles and tendons, herniated discs, fractures, and other problems. Most often, the causes of back pain have developed over a long period of time.

The spinal column is an extraordinary mechanism. It keeps us stable enough to stand upright but flexible enough for movement. The backbone, or spine, is actually a stack of 24 individual bones called vertebrae.

A healthy spine is S-shaped when viewed from the side. It curves back at the shoulders and inward at the neck and small of the back. It’s the body’s main structural support. It also houses and protects the spinal cord, the intricate network of nerves that runs through the vertebrae to transmit feeling and control movement throughout the entire body.

What Causes It?

Back pain ranks high on the list of self-inflicted ailments. Most of our back troubles happen because of bad habits, generally developed over a long period of time. These include:

• Poor posture
• Overexertion in work and play
• Sitting incorrectly at the desk or at the steering wheel
• Pushing, pulling, and lifting things carelessly

Sometimes, the effects are immediate, but in many cases back problems develop over time. One of the more common types of back pain comes from straining the bands of muscles surrounding the spine. Although such strains can occur anywhere along the spine, they happen most often in the curve of the lower back. The next most common place is at the base of the neck.

Sometimes backache occurs for no apparent reason. This is called nonspecific backache. It may develop from weakened muscles that cannot handle everyday walking, bending, and stretching. In other cases, the discomfort seems to come from general tension, lack of proper sleep, and/or stress.

A condition called fibrositis causes chronic backache from localized muscle tension. Sometimes this original muscle tension comes from stress or other emotional problems.
Whether the muscle strain is from lifting heavy objects or from something as innocuous as a sneeze makes little difference — the pain can be agonizing.

Pregnancy commonly brings on back pain. Hormonal changes and weight gain put new kinds of stresses on a pregnant woman’s spine and legs.

Injuries from contact sports, accidents, and falls can cause problems ranging from minor muscle strains to severe damage to the spinal column or the spinal cord itself.

Tags: back pain, bending, fracures, Pain, pregnancy, weight loss