Headache

“ One of the most instinctive tendencies of most of us when suffering from a severe headache is to put the hands to the head, either for the purpose of frantically clutching at it, rubbing as if our lives depended upon it, or pressing hard over the aching region. The mere picture of a man with his head in his hands instantly suggests the idea of headache. ”

“ The arteries to the head tighten up at the extremities and become loose lower down. The force of the blood-stream against the constricted portion can hardly fail to cause pain. The sick part of the headache is merely a sympathetic strike of the nerves which control circulation and stomach.
The moral of all this is plain. If a sick-headache is the result of an emotional spasm of the blood-vessels, the obvious cure is a change of the emotion. Some people manage it by going to a party or a picnic, others by ignoring the symptoms and keeping on with their work. ”

“ One of these is that, while headache is felt in the head, and particularly in those regions that lie over the brain, the brain has comparatively little to do with the pain. Headache is neither a mark of intellectuality, nor, with rare exceptions, a sign of cerebral disturbance. Indeed, it is far more a matter of the digestion, the muscles, and the ductless glands, than it is of the brain, or even of the nervous system. ”

“ Giddiness, as if the head were moving to and fro, especially when rising from a sitting posture; headache, pressure in the head, by moving it; headache, throbbing in the temporal arteries, especially of the right side, with a little vertigo; aching, drawing and throbbing in the whole head; headache, by wet compress, with much pain in the right eyeball; headache, on moving; headache on the right side with much pain. Frontal headache, especially on the right side, in the open air. Throbbing in the vertex, by stooping; scalp is painful and sensitive to touch, even the hair is painful. ”

“ Many forms of headache are symptomatic of some organic cerebral disease, like tumor of the brain or syphilitic diseases of the skull. Headache also constantly accompanies fevers of all kinds. A great number of cases are met with in which no cause for the headache can be discovered, and in which the pain is the only symptom. In these there must be some disordered state of the sensory nerves within the cranium, but just what the nature of the abnormal condition is it is impossible to decide. ”

“ Headache we all know attends an overfull condition of the vessels of the brain, and grown persons usually suffer from it severely before an attack of apoplexy; but we also know that bad headache accompanies states of great weakness, and that it is one of the most distressing consequences from which a woman suffers who has lost much blood in her confinement. In just the same way, the infant who has been exhausted by diarrhœa or by some trying illness, or who after weaning has been kept on a diet not sufficiently nutritious, may show symptoms of disorder of the brain. ”

“ The extreme dryness of our climate, together with the great variations of temperature between winter and summer and the rapid fluctuations of temperature, predisposes to nervous disorders.
Headache.—Headache is a symptom rather than a disease, but there is no symptom which requires more careful investigation of its cause than that of headache. It occurs at all ages, but is most common from ten to twenty-five years and from thirty-five to forty-five years. Women suffer from headache more than men, in the proportion of about three to one. ”

“ Headache: the Nervous and the Plethoric kinds—Stye in the Eye—Salivation—Hemorrhage from the Stomach—Cramp of the Stomach—Toothache—Jaundice. Headache is one of the most common of all the disorders of pregnancy. It may occur at any part of the period; in the early months, it is supposed that nervous headache is most apt to occur; in the latter, headache arises more frequently from plethora. In such cases there may be throbbing of the temples, suffusion of the eyes, ringing in the ears, indistinct vision, and flashes of light passing before the eyes. ”

“ Nevertheless I am perfectly willing to admit that other factors besides cerebral hyperæmia and anæmia may produce the functional variety of headache. There would seem to be ample ground for ascribing great causative importance to excessive irritation of the brain plasma itself. Hence those forms of headache which while, being unaccompanied by any especial circulatory derangements, succeed, oftentimes, with relentless regularity upon any considerable degree of mental work. ”

“ What is called "sick headache," or "nervous headache," begins by a sense of blindness or blur, before the eyes, of green or purple colors, dazzling or swimming in the head, without, for some time at first, any positive aching or pain. In the course of an hour, a longer or shorter time, the dimness of vision goes off, and the head begins to ache. This may or may not be accompanied with nausea and vomiting. Some persons are always more or less sick at the stomach, when these "nervous headaches" come on, others are not thus affected. ”

“ Nervous System.—Headache, dizziness, and attacks of fainting are common, and due chiefly to the anæmia. In some cases the headache is severe and persistent. The intelligence is well preserved; only toward the close is there rambling delirium. ”

“ Headache of greater or less severity is found in the majority of cases: it is more severe in the rapidly-developed forms, and I have found it to be complained of in agonizing intensity by women who had risen from childbed and who had flooded considerably. As a rule, the headache, whether severe or mild, is symmetrical and verticalar, in some cases associated with an ache subjectively appearing as if it extended to the back of the orbit. ”

“ When you have obeyed that command, you have taken the most important single step towards the cure. A headache always means something—overwork, under-ventilation, eye-strain, underfeeding, infection. Some error is being committed, some bad physical habit is being dropped into. ”

“ Headache penetrating in temples. Thinks she is clairvoyant, can read character and understand motions; can see into herself; thinks the blood dark blue. Feels pains drawing, rending along posterior aspect of thighs and down to toes. ”

“ Of course the most important concomitant symptoms of high pressure are cardiac, renal, and cerebral, and the typical headache, as he terms it, is a symptom of serious import. In considering headache in persons over 40, we must eliminate the eye headaches produced by the need of presbyopic glasses or by the need of stronger lenses, as this need is a frequent cause of headache. Dizziness and vertigo may occur without headache, and drowsiness, though not so frequent a symptom as insomnia, often occurs. ”

“ Headache is more often an abnormal sensation than an intense pain. Pulsations, feelings of distress, of lightness, fullness, heaviness and pressure are common, or a band may seem to be drawn tightly round the head across the forehead. ”

“ The headache, which arises from a too full habit, commences with flushing of the face, heaviness in the eyes, dull pain in the forehead, and a sense of uneasiness, with disposition to sleep or dose. It seldom comes on much till the latter months of gestation. Headache may arise also accidentally, from derangement of the stomach, but this cause is easily ascertained by the furred tongue, loss of appetite, and bitter taste in the mouth; it is also felt most acutely in the back of the head, down by the neck, and passes away immediately the stomach is corrected by an emetic, or by fasting. ”

“ Overwork, too little sleep, innutritious food, badly-ventilated rooms and errors of refraction of the eyes, all produce fatigue of the brain and headaches. Then there is the “nervous headache,” about which nobody knows very much. To treat headaches it is first necessary to find out what produces them. If you suppress the cause, the headaches will go. In treating headaches it is very necessary to prevent the bowels from becoming confined. Eat well, sleep well, and ventilate your rooms well.
Constant Reader.—The treatment of debility is one of very great difficulty. ”

“ Persons who may be disposed to resort to their use should, however, bear two facts in mind; the first is that headache is not a disease but a symptom, and that the only rational treatment is to ascertain and remove the cause, whether it be error in diet, want of exercise, local irritation of some nerve as by an unhealthy tooth, eyestrain, or some serious chronic nervous disease. ”

“ Would doctors be more logical if they said that the headache was in the hind-brain—the region which contains the agitated gray matter which gives pain-value to the impulses from the scalp—or if they said it was in the stomach? The irritation of nerve-endings in the stomach is the origin of the trouble, seeing that it sets up the pain-condition in the hind-brain.
Psychologists base their science upon conspicuous sensations—sensations of sufficient prominence to stand out in the field of consciousness. They can do no otherwise. ”

“ The most exasperating thing about dealing with a headache is that we never know, until its history has been most carefully examined, whether we have to do with a mere temporary expression of discomfort and unbalance, due to overfatigue, errors in diet, a stuffy room, lack of exercise, or what-not, which can be promptly relieved by removing the cause; or whether we have to deal with the first symptoms of a dangerous fever, the beginning of a nervous breakdown, or an early warning of some grave trouble in kidneys, liver, or heart. ”

“ Constrictive pain in the head. Headache, with sense of compression in forehead. Beating headache, as if the brain were bounding. Pains in the left brain, spreading to the occiput and nape of the neck. Boring pain in the vertex. 15. Pricking and pressing pain round the head. Throbbing in the head, causing one to bend it forward. Pricking at the temple, and itching all over. Tightness of the forehead. Pulling at the forehead and root of [112] the nose. 20. Lancinations in left side of the head. Heaviness of the head, with indescribable malaise in the brain, especially the left. ”

“ Severe pain within the head occurs in cases of congestion and brain tumor, and without the head in cases of neuralgia, but most of these are only temporary and long-continued headaches are rather neurotic than neuritic or due to any real disturbance of the nervous system. This is discussed in the chapter on Headaches. People commit suicide who have for a long time been sufferers from headache because they fear that they may go crazy. ”

“ If any symptom of this sort—and the remark applies especially to headaches—is found consistently to come on during the hours of work, alleviating after the work is over for the day, it should be taken as a danger signal. For when anyone’s occupation brings on a headache, the complaint is much more likely to be due to some weakness of the nervous system than to any fault in digestion or eyesight. And the same applies to many other symptoms also. ”

“ At a variable time after the receipt of an injury to the head the patient may complain of headache, followed by a chill, with high fever, vomiting, vertigo, delirium, unconsciousness, convulsions, etc., arising from compression by the products of inflammation. The same phenomena may follow the transmission of inflammation to the dura from caries or other disease of the bones, or from otitis medea purulenta. ”

“ Circulation headaches arise from the condition known technically as anæmia (bloodlessness) of the brain, in which the mental powers are weakened, and much brain-work will result in headache. Chief among its causes are a feeble heart and excessive drain on the system, especially among women, the evil frequently lying in the excessive use of purgative medicines. ”

“ Local Head Discomfort.—Usually a headache, accompanied by a localized sense of pressure or weight or constriction, occurs in highly neurotic people or those inclined to think much of themselves and whose attention becomes concentrated on some part. At all times we have sensations streaming up to our consciousness from every portion of the body and anyone who wants to think about them, or a particular set of them, can make them sources of considerable discomfort by concentration of attention. ”

“ The headache may at times appear to have no connection with use of the eyes. When headache is frequent the eyes should always be examined by a competent oculist (a physician) not by any sort of an optician.
Decayed Teeth.—These not uncommonly give rise to headache.
[Pg 117] Disorders of the Nose and Throat.—Such troubles, especially adenoids and enlarged tonsils in children, enlarged turbinates, and polypi (see Nose Disorders, p. 60) are fruitful sources of headache. In nose-headaches there is often tenderness on pressing on the inner wall of the bony socket inclosing the eyeball. ”

“ Headache attacks old and young alike, and the young infant that is unable to tell us he has a headache manifests it by rolling the head from side to side, putting his hand to his head, or by wrinkling up his brow. Headaches may be occasioned by disorders of the brain and spinal column, such as meningitis. It nearly always accompanies fever, and is often a result of constipation, intestinal indigestion, overeating, as well as eating the wrong kind of food. ”

“ Once, however, we have clearly recognized that no headache should be treated too lightly or indifferently, it may be frankly admitted that practically the vast majority of headaches in which we are keenly interested—that is, the kind that we individually or the members of our family habitually indulge in—do form a moderately uniform class among the hundreds of varieties, and are in the main due to some six or seven great groups of causes. ”