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Causes Of Headaches: Smoking And Stress |
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Basically a headache is defined as a
continuous or persistent pain in the head caused by dilution of cerebral
arteries or muscle contractions. This dilution and contraction can be
caused by various conditions.
Smoking
You can observe
for yourself that sitting too long in a smoke-filled environment has
often led you to experience headaches. This is because it has now been
conclusively proved that smoking or inhaling even second hand smoke may
lead to a headache. The culprit over here is nicotine, a major
ingredient found in tobacco smoke.
Although this is the most
common in cluster headache patients, the odor of burning tobacco or some
other strong odors can also affect people with migraine. Cigarette smoke
is worse because it tends to hang around, causing irritation of nasal
passages and restricting the amount of oxygen reaching the brain thus
leading to headaches and migraines.
Thus those
who are sensitive to smoke must avoid smoky places and even ask friends
and family members to stop smoking.
Stress
Stress is a
part and parcel of modern life. It has been recognized to be one of the
most common factors triggering a headache. Stress can physical or
emotional. Either way, it can contribute to a headache.
Stressful
events may trigger off migraine attacks or even tension-type headaches
in susceptible persons. Certain chemicals released during stress may
lead to vascular changes associated with migraines. The more the stress,
the more the attacks.
Anxiety, worry, shock, depression,
excitement, fatigue, repressed emotions and/or muscle tension may
trigger a migraine headache.
Daily or chronic stress can bring on
daily tension-type headaches. There may also be sleep disturbances. The
episodic tension-type headaches are related to specific instances of
increased worry, concern or stress. Over-the-counter analgesics may be
safely taken to overcome them. For the tension-type headache, methods
like biofeedback, behavioral modification, psychotherapy and
antidepressants might work.
However, the best possible way is to
remove the source of tension itself.
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