Your Indianapolis Chiropractor

It’s a fact that, chronic tension headaches can be a potentially debilitating condition that seriously deprives the patient of life enjoyment. Daily activities are subject to interruption by painful episodes that can occur any time. Chronic tension headaches can easily lead to depression and a general pain crisis. It is important that chronic tension headaches be treated as soon as possible. Fortunately, the medical community is very experienced with the problem of chronic tension headache, and has several avenues of treatment available for sufferers. In fact, the medical community has researched headache thoroughly, and has divided the phenomenon into three distinct categories.

The majority of headaches suffered are put into what is known as the primary category. A primary headache is frequently brought on by emotional or physical stress, and has the most frequent rate of occurence by far. Primary headaches are almost never life threatening, but they can bring serious pain with them. This pain can hamper everyday enjoyment of life, making even basic functioning difficult. Although the exact causes remain something of a mystery, it is widely held that the symptoms can be traced to a tightening of muscles around the skull. This tightening comes on as a sensation of tightness at first in the patient’s cranial area.

Cluster and secondary headaches occur on a far less frequent basis, but are much more serious. To treat this kind of headache, the attention of a specialist is most likely required. Cluster headaches are easily identifiable by the amount of pain they cause. Patients frequently describe cluster headaches as an icepick sensation behind one or both eyes. Treatment includes powerful sedatives and pain medications. Secondary headaches usually indicate some other issue that is at work.

A chronic tension headache should be approached from a stress management point of view. Physical and emotional stress are both known to trigger chronic tension headache. Circumstances that trigger significant emotional stress can prompt the occurence of chronic tension headaches. Prolonged physical stress can also be tied directly to chronic tension headaches. Steps to manage both kinds of stress should be undertaken in order to reduce the occurence of chronic tension headaches. If these steps do not succeed, then further treatment via pain medications may be necessary. Chronic tension headaches that occur on a regular basis should be a signal to see a doctor.