Avoid Headache

Dr. James Harvey says that the only treatment for the headache — "pain of the head" — is to diagnose it and know its cause.

Some think the headache one of the simple ailments, easy to diagnose and then to treat, whereas this ailment is counted among the most difficult problems that medicine handles. Headaches are of many kinds: some go back to various diseases, such as nervous strain in the eye, concussion of the brain, pains of the teeth and ears, the bursting of blood vessels, and even the presence of excess growths in the nose.

The headache often wakes its sufferer from his sleep at night; the pain grows severe, then is broken by intervals of relief. A headache usually keeps to one particular place in the head. Naturally, the most dangerous kinds of headache are those whose cause goes back to disease of the brain, such as brain tumor, inflammation of the cerebral meninges, and apoplexy. These matters must not lead to the belief that every headache that strikes a person arises from one of these frightening diseases; but in cases of severe headache the doctor should rule out such possibilities, and if the headache is accompanied by vomiting, a turning of the eye, a film over the sight, lethargy, nervous fits, or variation in the speed of the heartbeat, then the doctor must realize that he is treating a more troublesome problem than the headache alone.

Headache in the temples and forehead may be due to diseases of the eyes, such as inflammation, or the sufferer's need of glasses. Inflammation of the eyes and their increased watering after reading or close work confirms this.

The headache of poisoning

There are certain kinds of headache caused by a sort of poisoning occurring in the blood vessels; likewise, sitting in a poorly ventilated room and breathing foul air are among the usual causes of headache. Severe headache comes from inhaling poisonous gases, narcotics, or the smoke that motorcars give off. Heavy smoking and the drinking of intoxicants may place the headache in this same class.

Then there are the poisons a person produces himself — those formed in the intestines as a result of surfeit or constipation, causing severe pain in the head, with threads and spots appearing before the eyes and a rough coating covering the tongue. The sufferer from diabetes endures pain in the head owing to a shortage of acids, while children get headaches when they take in more food than their capacity can digest. Children are treated by giving them plenty of sweets, jams, and honey, and by cutting down on fatty substances. As for persons afflicted with pains of the

joints, kidneys, or bladder through the poisons their own bodies generate, their pains are accompanied by a severe headache.

In most cases of the headache of poisoning the cause shows itself plainly, and the best way to do away with the headache is to remove the malady. There is another kind of headache whose cause is high blood pressure; it strikes a person in the evening after taking food. Severer still is the headache arising from low blood pressure, which increases with exhaustion and lessens with rest.

Nor should we forget that noise and din, seasickness, mental agitation, sunstroke, and sitting close to the white screen all lead to pain in the head.

The headache of half the head

Migraine — the headache of half the head — is a kind unto itself, confined to pain in one half of the head only, and reaching such severity that the sufferer can find rest only in a darkened room. This kind of headache returns to a person from time to time without apparent cause, and is often preceded by a disturbance of vision accompanied by vomiting. It is a painful disease against which taking aspirin tablets or headache powder is of no use. The effective remedy for it is what is known as the drug ergot, a poison that must not be taken except from the doctor.

The best way to treat a headache is for a person to take two aspirin tablets and rest in a quiet room. If the cause of the headache arises from disturbances of the stomach, the sufferer should take a dose of salts. But when the headache recurs, it may have a simple cause; a severe headache, however, should be attended to and taken into account, for it may be the herald of a dangerous disease.