Headache often influences our mood, our capacity to work and rest, and in some cases it can turn our private life into a nightmare! Why does it happen? Why our head aches?

Doctors came to the conclusion that our health depends on our emotions in many aspects, on how strong we react to life troubles, whether we become angry with other people often. Emotional factors play an important role in appearance of headache for many people, and sometimes these reasons can become determinant. But not the only ones…

How’s your mood?
Some headaches really can have psychogenic character (i.e. be caused by a special emotional state, for example, while depression).

Serious stress, anxiety, alarm, and also inner sense of guilt, anger or fear can also become reasons for headache. The matter is that these emotional states can lead to long clonus of facial muscles, skin, shoulders, neck. In this case muscular headache develops: irritation of effectors takes place in strained muscles, impulse (sygnal) is passed to brain through nerves.

Think about it. May be, you can settle one single problem, which will help you to solve tangle of your emotions, and not only your relations with other people will change, but also your state of health?

… Do you know that the most powerful woman’s weapon, both in attack and defence, is her smile? Some put tears to use, but tears affect not every tyrant, and it’s difficult to make yourself crying in necessary moment. And smile sometimes can not only solve a complicated situation in cimmunication with other people, but also cheer you up. Don’t think about bad, learn smiling to other people and yourself!

Most often we don’t think of our bearing, don’t remember body position. A teacher sits over writing-books, many girls work with PC for the whole day without breaks. Head is bended, back is crooked, legs are bended in hip joints and knee-joints. When we are reading an interesting magazine, we can sit bent, not paying attention to such uncomfortable position. In spite of eye strain, we read in dusk, in a place with poor light, in moving traffic.

All this will surely leave a trace! Physical factors also contribute to appearance of muscular headaches - periods of long sitting position, bent neck or back position, eye overstrain. Peak of pain appears because of crossing pain signals, coming to brain from several parts of body through same nerves.

Above-mentioned reasons also can lead to vasodilatation in above-mentioned parts of body, what causes vascular headache. Long contraction of shoulder, neck, facial muscles affects blood vessels, reducing bloodflow. This, in its turn, causes lack of oxygen in muscular tissues and accrual of toxins, causing pain (products, formed in the process of metabolism).

Anomalous vasodilatation or vasoconstriction inside of skull (brain and its membranes), outside of skull - in facial tissues, skin, mouth, neck, leads to irritation of effectors in vessels, what also causes headache.
For example, migraines are vascular headaches. Blood vessels are subjected to a sudden dilation, what irritates effectors in vessels. Women suffer from migraines more often - this can be connected with change of oestrogen level, caused by menstruation, taking contraceptive pills, or while hormone replacement therapy.

Amines, nitrites, caffeine??¦
Vascular headaches also can be caused by eating of food, containing amines or nitrites. Nitrites have been used for meat preserving for ages, to add a special taste and pinkish color to it. Canned ham, corned beef, hot-dogs, salami and bacon contain nitrites.

Amines can cause headache, making blood vessels firstly shorten, and then dilate - this leads to pain response. Such products, like wine, cheese, marinades, mustard, pepper, liver, kidneys, pork, smoked meat, bananas, plums, pine-apples, legumes (haricot, soy), nuts, onion, chocolate, vanilla, citrus plants, soy sauce contain amines.

We don’t mean you should treat these products as poisons! But if you suffer from headaches - listen to yourself!

Caffeine increases risk of headache development not because of stricture, but due to a secondary effect, in which result vasodilatation takes place, after caffeine action ends. Drinks, containing caffeine: coffee, tea, cocoa, cola.

What do you need?
Lack of iron increases risk of headache development as a result of lowering of blood ability to transfer oxygen. To make up lack of oxygen, blood vessels dilate more, than they should, what can provoke headache. Lean meat, fish, raisins and eggs are good sources of iron.

Most people suffering from migraine feel lack of vitamins of group B, which are necessary for normal functioning of nervous system. Stress is known for its ability to lead to lack of vitamin B in organism. Broccoli, spinach, potato, eggs and nuts are rich in vitamins of B group.

…Many of us are dreaming to lose weight, can stay without food for some time, and later cannot cope with hunger. Others cannot beat their affection to smoked food or sweets. All this surely affects our health. Whether we eat a fifth candy or third cake, drink sixth cup of coffee during a day, if we want to be healthy, we shouldn’t forget about wholesome nutrition!

Surely, if you suffer from headaches, only doctor can diagnose and prescribe treatment for you. But when you leave his cabinet, think about preventive measures too.

Headache preventive measures
Full-value rest is of great importance here. Regularity of down-lying will help to prevent painful sensations. So it’s necessary to go to bed and wake up at the same time, sleep enough (6-8 hours), use a small pillow, taking the form of your head easily. Sleep on a high pillow can lead to compression of blood vessels. Improvement of sleep, removing chronic tiredness (and this is a factor, contributing to appearance of headache) - is the most important condition of headache preventive measures.

…In the morning, when you open your sleepy eyes, before leaving your bed, you need to switch to vigil from sleep slowly. There’re several simple exercises - stretching, turning legs to the right-left, leg raises lying on back, feet motions in different directions - they will help you to switch to active way. It’s better to start your day being cheerful and merry, and, if you have to spend the whole day sitting on your work, after night rest you need some gymnastics that will help your organism switching to work in more difficult conditions, when body is in vertical position.

You also need to lead active way of living. Regular physical activity will help to prevent headache as a result of its influence on many biological and psychological mechanisms, responsible for its appearance.

20-30 minutes of morning exercises you do regularly, jogging along, swimming in a pool 3-4 times per week will increase resistibility to headache in most people significantly, as this:
- improves blood corculation, increases oxygen supply to tissues, contributes to slags cleaning from tissues. Slags are responsible for appearance of headache;
- increases elasticity of blood vessels;
- leads to strenghtening of back muscles, responsible for good bearing, reduction of tension in muscles of shoulders, neck, back;
- reduces psychological and muscular tension, capable to cause headache;
- cheers you up, what leads to overcoming depression and feeling of anxiety, probably playing role in headache development.
It’s also important to avoid excessive stay under the sun and drinking alcohol, frequent smoking.