If the head hurts three times a week - is this the norm? Asked the doctor

Why does my head hurt at all?

Approximately 45% of headaches are caused by tension and are due to abnormal tone of the pericranial muscles of the scalp. They are pressed, the trophism of small vessels is disturbed - a dull, squeezing headache occurs.

Do I always need to take a pill or is it more useful to “be patient”?

If these are rare pains - once every few weeks, then you can take a pill. It is better not to endure a headache, it must be removed. Still, this is a psycho-emotional stress for the body and a violation of your performance. Also, infrequent use of over-the-counter pain relievers will not cause harm.

This is not my case. What to do then?

If headaches are frequent, 3-4 times a week, provoke nausea, vomiting, dizziness, visual disturbances, or are concentrated in one half of the head (like a migraine), then this requires a doctor's consultation. As well as unbearably severe pain, albeit not too frequent.

For such cases, the usual anti-inflammatory pills that we are used to drinking will not help. The doctor will prescribe the necessary course of treatment for you.

What tablets are better to drink if the head hurts rarely?

Any painkillers will somehow have pathological consequences. The active ingredient diclofenac affects the stomach, meloxicam affects the liver, and ibuprofen affects the cardiovascular system. Everything has a side effect, but if you rarely take anti-inflammatory pills, there will be nothing to worry about.

There are combined drugs: they include not only the anti-inflammatory substance itself, but also caffeine, phenylephrine, antispasmodics ... Such drugs work more difficult and it is better not to use them without a doctor's supervision. Otherwise, there are situations when a patient without migraine drinks pills for migraine, getting a side effect from them.

Uncontrolled intake of drugs can lead to abuse headaches. They occur when excessive intake of anti-inflammatory pills. Let's say you take pills every day according to the scheme "headache - took a pill - the pain is gone - the next day it hurts again - drank a pill" ... As a result, your head starts to hurt just because you need to take an anti-inflammatory drug again. This situation requires treatment with a specialist.

Can headaches be prevented?

For the prevention of pain caused by muscle tone, gymnastics for the neck helps. Aleksey Malkov recommends the Shishonin method to his patients - these are simple exercises that can be found on the Internet. They take about 20 minutes to complete. According to the doctor, they can not harm them.

Also from the recommendations: sleep on an orthopedic pillow, regular massage of the cervical-collar zone. For those who work at the computer, two more tips: once every two hours, be distracted and do short gymnastics for the neck, and once a week try to change the position of the screen (swap from the left to the right side of the table and back). The latter will save you from forming a "chronically forced posture."

Additionally, the neurologist advises to exclude excessive consumption of caffeine, alcohol, quit smoking in order to reduce the risk of vascular pathology. If headaches are chronic, you can take magnesium (courses twice a year, according to the instructions), vegetocorrectors and venotonics for prevention (also according to the instructions).