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Dr. Jacqueline Eghrari-Sabet: Hi, I am Dr. Jacqueline Eghrari-Sabet, and today we are here in my office talking about headaches. Now let's tackle the question about treatment, what makes a headache go away, and why does it work? Let's start with the common one like pain relievers. One of your favorite is probably aspirin. When you have a pain in your head, you have a signal that's sent from your head to your sinuses or to your brain. That signal is actually sent by a chemical called prostaglandin. A prostaglandin makes that area swell.
So for instance, if you get hit on the head with a rock, or you get a pain from the bump on your head, these kinds of signals come from prostaglandins; they tell your brain, that hurts. What aspirin does is counteract the prostaglandins. So when you're feeling a headache, you can reach for aspirin, and now you know why it works. Caffeine is something that can actually help with headaches. Some headaches are actually due to too much blood flow to your head. You'll see this in people, who drink coffee everyday and then suddenly they go cold turkey and they stuck.
They end up with a sudden increase in blood flow because there isn't that caffeine to stave off the blood flow to their brain. Caffeine will actually slow the blood flow. So it lessens the pain in your head. Many pain medications that are sold over the counter have caffeine in it. Antidepressants and anti-seizure medications are also sometimes used to treat headaches. These actually tackle the nerves in your head. They decrease the sensitivity to those nerves. Remember, it's the pain from these nerves that make the headache occur. These types of medications are especially good for migraine.
Allergy treatment can also help with the headache. About a third of the people who suffer with allergy will have headaches due to their allergy. When you treat with medications that will relieve pressure in the sinuses, like decongestants, prescription, anti-inflammatory nasal sprays, you're decreasing the inflammation and the pressure that causes a headache or an allergy headache. Now that we've learnt about treatments for headaches, let's go talk about some infamous triggers for headaches.
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