The headache is seldom due to a serious illness, but when it is, "you have to go to the emergency room immediately. It may be a matter of minutes," warns Dr. Sonia Santos, coordinator of the Headache Study Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN). To rule them out, take our test to find out if your headache is serious and here we tell you what should alert you, because headache can be a symptom of serious diseases such as meningitis, poisoning, tumor, stroke or aneurysm.
Possible meningitis
- What do you notice. You feel very sick. The headache is greater than usual; your neck is stiff; Your fever rises quickly and you have trouble thinking. Meningitis can be caused by bacteria (the most serious), viruses or fungi, disorders that are not infections or drugs.
- What to do. If it is bacterial, they will give you antibiotics; and if it is viral, they will medicate you to alleviate the symptoms.
Maybe you got intoxicated
- What do you notice. If the poisoning is from chemicals or food, the headache is throbbing - like a heartbeat - and you will have nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Poisoning from breathing carbon monoxide causes a dull or crushing headache and even fainting.
- What to do. Before being treated, seek fresh air and avoid dehydration.
What if it is a stroke?
- What is it. When you have a stroke, the blood does not reach the brain in the necessary amount, and the nerve cells, not receiving oxygen, stop working. One of the cerebral arteries may have become occluded or ruptured, causing the stroke.
- What do you notice. The stroke headache and other symptoms appear abruptly and the headache is very severe. "The patient is fine and in two seconds he falls because his strength fails, he loses his sight, he stops talking …", says Dr. M.ª del Mar Castellanos, secretary of the SEN Study Group on Cerebrovascular Diseases, who insists on the need to immediately call the Emergency Department to minimize the consequences.
What is the stroke code
- It is a priority. The stroke code (CI) is a system with which patients are quickly identified and transferred to the emergency services. When the IC is activated, medical attention is prioritized for that person as soon as they arrive at the hospital.
- "Time is brain". With stroke, all the time it takes to receive care is time spent in brain function. Speed is key to avoid sequelae. In fact, therapies are time-dependent: to be effective they have to be administered the sooner the better.
How to recognize stroke
All the symptoms of this stroke have one thing in common: they are suffered suddenly.
- Excessive pain In hemorrhagic patients, the headache is unbearable. "Whoever suffers it tells you that it is the worst of her life," says Dr. Castellanos. You can also lose vision in one eye or part of the visual field.
- Without strength. One side of the body (arm, leg, and face) loses strength and feeling. It usually appears in all three locations at the same time, but there are people who are only affected in one.
- (Almost) speechless. The language is also altered. You can remain silent, change the syllables of order, block yourself when speaking or not understand anything that they are saying to you.
Beware!
- Most strokes are preventable. Risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol must be controlled; and adopt good habits, such as exercising, taking care of your diet, quitting alcohol and tobacco …
A tumor in the brain
- What is it. A brain tumor is a benign or malignant (cancerous) growth, which can originate in the brain itself or have spread to it from another part of the body (metastasis).
- What do you notice. Headache is the most common, and often the first, symptom of a brain tumor. This headache does not respond to painkillers, is constant, and worsens when lying down. In addition, a tumor impairs mental functions, causes fever, weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, and even seizures.
- What to do. Consult the doctor at the slightest suspicion, and more if you are receiving treatment for cancer. You will have imaging tests or a biopsy.
The effects of the tumor
Weird behaviors. People with a brain tumor can do or say inappropriate things. Disinhibition is a very typical manifestation when some areas of the frontal lobe of the brain are affected. Normally, impulse control is lost and acts childish. Also patients suffer from depression, anxiety and are more aggressive.
- They should not be blamed.
More tired. The tumor in the head can also cause psychomotor agitation, that is to say, that it is difficult for them to remain seated, that they fidget … Fatigue is inevitable.
- A quiet environment helps.
An aneurysm that ruptures
- What is it. A brain aneurysm is a dilation in the wall of an artery in the brain that bulges out and fills with blood. The danger is that it ruptures and causes a hemorrhagic stroke.
- What do you notice. Most people have no symptoms until the aneurysm is very large or ruptures. If it bleeds, the headache is extremely strong and incomparable. If the aneurysm has been leaking blood for days and still hasn't ruptured, you may also have warning or sentinel headaches. But it is something that few patients experience.
- What to do. Such a headache is a matter of urgency. The aneurysm may be had from birth without knowing it.
And if what you want is to relieve it quickly, we will tell you how to get rid of the headache quickly.
