Home: Headache

Head Ache: First Aid

Headache refers to the discomfort and feeling of pain into the head anywhere from orbits to the sub occipital area of the skull. Most headaches are confined for short duration and they are minor; that is they do not require special treatment.

The headache can be of many types such as vascular headache which includes the migraine, muscular or the tension headache or headache secondary to some infection such as the sinusitis.

The possible causes of the headache may be:
Stress, neurological disorders, infection to the brain, brain tumours or aneurysms, meningitis, sinusitis, environmental changes, very hot or cold climate, photosensitivity, thunder, withdrawal of the stimulants such as alcohol or caffeine.

You can try out certain first aid tips to alleviate your head pain at your home:

The pain reliever drugs are of most use in reducing the headache.
The other therapies or measures that you can just use are:

Cold application:
You can apply ice on your forehead or cloth soaked in cold water; this may provide comfort to you.

Moist heat application:
You can keep a cloth or compress soaked in warm water on your forehead and nape of the neck or sometimes a warm shower helps.

Relaxation techniques:

You need to free your self from the tedious and stressful job for some while in order to relax your mind. For this you can just have a walk to some peaceful and calm place or you can practise concentration exercise.

Other ways you can relax yourself are:-

Deep breathing exercises
Meditation and yoga

Acupressure therapy
It includes the pressing of the pressure points. You can practise it if you are an expertise in this field or have sound knowledge of the acupressure.

Medications:
It includes the use of the pain relieving drugs available as the over the counter drugs.

However some headaches might be dangerous; they may be difficult to be treated by home care interventions. Such headaches often need medical attention.

Consider it better to consult your physician if:

You feel sudden and severe headache.
Headache is accompanied by the fever, chills, seizures, nuchal or neck rigidity, mental confusion, disturbances in the vision, changes in the level of the consciousness, dizziness, etc.
There is the history of the head injury or recent respiratory infections such as the tonsillitis or the sinusitis or any throat infections.
The headache does not respond to the self care measures taken at home; it continues for several hours or day or days.
Headache worsens over the time.

Disclaimer
This site provides you with the general guidelines and information regarding the first aid measures for the various conditions or health related problems. It is not a substitute for the medical advice or the formal first aid training. It will not be responsible or liable in case one tries to make diagnosis based on the provided information. You always need to consult the doctor and emergency department in case of all the serious emergencies rather than just relying upon the supposed guidelines.