Headache Behind Eyes

There are numerous causes of the headache behind eyes. It is perhaps one of the most debilitating things you can feel. Some people have headaches that will last for days or even for years. If you ever felt severe headaches behind your eyes, you need to go see a health professional as soon as possible. 

Here are the possible types of headaches:

1. Tension Headaches

This is perhaps one of the most common types of headaches. It is pain that can radiate all around your head to the other parts of your body. People who have this will complain of constant pressure around the head as it their head are squeezed. It commonly occurs on both side of the head and the pain can range from mild to very severe.  The headache is often triggered off with lack of sleep, stress, not enough food to eat, withdrawal from caffeine, eyestrain and other such stimuli.

Scientist often thought that the main cause of tension headaches was due to tight muscles. However, they researched that it could be cause by a faulty pain filter that is located around the brain stem which scrambles information from the neck, head and other such muscles into pain. Furthermore, another reason is that it could be due to constant teeth clenching which makes the temporalis muscle (muscle around the top of your head) to become very tense.

This headache can be treated with the use of prescription drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and other such drugs. If your headache has been ongoing for many weeks, there are drugs like amitriptyline, sodium valproate and mirtazapine that can help relieve it. The headache can also be treated with alternative therapy like acupuncture or cupping. Manual therapy like physical therapy, massage therapy and chiropractic spinal manipulation can help a lot.

2. Cluster Headache

This is a severe neurological disease that involves severe degree of pain around the head. It is rare and affects around 0.1 per cent of the general population. It commonly occurs more in men than in women. Usually, the headache occurs from fifteen minutes to hours or more, it comes on rapidly without any warning signs and occurs on one side of the face. The cause of the headache is due to the dilation (widening) of the blood vessels which puts immense pressure on the trigeminal nerve. It is not fully known how the dilation of the blood vessel occurs but there is a genetic component to it.