Headaches in the afternoon. What do you need to know?

Why do I have headaches in the evenings?

Don’t immediately panic if your head starts to hurt towards evening. After all, there are many conditions that cause evening headaches. Among them there are quite safe ones that are not associated with diseases. Let's list the main reasons why you have a headache every evening:

• Consumption of food products containing preservatives, flavor enhancers, harmful additives. For example: strong coffee, sausages, processed foods, soda.
• Increased psycho-emotional stress - clarification of relationships, conflicts, showdowns.
• Fasting or fasting. A deficiency of nutrients leads to severe headaches in the evening.
• Staying in an unventilated area for a long time, for example, in a sauna.
• Heatstroke. During the daytime in summer, people often neglect to wear hats. Therefore, a headache may appear in the evening.
• Visual stress – reading small text, working at a computer monitor, spending long periods of time in front of the TV. In such conditions, my eyes and head hurt every evening.
• Lack of sleep. If after a sleepless night there is still some vital energy in the morning and during the day, then in the evening it dries up and you get a headache.

These reasons that lead to headaches appearing in the evening are relatively safe. When unfavorable factors are eliminated, the pain goes away without a trace.

What to do

How should one proceed in such cases? It is important to understand that headaches and the reasons that cause them can be different. In most cases, especially if painkillers do not help, it would not be superfluous to consult a neurologist. Often it is he who is able to make an accurate diagnosis and identify a specific cause. This is the main condition for successful and quick treatment.

Let's consider the main diseases and pathological conditions that can accompany headaches.

Hypertension

A fifth of the population has high blood pressure. Hypertension is fraught with vascular atrophy and ischemic stroke, therefore such patients must measure blood pressure every day and, if necessary, reduce it with special medications. They are selected by the doctor individually in each case.

Headache appears if blood pressure exceeds normal pressure levels by 25%. When the pressure stabilizes, it goes away, but in rare cases it can remain for the whole day. In this case, it is worth excluding pathology of the adrenal glands (pheochromocytoma). In this case, the headache will be bilateral, bursting, it often appears in the morning and is localized in the back of the head. Such attacks are quite short (up to 15 minutes).

If you experience frequent headaches that are accompanied by sweating, nausea, tremors, and facial skin flushing, it is worth checking the state of the endocrine system.

In hypertensive patients, pain may occur when sitting for a long time. It is contraindicated for them to stay at the computer for a long time, as the pressure can jump sharply. In this case, not only the hemispheres of the brain suffer, but also the retina of the eyes, the heart, and chondrosis develops over time.

With osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, the condition worsens further because the destruction of brain cells begins. This leads to rapid fatigue, decreased concentration, sleep disturbances, and dizziness. In such cases, in addition to medication treatment, it is recommended to rest more and develop a daily routine.

Well, if high blood pressure is accompanied by fever, cough, chills, or sore throat, this may be a symptom of the flu, ARVI.

Diabetes

With this disease, blood vessels are affected, which disrupts blood circulation and affects all organs and systems of the body. Diabetics may experience headaches as sharp blows, persistent and long-lasting.

If a diabetic has increased blood pressure, he should take the medicine prescribed by the endocrinologist.

Atherosclerosis

With atherosclerosis, cholesterol is deposited on the walls of all arteries. In this case, blood circulation in the vessels of the brain is disrupted, and pathological changes become chronic. The lumens of the arteries quickly narrow, which causes oxygen starvation of the brain. In this case, hypertension may also appear, which will be constantly accompanied by attacks of headache.

Causes of evening headaches

However, you should not take it lightly if you often have a headache in the evening and at night. There are several diseases that are indicated by similar symptoms. Let's take a closer look at the pathologies that lead to headaches every evening.

Hypertension

The disease develops against the background of disturbances in vascular tone. Frequent spasms cause quite pronounced pain syndrome. Constant upward surges in blood pressure lead to the functioning of the central nervous system in emergency mode. During the day, such changes are also present, but they are less noticeable, since the patient is busy with routine activities. Therefore, you can clearly feel a headache in your temples in the evenings. In addition, additional symptoms appear:

• nauseating feeling;
• visual disturbances;
• increased heart rate;
• increased sweating;
• lethargy.

Health care providers recommend that patients suffering from hypertension purchase an easy-to-use home blood pressure monitor. Thus, you can constantly monitor blood pressure and maintain its values ​​within normal limits.

Hypotension

Hypotonic disease develops when there are problems with the autonomic nervous system. With low blood pressure, patients experience slow blood circulation, which leads to a constant lack of oxygen in the cells of the cerebral cortex. The functioning of the central nervous system in such conditions leads to a person’s vitality quickly decreasing. The neglect of the disease gradually leads to a headache every day in the evening. Additionally, accompanying painful symptoms appear:

• cold hands and feet;
• numbness;
• dizziness;
• paleness of the skin;
• gastrointestinal disorders.

You can quickly increase your blood pressure with a cup of strong coffee with sugar.

Signs and characteristics of pain

Depending on the pathological process that caused discomfort in the head, pain manifests itself in different ways:

• Cervical osteochondrosis . Pain of moderate and severe intensity manifests itself in the back of the head and intensifies at night, accompanied by unpleasant sensations in the temples and eyes. Dizziness and nausea are possible;
• Change in pressure . There are throbbing pains in the temples, dull pain in the back of the head or intense pain throughout the head.
• Presence of a tumor . Since tumor processes develop gradually, the pain, accordingly, is progressive. At the early stage, there is practically no pain, but as the formation grows, the underlying pain becomes intense;
• Head injuries . Unpleasant sensations are accompanied by disorientation, dizziness, decreased vision and concentration. In rare cases, over time, this condition can plunge the patient into deep depression;
• Infections . In addition to headaches, patients complain of high fever, the appearance of extraneous noise, dizziness and a feeling of fatigue.

In case of emotional overload, headaches are irregular, localized on both sides in any part of the head, and vary in intensity and severity. They do not depend on body position.

Note! You cannot diagnose yourself based on indirect signs. Only an experienced specialist, after consultation and additional diagnostics, can make a final conclusion about the presence or absence of pathological changes in brain tissue.

Diagnostics

Before prescribing a course of treatment, the doctor will first find out why the patient has a headache every evening. Let's consider what procedures each patient will need to undergo.

How to evaluate patients with headaches

We list the main diagnostic measures that a person will need to undergo to establish the true cause of the headaches that occur every evening:

• collection of primary anamnesis;
• Ultrasound of elements of the cardiovascular system;
• radiograph;
• laboratory studies of biological fluids;
• CT, MRI of the central nervous system.

Additionally, the patient may be referred for examination to the following specialists:

• infectious disease specialist;
• endocrinologist;
• otolaryngologist;
• neurologist;
• cardiologist;
• psychiatrist.

When should you see a doctor?

Frequent headaches that occur in the evenings require routine examination by a physician.

You should urgently consult a doctor when cephalalgia is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• Febrile fever.
• Impaired consciousness.
• Fainting, convulsions, dizziness.
• Aphasia, paralysis, paresis.
• Double vision, unsteadiness when walking.

Headaches that occur in the evenings or during the day require examination by a therapist, neurologist, or endocrinologist. Cephalgia can be a symptom of serious illnesses. Early diagnosis and timely treatment can achieve long-term remission and improve the patient's condition.

Treatment

When you have a headache every evening, the therapeutic course should be completely focused on eliminating the underlying disease that led to the pain. For example, the intensity of migraine attacks can be reduced with drugs such as Nomigren, Cafergot, Naramig. Hypotension is successfully corrected with medications such as Heptamil, Cordiamin, Ecdisten.

When the cause of poor health lies in a tense psycho-emotional environment, taking a course of psychotherapy will help.

Immediate relief from headaches that occur every evening is possible with the use of generic painkillers. Such as No-shpa, Analgin, Nurofen, Tempalgin.

Cluster headache

This is the most difficult type of cephalgia to treat. Painful attacks usually occur at night or in the morning, last a few seconds, follow each other with a short interval, during which the temperature may rise, nausea may appear, and neurological symptoms may occur—impaired vision, hearing, and sensitivity of the limbs.

Clusters occur with different frequencies - in severe cases they happen up to once a year, usually in the same season, but vice versa - an attack may be the only one, and after it the headache will stop hurting. A characteristic feature of this condition is the high intensity of attacks.

Since the cause of cluster headache has not been established, its treatment is symptomatic. Painkillers may be ineffective, but they help in cases where the temperature rises during an attack. Sedatives also help - they do not completely relieve pain, but they significantly alleviate it. Compliance with the treatment regimen has a positive effect, but not always.

Prevention

In order to prevent the development of a condition where you have a headache every evening, you can remember and perform the following preventive measures:

• switch to a healthy diet;
• ensure sufficient drinking regime;
• take walks every day;
• ventilate the room well before going to bed;
• do not overdo it at work, rest more;
• increase sleep duration to eight hours;
• minimize the amount of psycho-emotional stress, do not enter into conflicts, do not be nervous.

The main thing to do if you have a headache every evening is to visit a health care facility. Timely diagnosis and treatment will help avoid adverse health consequences.

Eye strain

Vision problems, prolonged computer work, and muscle imbalances in the face or neck can all contribute to the development of eye strain headaches.

This is a rare type of headache that usually causes symptoms in the front of the head. People may feel exhausted or notice that the pain gets worse on days when they spend a lot of time on the computer.

Wearing glasses or contact lenses can relieve headaches. Some people also benefit from exercise, frequent breaks, or special glasses for working with a monitor.

Crib

1. Causes of evening headaches: hypotension and hypertension, histamine disease, pathologies of the spine and jaw joint, inflammation of the ENT organs, psychological causes, diabetes mellitus, hormonal imbalance.
2. You cannot ignore the problem; you must visit a doctor, otherwise it can lead to serious consequences.
3. Diagnostics: medical history, ultrasound, blood tests, MRI or tomography.
4. Treatment methods: taking painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, increasing physical activity, oxygen therapy, surgical treatment, antibiotics.
5. Use traditional treatment methods only under the supervision of a doctor, otherwise the situation can worsen.

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