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Headaches

doubletrack naturopathic

Sara Love, ND

Naturopathy servicing Tigard and Portland located in Beaverton, OR

Experiencing pain in your head by itself is often bad enough to cause you to miss work or social occasions. If you often get headaches, its symptoms can cause you to lay in bed helplessly for hours or even days at a time. At doubletrack naturopathic in Beaverton, Oregon, Sara Love, ND, treats headaches and helps you learn to avoid them when you can. To get started on treatments for headaches or migraines, call doubletrack naturopathic or book an appointment online today.

Headaches Q&A

What are headaches?

Headaches are characterized by pain that you feel in your head intermittently. The pain can reach down to your neck or into your face but is mostly concentrated on one or both sides of your head. 

There are numerous types of headaches, but they can be split into these two classifications:

Primary headaches

Primary headaches aren’t the result of another condition. They often appear without warning and without an obvious cause.

Secondary headaches

Secondary headaches are symptoms of something else. Conditions that can irritate the nerves in your head to cause headache pain include hangovers, concussions, dehydration, and the flu.

What are migraines?

Migraines are a particularly severe and recurrent type of primary headache. A migraine can last for hours or even days and often comes with more symptoms than just head pain. Common signs and symptoms that distinguish migraines from other kinds of headaches include:

  • Sensitivity to light
  • Sensitivity to sound
  • Light-headedness
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Sweating
  • Inability to focus or to perform tasks

Migraine pain is typically confined to just one side of your head. In many cases, it’s throbbing or pulsing instead of stagnant.

If you have recurrent migraines, you might find that you can predict when one is coming with warning signs called auras. Migraine auras don’t happen to everyone, and they can involve the perception of lights around you, stiffness in your muscles, and other sensory symptoms.

How are headaches and migraines treated?

Individual headaches and migraines go away with some rest and over-the-counter pain relievers. 

If you get headaches or migraines repeatedly, Dr. Love can help you develop a personalized treatment strategy to reduce your instances of headaches and ease them early when you get them. Your treatment plan can include:

  • Identifying and avoiding triggers
  • Stress management
  • Medications 
  • Neuromodulators like Botox®
  • Lifestyle changes

Dr. Love might also encourage you to keep track of when and where your headaches or migraines take place. This can help you better predict them and stop them in their tracks.

For expert headache and migraine relief and prevention, call doubletrack naturopathic or book an appointment online today.