You should know why a headache occurs in this case, because the use of painkillers can have the opposite effect. In the hard shell of the brain, in the soft tissues covering the bones of the skull, there are pain receptors that signal disturbances in the functioning of the body.
You should not ignore painful manifestations, because timely consultation with a doctor, identifying the causes that affect your health, and eliminating provoking factors will help you avoid the development of serious pathologies.
Below are the factors that provoke the appearance of pain with normal blood pressure, the causes and methods of relieving this condition.
What are the causes of headaches with normal blood pressure?
If you often have a headache, the patient needs to listen to the body and not only analyze the state preceding the attacks, but also pay attention to the peculiarities of the manifestation of painful sensations.
In the future, when communicating with a doctor, a clearly described nature of the pain (pulsating, dull, pressing, aching, paroxysmal) will allow you to correctly establish the diagnosis. Among the most common causes of headaches with normal blood pressure are the following:
- Sleep disturbance, lack of proper rest, which is a component of chronic fatigue syndrome.
- Poor nutrition, when the diet is dominated by harmful fatty foods, with a high content of preservatives that affect the functioning of the body in general and the brain in particular.
- Serious pathologies of the brain and cervical spine as a result of traumatic brain injuries.
- Inflammatory processes in the body that occur as a result of colds.
- Meningitis, brain abscess, inflammation of the trigeminal or facial nerve.
- Overstrain of the muscles of the cervical spine due to prolonged exposure of the head to an uncomfortable or the same position.
Taking into account the patient’s lifestyle and carefully studying the symptoms and situations preceding the attack, the specialist will be able to prescribe the correct treatment. The doctor will not only help relieve painful manifestations, but also give recommendations for their prevention.
Pathological
If you have a headache with normal blood pressure, you need to pay attention to the patient’s presence of disorders arising from traumatic brain injuries, inflammatory and infectious diseases.
- When severe attacks are accompanied by dizziness and nausea, this indicates the presence of injuries resulting from even the most minor exposure. These symptoms are typical for a concussion. Hematomas, impaired blood circulation in the brain tissue, sudden changes in intracranial pressure are the result of injuries, so you need to urgently seek help from a doctor, otherwise there is a risk of complications.
- If the pressure is normal, but there is a severe headache in the lower part of the face on one side, then the cause may be inflammation or pinching of the trigeminal nerve. The nature of the pain is reminiscent of toothache. A patient with this diagnosis is characterized by tearfulness and irritability.
- Long-term inflammatory processes in the nasopharynx and other internal organs, accompanied by a sharp increase in body temperature, sometimes lead to a brain abscess. The disease is accompanied by dizziness, pain in the frontal and temporal parts of the skull.
- Spinal injuries affect the blood supply to the brain. With viral and bacterial diseases, headaches are combined with intoxication and coordination problems.
- A pituitary adenoma is accompanied by severe pain in the head, vomiting, disturbances in the sexual sphere, loss of vision, and disturbances in the functioning of the part of the brain responsible for speech.
- Meningitis is an inflammation of the lining of the brain that occurs due to damage by fungi, viruses or bacteria and causes a number of complications. Hypothermia and decreased immunity can contribute to the development of infection. Meningitis leads to loss of vision and hearing, depriving a person of the ability to normally perceive the world around him, and also to death. Intense throbbing headaches are accompanied by nausea, photophobia, and heightened sense of smell.
- Migraine attacks are accompanied by debilitating, throbbing pain. The duration of attacks can be from 4 to 72 hours. The pain is accompanied by loss of strength, drowsiness, tension in the cervical spine, temporary loss of vision, vomiting, and an acute reaction to sounds, smells and light. Patients with vascular crises suffer more often from migraines.
If a person experiences headaches accompanied by the above symptoms, he needs the help of specialists and a comprehensive examination, which will allow him to prescribe the optimal treatment.
Non-pathological
But it is not only as a result of pathological abnormalities that a person experiences discomfort that does not allow him to live and work fully.
It happens that the pressure is normal, there is no temperature, but the head hurts. You can cope with the problem yourself, because the causes of pain can be harmless. If there is excessive muscle tension in the neck or psychological fatigue, a massage and a relaxing bath will help relieve pain.
After the procedure, you should drink a painkiller and lie down to rest in a comfortable environment, without irritating factors (bright lighting, extraneous sounds and strong odors).
If you have sleep disturbances, it is recommended to take a sleeping pill or a sedative.
A person experiencing pain in the absence of pathological factors needs to reconsider their daily routine and diet. Food should be balanced and healthy. It is worth paying attention to rest, ensuring proper sleep.
Changes in weather have a negative impact on the well-being of weather-sensitive people. A sharp change in atmospheric pressure causes an increase in intracranial pressure in patients with impaired blood supply to certain areas of the brain. When weather conditions normalize, the headache goes away.
Pregnant women often experience discomfort and pain. After the birth of a child, the body returns to normal.
Pathologies
Insomnia, heaviness, lethargy, cloudiness of consciousness and other unpleasant sensations can also be a consequence of the disease.
Vegetovascular dystonia
This condition occurs with minor physical activity, causing a disruption in the outflow of venous blood, which is why its excess begins to put pressure on all the tissues in the skull, its contents seem to overflow and become heavier. Heaviness during VSD is primarily felt in the back of the head. Dystonia is treated with medications.
Meniere's disease
Inflammation of the inner ear with the release of excess fluid. It is not excreted, but accumulates in the labyrinth, exerting a pressing effect on the nerve endings located there. Because of this, the vestibular system sends distorted signals to the brain. This causes swaying when walking, a heaviness in one direction.
Spine pathologies
Changes in the cartilage tissue of the spine, which often compresses the spinal nerves and cervical vessels. In the latter case, this leads to hypoxia, as well as the appearance of various abnormalities in the blood vessels.
Spondylosis is a deformation of the spine that causes head movement to cause severe pain and other unpleasant sensations.
Nose problems
Sinusitis is a disease of the nasal sinuses, mastoiditis is an accumulation of purulent deposits behind the ear, sinusitis and meningitis give the head a leaden heaviness. Myositis - inflammation of the muscles in the back of the head is also accompanied by “heaviness” of the head.
Vascular pathologies
As with poisoning, when there are abnormalities in the functioning of the organs of the circulatory system, the brain is the first to suffer. A slight lack of oxygen - and a person begins to have problems: confusion, the head becomes heavy, loss of strength, nausea, stupor.
Atherosclerosis, vasculitis and other vascular diseases often disturb patients also due to unpleasant sensations under the skull.
There are a lot of reasons why the head becomes heavy; we have given only the most common ones. If a symptom appears systematically, you should visit a doctor. He will take into account the characteristics of your body, prescribe diagnostics and recommend what you need to do to get rid of unpleasant sensations.
Provoking factors
There is no high blood pressure, no temperature, but why does my head hurt? What causes the painful sensations that cause loss of strength, irritation and discomfort?
- Incorrect body position during work is the cause of headaches localized in the back of the head and radiating to the temples. Due to muscle overstrain, discomfort can last from 5 hours to 3 days. You can get rid of them with the help of painkillers.
- Excessive stress in the gym is often the cause of headaches at the optimal pressure for a person. Weak vestibular apparatus, sharp turns of the head, abdominal exercises, deadlift loads, excessive physical activity are factors that provoke an attack.
- Chronic fatigue, lack of sleep, psychological tension and regular stressful situations, overwork are some of the main factors that cause headaches with normal blood pressure. The patient needs to reconsider his attitude towards life, work and properly organize his rest.
- Particular attention should be paid to nutrition. It is necessary to exclude or minimize foods that cause headaches from the diet. Food flavored with monosodium glutamate (a flavor enhancer) can cause attacks of pain in the head, cervical and thoracic spine, and shoulders. It is wiser to avoid smoked meats, sausages, chips and other products with the synthetic food additive E621. A headache can be triggered by low-temperature foods, such as ice cream on a hot day.
- Excessive consumption of caffeinated drinks, smoking, dark chocolate, and alcohol provoke headache attacks. A sharp expansion and contraction of blood vessels leads to destabilization of intracranial pressure, which causes dizziness and pain.
- Dehydration leads to attacks of cephalalgia.
Third-party factors that provoke heaviness in the head
The reasons that explain why heaviness and pain in the head occur include the following factors:
- Cold:
- external exposure to cold - for example, after immersing the head in cold water;
- internal effects of cold - Ice cream headache, a common cause is the rapid consumption of ice cream or a cold drink.
- External pressure - tight headgear (thunderclap headache), swimming goggles (swim-goggle headache), etc.
- Menstruation – discomfort occurs due to menstruation. It may also occur mid-cycle due to hormonal changes during ovulation.
- Overexertion (benign exertional headache) - the provoking factor is physical stress, the headache does not hurt, but is severe.
- Cough (benign cough headache) - heaviness and pain caused by coughing, bilateral, lasting less than 1 minute.
- Discomfort associated with sexual activity:
- directly related to the intensity of sexual activity;
- occurring during orgasm;
- weakness caused by decreased blood pressure after intercourse.
Diagnostics
If your head hurts but your blood pressure is normal, you should consult a doctor. Considering that a headache can be a consequence of many diseases, a specialist will prescribe an examination to get a complete picture.
Depending on the symptoms and nature of the disease, appropriate diagnostic methods are selected:
- neurological, otoneurological, ophthalmic neurological examination;
- electroencephalography with functional loads;
- craniography;
- MRCT, RCT of the brain;
- angiography;
- trans- and extracranial Dopplerography.
In case of viral diseases and inflammatory processes, a general urine and blood test is required.
Peptic ulcer
Many stomach pathologies lead to a person having a headache, even if the pressure is normal. But an ulcer has the most striking symptoms. During periods of exacerbation, the walls of the stomach are exposed to hydrochloric acid, bile and pepsin. Developing erosions cause pain of various locations.
Important! Sometimes cephalalgia with peptic ulcer disease develops in response to medications used for therapy.
The main cause of pain is overstrain in the muscle area. When an ulcer worsens, a person suffers from bouts of vomiting, which contract the muscles of the neck and throat, causing discomfort. Along with headaches comes dizziness.
With an ulcer, blood pressure may decrease, which indicates the opening of an ulcer, including additional symptoms: bloody clots in stool, vomiting. With such signs, a person needs emergency medical care.
What to do
A headache is a symptom of a disease that a doctor can help determine. Therefore, with regular attacks, it is necessary, without delay, to contact specialists who will conduct an examination, make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment.
When visiting a doctor, you need to talk in detail about the headache attack, focusing on the duration and nature of the pain.
But what to do when an attack takes you by surprise, your blood pressure is normal, but your head hurts, and calling a specialist is impossible?
- The patient needs to lie down to rest and try to sleep. Adequate sleep in comfortable conditions can bring relief.
- If you can’t sleep, go out into the fresh air, into the shade, take a painkiller, and observe its effect.
- Acupuncture techniques will ease the condition. Press the painful area with one finger for 20 seconds, then massage it clockwise in a circular motion.
If the pain does not go away within a few hours, qualified assistance from a specialist is needed. But there are a number of cases when you should sound the alarm and immediately contact your family doctor, therapist, or call an ambulance.
If you complain of a headache, urgent medical attention is needed if:
- a person has a traumatic brain injury, regardless of its severity;
- severe vomiting and nausea for 3 days;
- the inflammatory process against the background of an infectious disease is accompanied by intoxication and fever;
- there is a suspicion of a brain abscess;
- symptoms of inflammation of the trigeminal nerve appeared;
- after a tick bite, the bite site is severely inflamed and the body temperature rises;
- a person experiences constant drowsiness or suffers from prolonged insomnia;
- the pain does not go away after taking antispasmodics and painkillers, but increases, and the health condition worsens;
- an increase in temperature is observed in the absence of signs of damage to the body by a respiratory viral infection (no sore throat, runny nose).
If contacted in a timely manner, a specialist will help quickly relieve pain and prescribe the necessary treatment.
Treatment
Treatment of heaviness in the head is only possible if it is known what caused it.
| Disease | How to treat |
| Osteochondrosis |
|
| Excessive tension in facial muscles |
|
| Violation of venous outflow |
|
| Neurasthenia |
|
In the case of physical diseases, therapy is always aimed at restoring normal cerebral circulation. For this purpose, special medications (including vitamins), manual therapy and osteopathy are used.
During the period of treatment, physical activity should be limited. The patient is also strongly discouraged from smoking and drinking alcohol.
If initially the problem lay in mental ill-being, then a psychotherapist is involved in the treatment. The specialist works with the patient’s emotions, prescribes pills that can smooth out the effects of prolonged lack of sleep and restore appetite.
Prevention
People suffering from headaches and wanting to forget about this problem need to follow simple rules:
- provide adequate rest to recuperate after a working day;
- exclude from the menu products that are harmful to health and contain E261;
- exercise in the gym without fanaticism, correctly distributing the load on all muscle groups;
- If you have a hereditary predisposition to migraine, consult a doctor and promptly stop the attack with effective medications.
A balanced diet, a healthy lifestyle, avoiding stressful situations, and playing sports are the best preventive remedies for headaches.
siteboss
General practitioner with 10+ years of experience. Graduated from Bukovina State Medical University in 2008 with a degree in general medicine.
Nausea at different pressures
Almost every person in a situation where a headache and nausea occurs first of all measures blood pressure, and only after that makes a decision on the use of any medications or an urgent call for an ambulance.
Provoking factors for blood pressure surges are:
- stress,
- obesity,
- alcohol,
- nicotine,
- drugs,
- age over 65 years.
If blood pressure levels are reduced for a long time, then headaches and nausea may occur due to pathologies of the urinary system arising from water retention in the body.
What causes nausea when blood pressure drops?
Nausea with low blood pressure manifests itself due to a decrease in vital signs of the whole body; nausea is also accompanied by increased sweating, sometimes vomiting, and headache, even temporary loss of consciousness.
The causes of nausea when blood pressure levels drop are:
- Meteosensitivity,
- The use of certain medications
- Sun and heatstroke (temperature increases),
- Pathologies of cerebral circulation,
- Migraine.
Proper nutrition to normalize blood pressure
To prevent blood pressure, accompanied by headaches and nausea, from bothering you, it is worth reviewing your daily diet, since the condition of the entire body and blood pressure levels largely depend on the foods consumed.
The basic nutritional rules are:
- eliminate nicotine and drugs, minimize alcoholic beverages;
- It is better to avoid consuming excess salt, sugar and foods with trans fats;
- at least 40% of the diet should be vegetables, fruits and berries, half of them raw;
- drink less caffeinated drinks;
- eat small portions, but often;
- do not eat later than 2 hours before bedtime.
Unfortunately, no one is immune from surges in blood pressure, which are accompanied by severe headaches, nausea, and dizziness, which are extremely difficult to cope with without medical help. Also, contacting a therapist or neurologist is necessary for regular headaches and dizziness that do not depend on blood pressure.
In any case, if a person develops alarming symptoms for no apparent reason, they cannot be treated on their own; it is necessary to contact a specialist, since sometimes such patients do not even need drug treatment, sometimes it is enough to change their usual lifestyle.
How to distinguish true dizziness from false?
At first glance, it may seem that dizziness cannot be confused with anything else. In fact, only the state is called true when a person feels the rotation of objects or himself, and in this case the causes of dizziness at normal pressure lie in the pathology of the vestibular apparatus. But very often, patients, complaining of feeling dizzy, talk about symptoms indicating false dizziness. These symptoms include:
- nausea, vomiting;
- darkening of the eyes, especially when changing position;
- weakness;
- staggering when walking.
Despite the fact that this condition does not indicate true dizziness, it brings significant discomfort, and the severity of symptoms, depending on individual characteristics, can be small or have a high degree. Such symptoms warn that the cause of dizziness is not a dysfunction of the vestibular apparatus, but other diseases. In any case, if this condition lasts for a very long time or recurs repeatedly over a couple of weeks, it is important to visit a doctor to find out the reasons.
