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What are headaches and Migraines?

Headaches happen when a trigger causes the muscles in the head to go into spasm. The blood vessels around the muscles over-constrict then compensate by dilating, this causes nerve ending to respond by sending pain messages to the brain.

Migraine is a serve form a of headache that can last from a few hours to a few days. Migraines occur when blood vessels around the brain constrict and then dilate, this causes the nerve fibres to send pain messages to the brain.

Why does Photophobia cause headaches and migraines?

Bright and uncomfortable light is the trigger for headaches and migraines associated with photophobia.

Its is not fully understood how exactly bright and uncomfortable light cause headaches and migraines, however, people with photophobia tend to first experience pain around the eyes and on the forehead then depending on intensity it works its way down the side of the head. This may be caused by the muscles around the eyes going into spasm as a result of too much squinting.

Another reason may be that a large amount of the brains power is dedicated to using visual information. When this information is disturbed by too much stray light, the brain may not know how to deal with it, causing stress.

What treatment is available?

The first step is to treat the cause, this will depend upon the cause of the photophobia and then on the methods used to prevent too much light entering the eyes. If after this you still get headaches and migraines the first thing to do is, as soon as posible, rest in a darkened room. this will avoid the trigger and give your head time to recover. After that there are number of treatments you can try.

Medication

Medication can be, over the counter painkillers, prescribed medication or herbal remedies. The medication will act by either reducing inflamation or relaxing muscles. It should be taken as recommended on the medication leaflet or by the doctor and you should always check with your doctor before taking medication, particularly it you are taking other drugs, have another health issue or are pregnant.

Herbal remedies can be very helpful, but they take longer to work. Some herbal remedies to try are feverfew tea, lavender tea and capsacin powder or tablets. Capsacin is found in cayenne pepper and chilli pepper, this causes a hot feeling in the mouth by activating C-fibres then deactivating them stopping pain messages reach the brain.

Medication is best used as a short-term solution or to treat occassional headaches and migraines. Long-term treatment should aim to avoid migraine occuring altogether.

Initially you should keep a pain diary, note down, what you eat and drink and activities to you do, as well as when you get a headache or migraine, how it feels and how it progresses. From this you may find that other triggers, such as stress or diet, affect when you get headaches and migraine and how bad they are.

Once you have identified some areas to work on you may want to make some lifestyle changes. eating a well balanced diet, getting a good nights sleep, taking regular exercise, reducing alcohol intake and giving up smoking, will improve your well-being, your health as well as your state of mind. feeling healthy and good about ourselves, reduces the risk of pain and enables our body to deal with it more effectively.

Learning relaxation techniques may help to avoid stress and help relax the muscles around the eyes. There are a number of techniques that can be used, including, relaxation books and tapes, massage and relaxation theropies, such as, aromatheropy, metamorphic technique, cranial osteopathy, yoga T'ai chi and acupressure.

Bathing in comfortably hot water is a particularly good way to relax. Help may come from using aromatheropy oils such as 3 drops of Lavender oil, and/or massaging the head while washing your hair. Another bathing technique is to have a hot water shower while massaging the head.

Massaging the head is a good way to relax the muscles which cause headaches and migraines. Another head massage technique is to brushing your hair with a medium stiff brush in a rythmic pattern, for example, starting from the left brush down the side of the head then move slightly to the right and repeat, and so on until on the right side of the head then repeat.

Go back to photophobia

References

Readers' Digest, Heath & Healing the Natural Way - Managing Pain (The Raeders' Digest Association Limited, London, 1997)