UA-28753014-1
You’ve no doubt heard the terms tension headache, sinus headache, and migraine headache, but did you know that there are broader categories of headaches than those? Do you care? Well, you should. The broadest category helps narrow down the cause, and therefore the fix for your headache. It also helps determine whether you need a doctor vs a massage therapist.
There are 3 main categories:
This category consists of:
Some people have frequent headaches whereas others only have occasional headaches, but no matter the frequency, all primary headaches have the ability to impact your quality of life. It’s important to note that although some tension headaches can be debilitating, that doesn’t make them a migraine. It’s also important to know that you can have more than one type of headache at a time: simultaneous tension/migraine is a fairly common complaint in my practice.
The most common secondary headaches are:
That’s kind of a mouthful so let’s break it down. Cranial = head. Neur=nerve. Algia = pain. So… Cranial neuralgia means pain from one of the 12 nerves that innervate the head, face, and neck. You may have heard of the most common of these… trigeminal neuralgia. It can cause intense pain in the face.
Remember, not everyone agrees whether there are 2 or 3 categories, so cranial neuralgia headaches are often classified as secondary headaches.
In the coming weeks, I’m going to do a deeper dive into the various types of headache starting with tension headaches so stay tuned. If you have any questions about headaches, especially tension headaches, let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them in an upcoming blog post.
If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!