• Question: Why do you get headaches? :)

    Asked by betkai to Alexander, Josh, Serena, Simone, Stuart on 20 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by rose8778.
    • Photo: Stuart Archer

      Stuart Archer answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      That’s a good question! There are actually over 200 different types of headaches that have been identified by doctors. The brain itself doesn’t have any pain receptors in it, so the pain you feel is actually caused by disturbances in the pain receptors surrounding the brain in the membranes (thin layers of body tissue) inside your skull, as well as parts of your neck and spine.

      There are many many many different reasons why you might get headaches – some of the most common causes include ‘tension’ headaches (a result of stress that can make your muscles bunch up and trap nerves and increase the pressure of your blood), a lack of water (‘dehydration’ – this causes a slight shrinking of the brain putting pressure on the pain receptors) or toxins in your blood (alcohol being the most obvious…)

      Migraines are less well understood – they understand what changes happen in your body to cause them, but the reasons why these changes happen are not really know.

    • Photo: Simone Sturniolo

      Simone Sturniolo answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Stu’s answer is pretty much on the spot! But if you are asking specifically why do WE get headaches, well, for me it’s usually work-related stuff :D. Every time I stress too much over a problem during the week I am sure to get headaches in the weekend – same happens if I have a lack of sleep :D.

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