HEADACHES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 24

HEADACHES

A headache is a pain in the head, but not every pain in the head is a headache. A headache is a num m some duration, the source of which is inside the skull. All headaches are not due to the same physical conditions, but a large number are what are called conbe known that the brain, which virtually fills the skull, is covered bv a tough inelastic sheath ot fibrous tissue. This protective covering cannot stretch; and therefore if inore blood comes into the blood vessels of the brain at any spot than ought m perfect health to be there, a congestion Is set up under this sheath. Since this sheath cannot expand to relieve the extra pressure, the head aches; this is a congestive headache. It is the kind that is made worse bv stooping or by movement of the head or exertion of the body, Tho pain is due io pressure cn the nerves (of pain) in the sheath, and the pain the brain perceives. Jhe main substance itself has no feelings oi pain or anything else, though it is the organ of the mind, whereby ue hate “feelings” and perceive pain. There may, of course, bo sources o pressure other than congestion of blood in the brain. A person ™vv have a “growth” or ‘ tumour inside the skull, for which, in ordinary , language, there is “no room.” This increase of substance in the brain or between the biain and the sheath gives rise once inore to pressure or tension for which there is no outlet. Tn health this sheath of the brain should jilft fit the inside of the skull; but any attempt to stretch it is accompanied bv more qr less severe headnot due to increased pressure are of a totally ' and are much more difficult to exp lamExamples of these are the headach which often accompanies .decayed teeth or the headache of ‘‘cye-sttain.