HEADACHES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1938, Page 5

HEADACHES

CAUSES AND TREATMENT The causes of headache are many. Almost any disease in which there is a poison circulating in the blood can cause headache. In addition, eyestrain, diseases of the nose and ear, and other local diseases cause varied and serious headache. Headaches come on at different times of the day or night, according to their cause, and the times at which they occur often gives a clue as to the underlying cause. For example, if headache follows reading, sewing, a visit to the pictures, or exposure to bright glare, the eyes should be the first thing to be examined. Most of us have slight errors in the curves of the lenses of our eye. If this deformity is slight, it is balanced by the use of the muscles in the eye itself. This puts a constant strain on the muscles, and the strain is the cause of headache. In more severe cases of short or long sight, these muscles cannot overcome the error,'-and do not come into play. This explains why very defective eyesight is not usually accompanied by headache.

It is foolish to allow vanity in the form of unwillingness to wear glasses to handicap efficiency, and it is still more wrong to allow a case of erroi of sight in a child to remain uncorrected. Such a child can never get a real idea of its surroundings. It is considered backward at school, and its life is unhappy. The change in disposition and apparent intelligence that follow the use of proper glasses in such cases is scarcely credible. It is a mistake to suppose that headaches caused by eyes should be felt close to or behind the eyes. They are frequently felt at the back of the head, and may even be on the top of the skull. Headaches caused by nose disease are usually, but not always, accompanied by some sign of catarrh. The pain is mostly in the forehead, and is usually more on one side. Another local cause of headache is migraine or tic doloheux. Both of these are severe neuralgia of the nerves of the head and face. Migraine should be suspected when the attacks occur at intervals and are accompanied by symptoms of biliousness. Tic doloheux can be one of the most painful of the diseases that can be experienced.