What is causing my headaches?

King’s College Consultant Neurologist, Dr Eli Silber, explains that getting an expert diagnosis for your headaches is important “to exclude significant disease”. It is a perfectly human reaction for some of us to consider the worst, and the obvious conclusion that a throbbing head will take us to is, “I’ve got a brain tumour”.

Headache expert Dr Silber explains that although the key features of intracranial hypertension caused by tumours are headaches, these are normally characterised by being worse at night or accompanied by personality or cognitive change, weakness or unsteadiness. However, in the gloom of a headache these symptoms are naturally easily confused, especially if associated with migraine-related ‘aura’. New onset headaches in the elderly must also be taken seriously.

His article goes on to describe the other symptoms related to different types of migraines and headache. There is much that can be done to help people who suffer from headaches and this article is a good starting point for anyone requiring initial authoritative information and / or access to an accurate diagnosis and expert care.

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