Pain in the temples

Neurologists, when conducting an appointment, most often encounter complaints of pain in the temples. They occur in 80% of patients worldwide who seek advice. Moreover, not all people who complain of pain in the temples are officially registered. Therefore, the real number of patients who suffer from pain in the temples is unknown to doctors, since they prefer to treat themselves. What are the causes of pain in the temples and how to avoid them?

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What causes pain in the temples?

When a person has a headache, they may temporarily lose the ability to work – the pain can be so severe. According to WHO, headaches in the temples are among the top twenty diseases that disable a person from working.

The head in the temples can hurt with 45 diseases. A person may not even know about them, so it is important to get examined if you have a headache.

First of all, you need to check whether the headache in the temple area is related to an injury or changes in blood pressure. If not, but the pain in the temples bothers you from time to time, the cause may be muscle strain or migraine, which many people also suffer from.

Causes of pain in the temples

Pain in the temples can occur due to impaired blood circulation in the brain, as well as improper nervous regulation in the vessels of the brain. When the carotid artery (or one of its branches) spasms, blood flow can be disrupted, and then the temples hurt. From spasms of the vessels, the nerve endings are irritated, and since they are located on the walls of the vessels, the vessels themselves sometimes narrow, sometimes expand, and pain occurs in the temples.

Pain in the temples can torment a person due to a violation of the tone of the vessels of the arteries or veins.

If a person is still young, he may have headaches in the temples due to dysfunction of the autonomic system, as well as increased intracranial pressure.

When a person is over 30, he may have blood pressure surges, primarily increased pressure, as well as manifestations of atherosclerosis. The causes of such an unpleasant condition may be overloads - both physical and mental, as well as weather changes. The nature of the pain may be pressing, pulsating and concentrated in the temples or the back of the head.

Headaches localized in the temporal part of the head can occur due to various types of infections (flu, colds, sore throats, otitis, etc.). The cause of headaches that are concentrated in the temples can be alcohol and other poisoning (in particular, when in painted rooms).

Headaches can also be caused by psychogenic pains. This type of pain is aching, it can change location - appear in the temples, then in the back of the head, then bother in the forehead. The pains are accompanied by other conditions - discomfort, irritability, poor sleep, a person quickly becomes tired, attention is scattered, a person complains of poor memory.

Headaches concentrated in the temples can be caused by hormonal imbalances, such as hormonal imbalances or hormonal storms during puberty (especially in girls during their first period), as well as during menopause in women over 45.

Temporal arteritis can also be the cause of headaches. This is a disease caused by inflammation of the temporal arteries (their walls). It is quite rare, but is accompanied by severe pulsating pain in the temple area.

Pain in the temple area can also be caused by traumatic brain injuries, which disrupt the functions of the nerves of the back and brain.

The cause of headaches and especially pain in the temples can be deformations and disorders of the temporomandibular joint. With this disorder, the head can hurt in the area of the back of the head, temples and radiate to the shoulder blades or shoulders.

This pathology can be recognized by the fact that a person often clenches his teeth, grinds them and complains of headaches. Pathology of the jaw and temporomandibular joint can cause other disorders - for example, pain in the muscles of the shoulders and back. Pain can also be felt in the neck or forehead.

Pain can bother a person very much, and the doctor may have difficulty with diagnosis. Therefore, with such pain, additional examination is needed.

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What foods cause pain in the temples

These are, first of all, products with food additives containing sodium glutamate (this is a flavor additive). Research shows that sodium glutamate can provoke headaches in more than 20% of people worldwide. As soon as a person eats something containing sodium glutamate, he or she may start to have a headache in 30-40 minutes. Moreover, this unpleasant effect concerns both drinks and products.

Monosodium glutamate is found in abundance in noodles with fillers, concentrated soups, meat, canned goods, spices, seasonings and any other fast food products. Headaches can also occur after eating hot dogs, since in most cases they are oversaturated with harmful nitrites.

Additional symptoms of excess sodium glutamate and its harmful effects on the body include increased sweating, shortness of breath, muscle tension in the face and neck, pulsating headaches localized in the temples and forehead, as well as aching pain in the neck, shoulder blades, and shoulders.

List of foods with nitrites

• Hamburgers
• Hot dogs
• Canned goods of any kind (meat and fish)
• Salted meat
• Sausages
• Bacon and dishes made from it
• Cold and hot smoked fish
• Any fast food products (porridge, soups)

Chocolate as a headache trigger

It's very strange, but chocolate - a product that is positioned as "happiness food" - can provoke pain in the temples. Why? Research shows that chocolate can be the culprit of hypoglycemia due to the large amount of sugar in it.

Beans also provoke a hypoglycemic effect. In addition, chocolate contains caffeine, which can increase the risk of developing migraines.

Phenylethylamine in chocolate can cause narrowing of the blood vessels in the brain, which causes throbbing pain in the temples. Therefore, chocolate should be taken in doses, and if a person has a headache, it should be completely abandoned until the headaches go away.

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Causes of migraine

Translated from Greek, migraine is hemicrania, with it half of the head hurts, and the area of the temples and forehead bothers the most. The nature of the pain during migraine is pulsating, reminiscent of attacks that sometimes weaken, sometimes intensify. In addition to pain, migraine can be accompanied by a strong reaction to light, noise, a person may have nausea, vomiting.

Risk groups for migraine diseases are people of a fairly wide age range - 25-45 years. Migraine can bother at any age. Migraine is accompanied by numbness of the legs or arms, tingling, depressive states or - the other extreme - aggression or irritability. These symptoms in migraine are called aura.

Why is a headache dangerous?

It can be accompanied by pain in the muscles of the back, neck, shoulders, even the face can hurt due to tension headaches. The reasons for such pain are an uncomfortable and constant posture, which is most often found in office workers.

If a person stays in the same position for a long time, for example, when typing at a computer, his muscles - neck, back and shoulders - become overstrained. Blood flow slows down, oxygen and nutrients do not enter the blood as well, and pain occurs not only in these parts of the body, but also in the temples, because the circulatory system is one.

In addition to the fact that muscle strain causes weakened blood circulation, the result of this condition can also be the production of histamines - substances that provoke inflammation of nerve endings.

The peculiarity of headache is that even after eliminating irritating factors (noise, strong light, muscle strain) the head does not stop hurting immediately. The pain continues for several hours, and sometimes does not go away even during the day.

How long can you tolerate a headache?

Headaches should not be tolerated - it is necessary to check the pressure and consult a doctor for examination. As a rule, antispasmodics such as no-shpa or spazmalgon or other drugs help.

Since headaches prevent a person from working fully, they need to be treated in the early stages to avoid worsening the condition.

Tension headache

Overexertion – mental or physical – can also be the cause of pain in the temples. As soon as a person has sat at the computer for a long time, for example, preparing a report or doing other intense mental work, he may develop a tension headache, which is often localized in the temples and frontal area.

The nature of the pain is aching, constant, and does not go away. It may feel as if the head is being squeezed by a tight iron hoop.

How to differentiate tension headache from other types of pain? With tension headache, the head hurts equally on both sides, and with migraine - on one side.

Why is self-medication for pain in the temples dangerous?

When a person does not consult a doctor and continues to suffer from pain in the temples, he may not know about serious diseases that are signaled by the temples. If a person, wanting to dull the pain, begins to take painkillers or antispasmodics without a doctor's recommendation, they can harm the body.

Uncontrolled use of medications may not eliminate the cause of the disease, but provoke the risk of developing diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidneys and other vital organs. If a person, trying to fight pain in the temples, takes large doses of medications, the immune system can react aggressively to this and the person develops an allergy.

What to do if you have a headache in your temples?

It depends on the cause of the headache. If it is a migraine, then getting rid of the headache, alas, will be very difficult - the migraine can last for several days or even weeks. In addition, with a migraine, it is very difficult to calculate the time of the next attack. But you need to know that the pain in most cases comes suddenly, so you should always have painkillers and a phone number to call an ambulance on hand.

If the cause of the headache in the temples is muscle strain, then you can get rid of it by changing your position and ensuring blood flow to the stagnant muscles. However, the headache will not stop hurting immediately, but after some time. Therefore, you need to carry painkillers with you.

What medications are suitable for pain in the temples?

The medications that people take for pain in the temples should be non-steroidal and anti-inflammatory. These can be medications with ibuprofen in their composition. This substance helps to reduce the inflammatory process, relieve attacks of nausea, vomiting, weakness, and depression.

Medicines containing ibuprofen are much safer for the body than those containing analgin, aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs.

The drug "Imet" is very good for relieving headaches, since each tablet contains 400 mg of ibuprofen. This is a sufficient dose to relieve an attack of pain in the temples. As soon as a person with a headache takes a tablet with ibuprofen in its composition, it enters the body within a minute or two after taking the drug. This immediately relieves the attack of pain.

Ibuprofen-containing medications are very good when headaches are accompanied by stomach cramps. As a result of these cramps, food cannot pass through the esophagus, its walls stretch, and a person may suffer from pain not only in the temples, but also in the stomach. This danger should be eliminated with the help of medications containing ibuprofen already at the initial stage of an attack, so as not to wait for too much pain in the temples.