Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Cephalalgia tensionis
Like a band around the head — the commonest headache of all, and rarely a sign of danger.
Also known as: tension headache
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Tension headache is the most common headache there is and describes itself almost always the same way: dull, pressing, on both sides, like a band that is too tight around the head. It does not pulse, does not get worse with movement, and nausea or dislike of light do not belong to it — exactly what distinguishes it from migraine. You can keep working with it, which makes it treacherous: it gets endured instead of placed. Usually several things are involved at once — tense neck and shoulder muscles, posture at the screen, little sleep, drinking too little, stress, sometimes the chewing muscles with night-time grinding. Two points deserve special attention. First: anyone taking painkillers on more than ten to fifteen days a month can develop a headache that comes from the medicine itself — this is common and rarely suspected. Second: a headache that is new and different from usual, that comes with fever, a stiff neck, weakness or visual disturbance, or starts abruptly, does not belong here but should be assessed quickly.
Pressure and touch lower muscle tension for hours to days. Combined with movement, breaks and the height of the screen, that lasts longer than the session itself.
A pressing headache at the temples, strongest in the morning, often comes from grinding at night or teeth pressed together during the day. Then the jaw is the lever, not the head.
Ten days a month is the line beyond which the medicine itself can become the trigger.
Two minutes twice a day, plus a screen at eye level.
Skipped meals and too little water are underrated triggers.
Regular, calm walking or cycling measurably lowers the frequency.
Apply diluted peppermint oil thinly to temples and neck, repeat after an hour if needed. Keep away from the eyes.
Screen away, a large glass of water, 20 minutes in a quiet, darkened room; a cool cloth on the forehead or neck.
Every 30 to 45 minutes stand up, walk for two minutes or change position clearly.
It lasts thirty minutes to seven days, presses on both sides like a band and is not made worse by movement — that is what sets it apart from migraine. About eighty out of a hundred people know it. From fifteen days a month over three months it counts as chronic. Painkillers on more than ten to fifteen days a month create, over weeks to months, a lasting headache of their own, which only goes after stopping.
Ibuprofen and paracetamol work for the single episode — but on more than ten to fifteen days a month they create, over weeks, a lasting headache of their own, and in tension headache that is the most common path into the chronic form. For prevention, low-dose amitriptyline in the evening works; it needs four to eight weeks and does not act through mood. Endurance movement three times a week over twelve weeks lowers the frequency measurably.
Everyday factors dominate.
Like a band around the head — not pulsing.
Climbing stairs does not intensify it; with migraine that would differ.
Tender points at the back of the head and in the shoulders.
The daily course shows the trigger better than any investigation.
From ten to fifteen intake days a month, a pattern of its own and readily reversed.
No value explains this headache. An iron shortage is among the companions that lower resilience and can be corrected.
An underactive thyroid causes a dull pressure in the head, tiredness and tension all at once.
No value explains the pain itself. This one looks for the rare but important exception: an inflammation or infection behind the complaints.
The headache often comes after the strain, not during — Friday evening, on holiday, after the exam. The fall in tension is a trigger in its own right; that explains why rest can strengthen it first.
Too little sleep measurably lowers the pain threshold — and headache disturbs sleep. A regular rhythm is one of the few measures that works and costs nothing.
Tension headache does not follow the cycle — that is exactly where it differs from migraine. Anyone who has both forms only sees it in the calendar.
Low sugar/thirst trigger.
Oil on the temples is best studied in this form — comparable to simple painkillers.
If the neck is the source, physiotherapy works on the cause rather than the symptom.
Diluted on temples and neck it is the best-studied oil for this headache form — not in small children.
Between the eyebrows — the calming point, also for frontal headache.
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