Headaches

A unique informative publication, The Headache Book, by Arnold P. Friedman, M.D. and Shervert H. Frazier, Jr., M.D., has the following interesting facts about headaches:

When it comes to pain, headaches are in a class of their own.  The normal reaction to pain in any part of the body is that it hurts there.  But when there is pain in the head, YOU hurt.

Headache is the most common of all the many ailments afflicting man.  Studies suggest that as many as half the world’s population suffer from recurring headaches, and it is doubtful that more than five percent of all mankind have not experienced at least an occasional headache.

There are “morning after” headaches, chronic headaches, associative headaches, psychogenic headaches, and…the big daddy of them all, migraine headaches.  Friedman and Frazier describe migraine as “a debilitating disorder characterized mainly by excruciating headache,” and report that anywhere from 10 million to 24 million Americans, of all ages, suffer from it.

The authors describe in detail the various headaches, how their pain differs, and the various cures and prevention therapy available, such as exercise, drugs, acupuncture and biofeedback.  They distinguish between the actual cause of a headache and a contributing factor that may trigger the headache.

The last chapter, Alarm-Signal Headaches, will be of particular interest to those readers who are concerned that their own headaches may be a symptom of more serious disorders, such as blood clots, tumors, temporal arthritis and others.

Perhaps the greatest value The Headache Book renders is that it will help the chronic headache sufferer to understand what is happening inside his own head.  And it should be a comfort too, to know that flashes of light or sparkling stars are not necessarily signs of madness, or that numbness and paralysis can be something other than a stroke’s permanent effects.

Friedman was a Clinical Professor of Neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and Frazier, the Director of The Shervert H. Frazier Research Institute at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

Executive Neck Extension Exercise.  Place both hands behind your head with your fingers laced together.  Attempt to push your head backward as you resist with your hands.  Resist at three positions, a complete neck flexion, with the head straight, and with the neck in complete extension.  Resist for 6 seconds.  Do this exercise with half resistance for the first two weeks, and three quarters resistance for the next week.