HEALTH & NUTRITION 健康生活資料室

My headaches started in the winter of 1997. The stress of

real-estate worries, a pending relocation, a career change

and a very ill child all converged, and the tension turned

into head pain. Never one to get headaches, I began to have

them daily, an unwelcome guest arriving every day before

noon and staying until after dinner.

At first I tried an extra cup of tea, then coffee, then

aspirin, then two, four, six ibuprofen. But the headaches

persisted for months. After I had an MRI to rule out a

tumor, my internist told me I had tension headaches. She

prescribed physical therapy to relax my neck muscles, and more ibuprofen.

I used to have little patience for people who let minor

physical ailments hold them back. Now I was one of them.

I became a crabby woman who snapped at her kids, who could

barely tolerate social events and who looked forward to

going to bed and turning out the lights. But although I

temporarily lost my zest for life, I didn't lose my

determination to rid myself of this demon in my head.

I saw a physical therapist, a massage therapist, a

chiropractor and, finally, a neurologist who specializes

in headaches. I read books and contacted the National

Headache Foundation (the Web site is headaches.org). I

tried changing my diet -- eliminating all sugar, caffeine

and alcohol. I tried stretching, aromatherapy, prescription

and nonprescription medications, and all the recommended

vitamins. While no one specialist, resource or pill solved

the problem, I took a bit of knowledge away from everything

I tried until I found what worked for me. Here's what I learned.

Get Informed Most tension headaches are episodic. They may flare up

after an argument with your boss or when you're studying

for an exam. They can last from one hour to several days,

but they don't occur regularly.

However, for 10 million Americans, mostly women, the pain

comes daily or almost daily. They have what doctors call

chronic tension headaches, a term I came to know well.

Because there's no one cause for chronic tension headaches,

there's no one cure. Sometimes you need a combination of

several remedies; you have to crack your own code to find

your causes and solutions. But you can rid yourself of

chronic tension headaches if you get the right help.

If you have more than occasional discomfort, you should

see a headache specialist. Headaches may be a symptom of

another problem, such as vision, jaw or sinus trouble,

arthritis or a pinched nerve in the neck. Far more rare

are headaches caused by serious conditions, such as brain

tumors or aneurysms. However, they need to be ruled out.

From there, a good specialist can determine whether you

have migraine-cluster or tension headaches.

Get a Grip on the Pain

Tension headaches are muscular, caused by contractions of

the scalp and neck muscles. The pain is non-throbbing and