Diabetes headache
Headache in diabetes is due to brain artery dilation when sugar content in the blood gets too low. This occurs after either too much insulin has been given to the diabetic patient, or not enough sugar-type food has been eaten to balance the insulin. This headache, appearing in diabetic people, quickly disappears after eating sugary foods.
Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the artery) headache
Headaches, which begin and are prevalent after sixty years, are most often due to arteriosclerosis damage of the brain blood vessels. This headache is not predictable in location, duration, or time of occurrence, but frequently appears if the head and neck are turned and twisted in certain ways. This is because twisting of the neck also twists blood vessels to the brain, which have already been narrowed by hardening of the arteries. A short rest relief from excitement or exceptional tension most often quickly produces relief from arteriosclerotic headaches.
Tension headaches
Tension headache comprises about one-third of all headaches. In this type of headache, pain does not come from inside the head, but is due to the steady contracture of muscles in the neck and scalp around the head.
Pain from these unrelaxed muscles, as in pain from blood vessels, has its beginning in mental activity of an unwelcome source. Fear, anxiety or tension, results in continual contracture of muscles, as occurs in a sprinter waiting for the starting gun that never goes off. The continual contraction becomes painful in the neck, over the head and into the forehead region. Even the scalp itself may become sore to touch.
Fig. 4. Tension headache is caused by tight, tense, stretching of the scalp across the skull, due to over-tensing of scalp muscles located principally in the neck region and forehead. This is a headache in which aspirin is most effective.
Tension headache differs from migraine headache in several ways. It is not severe, does not throb, and creates a soreness of the scalp, neck and forehead. It is not a sick headache but may last for longer periods of time, perhaps even months. Occasionally, it follows a blow on the head or neck.