Chronic Daily Headache for 9 years

[Rochellemaree]

Hi All,

Thanks for taking the time to help out. I've been suffering from a constant daily headache for almost nine years now. The headache is a constant mild to moderate ache on both sides of the head, forehead and eyes, and base of neck. Every few days it increases in severity (enough to turn to painkillers), occasionally it forces me to rest.

In general I'm a healthy, slim, active 24 year old female. I exercise (run, dance, stretch, weights etc) almost every day and eat a healthy vegetarian diet (could do with some more protein and less sugar I suspect). No smoking, caffeine etc.

I've tried a long list of health practitioners over the years: 2 x GP's, neurologist, psychologist, naturopath, masseuse, optomertrist, Ear Nose Throat specialist, chiropractor, osteopath etc etc.

Painkillers don't seem to work, I've tried a fair few different brands. Thank goodness I can still sleep on most occasions.

The only relief I ever had from the consistent dull ache was after a particularly amazing and deep massage with a new masseuse. The feeling lasting a few minutes and felt great!! I have had many sessions since and although they offer some relief, the headache completely disappears.

Would love to know if anyone has experienced similar symptoms. I'd love some relief. I try my best to stay busy and positive but I do get really down about it.

Thanks!
Rochelle

[marileew]

Hi there, I sent you off a personal message already.. but, something I really think you should try is 400mg of magnesium a day if you haven't already tried that. The fact that the massage helps a bit sounds like the muscles have a lot to play into this and sore/cramped muscles can be helped a lot by magnesium as it is an anti-inflammatory and helps with cramping... and magnesium has been shown to be somewhat effective in actual scientific double-blind trials in reducing headaches, so it's not just some old wives tale... and it the clinical data (real life results) is even better than the double-blind trials (not so scientific... but... i dunno... seems to work for people).

Before taking any sort of new supplement, please ask your doctor or pharmacist to make sure that it is safe for you and won't mix badly with any other medications you are on or mix badly with any other medical conditions you may have.

Magnesium may cause some stomach upset at such high doses. If you find that you experience any stomach upset... then just work your way up to 400mg a day slowly... start at 100mg a day for a week, and then 200mg for a week, etc. until you get up to 400mg a week.

Let us know if you go ahead and try it and if it helps at all. :)

One other thing... you mention pain killers. I was wondering if you might treat this every-day headache with pain killers on a regular basis or if you just have given up with the pain killers? I ask because over-the-counter NSAIDS can actually cause rebound headaches that are described as dull chronic headaches. BUT!! If you do take over-the-counter NSAIDS to treat your headaches on a regular basis, please don't stop cold turkey because you will hurt a lot and that's not good!!! Instead, go to your doctor and explain that you think you might be experiencing rebound headaches due to over-the-counter NSAID usage and inquire if there might be a more appropriate pain killer to use or a more appropriate treatment for pain relief. In the mean time, if you do use over-the-counter NSAIDS on a daily-basis... it might be a good idea to switch to something like Tylenol, if your stomach can handle it... and only until you visit your doctor (so only for a short period of time!) to see if maybe that helps reduce the chronic headache... tylenol can ALSO cause rebound headaches though, but less-so than over-the-counter NSAIDS... unless of course you might have been taking tylenol every day for a long time instead of an NSAID, in which case it might even be a good idea to maybe take an over-the-counter NSAID instead of the tylenol once or twice prior to your doctors visit... just so you aren't taking the same pain killer daily... although, i dunno, it doesn't sound like you're doing this at all, but, when i had chronic every-day headaches i did take advil every single day to treat my headaches so i just like to warn people just in case so that no one else makes the same mistake i did because rebound headaches are really awful!! my life got sooo much better once i learned about rebound headaches and to not stick to the same over-the-counter pain killer daily and to rely more on prescription pain killers that were targeted specifically for my type of diagnosed headache than general over-the-counter pain killers that could cause rebound headaches. :)

[DrNoopurMD]

Hi,

Chronic daily headaches can occur due to pinched nerves in the neck, inflammation of blood vessels, sleep disturbances, depression, obesity, and overuse of pain medications. In many cases there is no underlying cause.
Antidepressants, beta blockers and anti-seizure medications, nerve blocks and trigger point injections are commonly prescribed.

Thanks

[Ramin Mehregan, DMD]

Dear patient,
I treat many patients with similar symptoms as you and like you they have been to all kind of medical specialties under the sun. I have a blog written on this forum in regards to headaches, please read it and the I would like you to try one more specialist, a Neuromuscular Dentist by visiting www.top3dentist.com
Your headaches could be stemming from a misaligned bite. Give it a try it is better than pain killers.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mehregan