• Question: what happens in your head when you get a headache?

    Asked by Luwilcyson to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 18 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Good question. It depends on what causes the headache. With a tumour for example, you have something physical pressing against your brain. With a migraine however, blood vessels in your brain become enlarged and stimulate chemical to be emitted which leads to inflammation – which leads to pain.

    • Photo: Anna Scaife

      Anna Scaife answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      Pressure or chemical reactions are the cause of headaches generally… these can happen in many different ways though. Many of the tablets you take to cure headaches (like aspirin for example) are anti-inflammatories and they can relieve the pressure by reducing the inflammation (swelling) that causes it. Some other drugs also have properties that stop you feeling the pain without treating the cause.

      As Stefan says, migraines are also a chemical pain source rather than a pressure, which is why normal anti-inflammatories don’t help much with those types of headache.

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