A chronic headache is a headache that occurs frequently. For a tension headache to be labelled chronic, it must appear at least 15 times a month for at least 3 months. Chronic headaches do not need to give cause for alarm, as the vast majority are not due to life threatening illnesses. To rule out that small chance though, it would be wise to get it completely checked out.
Pregnancy And Headaches
The majority of chronic headaches are caused by allergies, misalignment of the spine, medication, non life-threatening illnesses and situations such as ergonomics of a workspace or not dealing with stress effectively at work.
Allergies such as to food and pollen are most often the cause of the chronic headache, but are also the most overlooked cause for one reason or another. I had chronic headaches along with chronic non-allergic rhinitis for over twenty years. They finally stopped when I quit drinking or eating anything with cow s milk in it. I avoided cow s milk for other reasons, and was frankly quite stunned to find my headaches and constant rhinitis to have disappeared. So don't hesitate to make a visit to the allergy specialist in your quest to be headache free.
The next stop I would make would be the chiropractor s office. Misalignment of the spine from old accidents, muscle problems, congenital misalignments and bad posture are the cause of a large number of chronic headaches. Many people unfortunately think chiropractors are full of malarkey or hogwash, but having attended and graduated a medical school proves otherwise. Plus ask anyone leaving a chiropractic office and you'll find many devout patients treating their chiropractor as something akin to a miracle worker.
Chronic headaches, according to chiropractors, are generally caused by alignment problems in the neck and upper back. Muscles, tendons and nerves are all affected when bones are out of place, even if it is a slight misalignment. If something is out of place, the surrounding soft tissue must work harder and hence tighten up to try and correct the problem. Tight muscles pull surrounding soft tissue and musculature and you have a chain reaction ultimately causing a wide variety of problems including chronic headache. There are different methods of chiropractic manipulation such as those that use the body itself to put bones back into alignment, those using hands and massage, and those with tools that push the bones back into alignment. Try them all out to find the method that suits you the best.
Certain illnesses such as depression and high blood pressure are known to cause chronic headaches, plus medication for other conditions cause headaches as well. In those cases there really is no cure except to manage the pain. A chronic headache can also be caused by bad posture and bad ergonomics at a workspace. Those are easily solved and could cure many of the afternoon/late in the day headaches. To relieve work stress headaches take a short break every hour to walk around away from your workspace. Also consider writing out your thoughts every night before going to bed, as it does wonders as well.
The above information thankfully comes from theheadacheinfosite.com at the following link.