Headaches are not only painful, but severe headaches can be extremely disabling, causing people to miss work, school, and important social events. What's more, headache disorders affect approximately 40% of the global population.
Learning about the causes, symptoms, and treatments of different types of headaches, like a headache on top of the head, will help you understand more about headaches and find a custom treatment plan that works for you.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about a headache on top of the head, including symptoms, causes, and effective treatments.
Overview of a Headache on Top of the Head
Having top of the head pain is exactly what it sounds like, localized pain at the top of the head. In most cases, pain in this area is not usually a symptom of an underlying health condition.
The tricky thing about this type of headache pain is that it can be the result of different types of headaches with different types of causes.
Common Causes and Symptoms
Your next step is learning about various types of headaches and how they can cause you to feel pain on the top of your head. These causes and symptoms include:
Tension Headaches
One of the most common headache causes is tension-type headaches, impacting over 78% of the adult population in the US.
Tension headaches feel like constant aching or pressure around the top of the hand. It often feels like there is a tight band wrapped around your head.
It's also common to feel neck pain, pain in the temples, and the back of your thread. Typically this pain is dull and you won't experience throbbing sensations like you would with a migraine.
Although muscular tension and stress play a role in these headaches, there is still not a clear answer as to why people get them.
Tension headaches usually last between four and six hours and can occur multiple times a month.
Migraines
A migraine is a neurological condition resulting in severe and debilitating headaches, which can occur at the top of your head. In other cases, migraines can also travel to the back of the neck, or to one side of the head.
Migraines aren't as common as tension headaches but occur often in people between 18 and 44. Most people with migraines experience recurrent episodes that typically last from 4 to 72 hours. Migraines often result from triggers like menstruation, weather changes, alcohol, and chocolate.
Symptoms of migraine headaches include severe throbbing pain as well as:
- Sound sensitivity
- Light sensitivity
- Nausea and vomiting
- Visual disturbances or aura
Some people develop chronic migraines that last for many years.
Chronic Headaches
Chronic headaches can affect the top of your head, lasting at least 15 days a month. The term chronic headaches is a general term that describes people who have chronic headaches due to a variety of causes, like tension headaches or migraines.
You can also experience chronic headaches with pain in the back of the head, which can impact your eyes. In addition, some people experience chronic cluster headaches that can occur at the top or sides of the head. These clusters are often followed by long, headache-free periods.
Common chronic headache symptoms include dull aching symptoms that worsen with movement and jolts of pain.
Cluster Headaches
Cluster headaches are headaches that occur in groups, most often appearing behind the eye or on the side of the head. You can also experience cluster headaches on the top of your head.
Cluster headaches tend to occur suddenly along with a runny nose and watery eyes. You'll also usually experience severe pain since these headaches may impact the trigeminal nerve, which is a nerve that's responsible for touch, pain, and temperature sensations around your face.
Sometimes cluster headaches can change how well the trigeminal nerve functions, and attacks can last from weeks to months. During an attack, you'll likely experience these headaches five to eight times a day, making it difficult to rest.
Sinus Headaches
While sinus headaches aren't officially a type of headache, they can cause inflammation and pain on the top and sides of the head. However, sinus and migraine headaches are easily confused since the symptoms can often overlap.
Like migraine headaches, sinus headache pain feels worse with bending forward. You'll also experience symptoms like facial pressure, clear nasal discharge, fatigue, and throbbing pain. Some people also feel pain around their upper teeth and cheeks and have dull pain behind their eyes.
Sinus headaches aren't always obvious either since congestion is often deep inside the sinus cavities.
In most cases, sinus infections will resolve on their own. However, if you have a sinus-type headache that lasts over a week, you should see your doctor for treatment.
Other Causes
Sometimes a headache on top of the head can be due to other health conditions, like high blood pressure. Studies have shown that some people with severe high blood pressure may develop headaches.
However, most of these headaches occur on the sides of the head but can impact the top of the head. If your blood pressure is high enough to cause a hypertensive emergency, you'll usually experience other symptoms like nosebleeds, anxiety, and shortness of breath.
Headaches due to high blood pressure resolve quickly once the correct medications are given to reduce blood pressure.
Treatment for Top of the Head Pain
Treatment for top-of-the-head pain begins with taking steps at home to ease the pain. Since this type of headache pain has numerous causes, it's best to take a step-by-step approach to tackle the pain.
The most effective treatments to try include:
Home Treatments
First things first, home treatments can be very effective, so you don't want to overlook this part of your treatment.
Whether you have a tension headache or a migraine, going to a dark room to rest is your first step. Migraines during the summer are often triggered by bright sunlight, heat, humidity, and thirst. Even barometric changes that occur with changing weather patterns can trigger severe headaches. So, taking steps to hydrate and rest in a cool space will often alleviate your head pain, regardless of the type of headache you have.
You'll also want to stay hydrated since dehydration can cause your headache to get worse. Drinking water is fine, but if you've been exercising or spending time out in the heat, you may want to consider drinking something with electrolytes, like Gatorade.
Hot and cold therapy is also effective in relieving headache pain by reducing the intensity of pain you feel. All you have to do is use a washcloth or an ice or heat pack. A cold compress can numb the area and reduce inflammation, which is especially helpful for migraines or sinus congestion. Hot compresses increase blood flow and relieve muscle spasms.
Lifestyle Changes
If you're getting frequent headaches on top of the head, you should also look at making some lifestyle changes. Take the time to evaluate your life in general. Are you getting enough sleep? Exercising regularly and eating well?
Taking an honest inventory is a huge step toward feeling better. If you find you're not sleeping well or eating as healthily as you could, then begin making small changes by maintaining a consistent routine during the day.
You can start by sticking to a regular sleep schedule and going to bed around the same time every night. You can also take other steps to form a healthy sleep routine like turning off screens, having a warm bath and a snack, and reading a good book. It's best to start this at least an hour before going to bed.
In addition, your diet can have an impact on head pain and inflammation. Chronic systemic inflammation results from inflammation that persists for months to years, and contributes to chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Foods that contribute to inflammation include:
- Red meat
- Processed meat
- Bread and pasta with white flower
- Deep fried foods
- Foods high in sugar like candy
- Sugar-sweetened drinks like soda
- Trans fats in margarine and nondairy coffee creamers
Learning more about anti-inflammatory foods and getting daily exercise can decrease your inflammation levels overall, reducing the frequency of headaches.
Massage and Other Stress Management Techniques
Don't forget that stress and muscle tension play a huge role in headache pain, specifically tension headaches. Therefore, managing the stress in your life is key to decreasing headache frequency.
First things first, it's a good idea to put some mindfulness practices in place each day. Mindfulness affects part of the brain known as the Amygdala, which is responsible for how reactive you are with your emotions. The more emotional and reactive you are to life events, the more stress you'll feel each day.
Stress activates what's known as our flight-or-flight response, which occurs when your brain perceives a threat. When this happens, hormones flood your body such as cortisol and adrenaline.
This chronic stress also activates the immune system, leading to chronic inflammation, which can increase the frequency of headaches you experience. It can also lead to chronic health conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, and insomnia.
Mindfulness allows you to become aware of whatever you're sensing and feeling in the present moment, without judging or trying to interpret it all. Mindfulness is fairly simple to do and you can use deep breathing techniques or practice taking in your surroundings as you go for a walk.
Medications and Seeing Your Doctor
Certain medications can help manage pain, tension, and inflammation. First, over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Advil work to relieve pain and inflammation. However, if you find you're taking the medication more than two to three days a week, you should see your doctor for more headache relief tips.
Frequent headaches require a solid treatment plan, so your doctor will need to do a physical exam to assess your symptoms. From there, your doctor will form a custom treatment plan to address your particular headache symptoms.
For example, if you have chronic migraines, you may benefit from preventative migraine medications like Aimovig.
Your doctor may also suggest other types of medications or lifestyle changes to help you achieve a better balance.
Natural Relief Solutions Like MiGuard
MiGuard is a migraine and headache relief supplement that helps stop migraines even before they can begin. This supplement has core vitamins, minerals, and herbal extracts like magnesium, coenzyme Q10, ginger, and alpha-lipoic acid.
Research shows that certain vitamins and minerals like magnesium and coenzyme Q10 can be very effective in reducing the frequency of migraines people have overall.
Evidence suggests that migraines result from a mitochondrial energy deficiency in the brain and coenzyme Q10 helps sustain mitochondrial energy stores. Also, magnesium is an essential mineral in your body and has strong anti-inflammatory properties.
In addition, natural antioxidants like alpha-lipoic acid are known to be effective in reducing inflammation, migraine severity, and improving mood status in women. Antioxidants are specific molecules that help your body fight off free radicals, which are unstable atoms that can damage cells. This cellular damage leads to illnesses like cancer and heart disease and can accelerate the aging process.
Ginger also has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and can help alleviate migraine symptoms like nausea and vomiting.
You just need to take two capsules daily with meals and most people notice improvements within three to four weeks of daily use.
Find the Headache Relief You Need Today
Now that you understand more about a headache on top of the head, you'll be able to manage your symptoms and treatments more effectively.
To find the headache relief you need, it's time to turn to MiGuard for natural and nutritional headache supplements that can reduce pain and improve your life. Dr. Benjamin Taimoorazy, a board-certified anesthesiologist and renowned headache and pain management specialist, created MiGuard after a full decade of research.
We understand headaches and how much they can impact your life. We make high-quality products with natural ingredients straight from an FDA-registered facility in the US.
Make sure to visit us online today to check out our product selection and find the relief that you need!