What to do if you have a headache and nausea?

Headache and nausea is not a disease, but symptoms that indicate many causes, among which there may be those that are explained by physiological changes in the body, for example, pregnancy. However, when the head hurts and nausea is intense, there are other symptoms, quite serious diseases are possible that require medical help.

As a rule, nausea is a consequence of headache. Headache can occur with the following diseases and physiological conditions: •

• Flu, viral infection;
• Allergy;
• Hypertension;
• Menstrual cycle;
• Pregnancy (toxicosis);
• Pathological diseases of the vascular system;
• Brain tumor;
• Inflammatory processes of the ear;
• Ophthalmological diseases;
• Stress, fatigue;
• Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine;
• Migraine;
• Gastrointestinal diseases;
• Intoxication - food or drug;
• Head trauma and subarachnoid hemorrhage;
• Headache and nausea associated with muscle tension (tension headache - TTH);
• Oxygen starvation;
• Hypoglycemia;
• Endocrine pathologies;
• Pain shock;
• Diseases of internal organs.

Headache and nausea - these sensations can vary in severity and duration depending on the underlying cause. In order to independently determine the nature of a headache, you need to understand what it is in principle.

A headache that causes not only nausea but also other symptoms is called cephalalgia in medical practice. Painful sensations can be localized in any area of the head, but can also spread up and down to the cervical vertebrae. Cephalgia is an irritation of many pain receptors that fill the scalp, subcutaneous tissue, tendons, and intracranial vessels - small and large. As a rule, cephalalgia is an irritation of facial receptors, not internal ones.

My head hurts and I feel sick, what can I do to help, how can I treat these symptoms?

Neurologists strongly advise that if you have headaches that last more than a day, you should immediately seek medical help, and it is even more advisable to do so after 12 hours, in cases where cephalgia and nausea are not relieved by home remedies. Also dangerous are the symptoms that accompany a headache, such as blood pressure surges and a sharp decrease. Before the doctor arrives or the ambulance arrives, you can drink strong tea with sugar and lemon for cephalgia with a decrease in pressure. If a headache appears with hypertensive symptoms, you should take an antihypertensive drug to prevent a crisis.

If your head hurts and you feel sick due to simple fatigue or a stressful situation, then the recommendations are simple. Get a good night's sleep, if your head hurts a lot - a painkiller (no-shpa, ibuprofen, spazmalgon), massage the collar zone, which you can do yourself, and eliminate sound, color, and other sensory and information stimuli. If your head hurts and you feel sick for more than two or three days, you should see a doctor, as these symptoms may be a signal of a more serious somatic problem.

Headaches accompanied by persistent nausea, in the presence of already diagnosed problems with the digestive system, are eliminated by taking medications for the treatment of the stomach or intestines. By neutralizing the initial cause, medications help relieve nausea and headaches.

It should be remembered that cephalgia with nausea can be a symptom of a health-threatening and life-threatening disease. If the unpleasant sensations are long-lasting, their intensity increases during the day and cannot be eliminated with home remedies, you need to call an ambulance so as not to miss the onset of a cerebral hemorrhage and other serious conditions.

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My head hurts and I feel sick. How is the diagnosis differentiated?

The anamnestic information includes the following components:

• How often, with what frequency do headaches and nausea occur;
• At what time of day does cephalgia and nausea appear;
• How long does the headache and nausea last – in attacks, constantly, increasing;
• Where is cephalgia localized (one-sided pain, enveloping pain, bilateral pain);
• The severity, intensity of cephalgia, nausea;
• Are there any objective reasons causing cephalgia – injuries, infections, hypertension or hypotension;
• Are there any accompanying emotional states – depression, anxiety, fears;
• There are associated sensory symptoms - fear of light, sound irritability;
• How to manage headaches and relieve nausea at home;
• Familial, hereditary diseases.

When you have a headache and nausea, you need to visit not only a neurologist, but also an ophthalmologist (ophthalmologist), otolaryngologist, possibly an orthopedist, gastroenterologist and psychiatrist, and less often a dentist.

As a rule, the standard examination complex includes computed tomography or MRI, Doppler sonography of the cerebral vessels, echoencephaloscopy (if epilepsy is suspected). An X-ray of the skull and spinal column is also needed.

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Headache and nausea: "folk" remedies

Phytotherapy and remedies commonly called folk remedies are not the main treatment measures, they only help reduce the intensity of unpleasant sensations. Among the most effective, the following can be recommended:

• A decoction of elderberries and inflorescences. Two teaspoons of the mixture are brewed in a glass of boiling water, infused for no more than 15 minutes, and drunk a quarter of a glass before meals throughout the day. The course is at least two weeks.
• St. John's wort decoction is an excellent remedy not only for headaches and nausea, but also as an anti-stress method. St. John's wort is not recommended for men, since the plant contains substances that reduce the level of male hormones. The infusion is prepared similarly to the infusion of elderberry. St. John's wort decoction should be taken for a longer period, at least 21 days.
• A long-known and proven remedy is oregano decoction. Oregano, in addition to being taken specifically to relieve headache symptoms, can be added to regular tea - black or green. The decoction is prepared as follows: a tablespoon of dry grass is poured with a liter of boiling water, infused for 45 minutes, or boiled over very low heat for 10-15 minutes. The decoction should be taken for two to three weeks, half a glass twice a day, regardless of food intake. Oregano is contraindicated for women expecting a child and those who are breastfeeding a baby.
• Tea with mint, mint decoction, small pillows - sachets with dry mint grass under the pillow - all these options will help relieve nausea. As a preventive measure for headaches, mint is not very effective, rather it causes a sedative effect. Mint should not be taken for more than a week, after a week's course you should take a break. To reduce headaches, valerian root is more effective, brewed in a proportion of 25 milligrams per half a liter of boiling water, or in the form of tablets, pharmacy tincture.

Headache and nausea are most often transient symptoms that can be prevented by maintaining a normal diet, physical activity and emotional stability. In all other alarming cases, you should not risk your health, increasing pain and persistent nausea require medical help.

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My head hurts and I feel sick. What are the etiological causes of these symptoms?

As a rule, headaches are associated with vascular etiology, pain sensations are caused by expansion (dilation) or spasm of arteries. The specificity of pain and the disease itself depends on where the arteries are located inside the skull or outside under the skin. Spasmodic intracranial vessels are usually migraine, accompanied by nausea, a change in the state of extracranial arteries is arterial hypertension and a more serious pathology - cerebrovascular, which often ends in a stroke.

Also, cephalgia, accompanied by nausea, can develop as a result of severe irritation, damage to the brain connective tissues - meninges and provoke meningitis or subarachnoid (cavity) hemorrhage.

Headache and nausea - these symptoms may appear due to changes in blood viscosity and thickness. Acute venous thrombosis (too many platelets, increased blood thickness) or, conversely, thrombocytopenia (decreased platelet count and blood thinning) may provoke painful sensations and then nausea.

Also, headache with nausea is either a precursor or a consequence of inflammation of the trigeminal and occipital nerves.

Headache with nausea is a typical symptom of the aftermath of a traumatic brain injury. Concussion (concussion) of the brain is often accompanied by remote consequences, which sometimes manifest themselves after many months. Even a mild concussion can cause delayed cephalalgia with nausea, this is called post-concussion syndrome. Signs of this syndrome are manifested in a squeezing headache, similar to a tension headache, vertigo (dizziness) and nausea are often observed.

Almost all infectious diseases are accompanied by a high temperature, in which complaints such as “headache and nausea” are not uncommon.

Various ophthalmological diseases such as myopia (nearsightedness), hypermetropia (farsightedness), glaucoma can be accompanied by headache and nausea.

Sinusitis, rhinitis, sinusitis and other nasal problems often have consequences in the form of cephalgia, which is explained primarily by oxygen starvation of the brain.

Cephalgia and nausea may have a psychogenic etiology, which has recently become common in clinical practice. Chronic headaches, periodically occurring nausea and laryngeal spasm may indicate a latent depressive state. Tension headaches, which occur due to emotional or intellectual overstrain, are also common. As a rule, the muscle tissue of the scalp is spasmed.

Any headache that does not go away during the day and is accompanied by nausea requires medical supervision. Even if you manage to relieve such symptoms on your own and with your own means, you need to find time and visit a neurologist who will conduct an examination and prescribe preventive or symptomatic treatment. If cephalgia with nausea lasts more than two days, you cannot hesitate, you need to see a doctor so as not to miss precious time.

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