Headaches and the Eye

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Greetings to all and sundry,

It is an amazing day today and a wonderful opportunity to come your way once again. The weekend has been amazing and i trust that you had an amazing time wherever you may be and with whatever activity you found yourself doing.

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Today i want to discuss a common symptom that comes with a lot of ocular conditions and what they could possibly mean for you. I do hope that as usual you enjoy the read and that you have an amazing time.


Introduction


The eye is a part of the brain because the optic nerve, which is the first cranial nerve, is an extension of the brain and the fact that the eye is in the skull, well more of the socket but part of the skull. Because of this, this happening to the eye tend to have some implications on the head or brain and vice versa.

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And so when one one experiences headaches there could be myriad of reasons why that could be happening, it may be as a result of something happening in the entire system or the head only or the eye, whatever the case may be once it has a direct or indirect link to the head or brain the eye would also experience an effect.

And so the eye tends to serve as a great diagnostic tool for Optometrist and Physicians alike once they know it well and how the various pathological conditions affect the eye. It is thus best that you do not treat that ocular discomfort or headache lightly it may just be telling us something more severe going one.


Headache and the Eye


Headaches normally come about when there is an increase in pressure somewhere within the cranial area. When your blood pressure goes up the pump that goes to your brain can result in headaches, the severity may depend on other parameters though.

In patients with migraines, their headaches can be very severe, and they may be incapacitated for a while until it subsides. Most often than not when headaches come about and it is not stemming from the eye you may also experience pain in your eye as well as reddening of the eye which is as a result of the vessels getting more engorged with blood as pressure increases.

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When the intraocular pressure also increases in the eye one would experience headaches. The severity of the headache may depend on how high the pressure is. And so one way that glaucoma patient could tell if their pressure is increasing before their review time is when they start experiencing headaches.

In patients with hyperopia they may experience headaches not because their pressure is high but because of the extra effort the eye puts into accommodation to enable them view far objects clearly. The continuous strain by the muscles involved causes the patient to experience pain as well as headache, the high the error the more the discomfort.

Headaches may also occur in conditions like computer vision syndrome, dry eye, traumatic conjuctivitis and the likes. You headache could certainly point out so many things that may be going on with your eye and thus would be prudent that you take your ocular health serious even if is "mere" headache to avoid further complications in the future.


Conclusion


The eye is a great diagnostic tool and yet a delicate organ to deal with, thus i'd advise as i always do that you do not take anything pertaining to the eye for granted. Avoid over-the-counter medication, use protective wear where necessary and have regular eye checkups.

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When in doubt visit your nearest eye care facility, seek information from the right people, not everything you read on the internet is true, feel free to ask your questions below in the comment section as i am always available to aid. Thanks for reading and for your time.


Further Reading

Friedman D. I. (2004). The eye and headache. Ophthalmology clinics of North America, 17(3), 357–vi. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohc.2004.05.015.

Friedman D. I. (2008). Headache and the eye. Current pain and headache reports, 12(4), 296–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-008-0050-1.

Suri, H., & Ailani, J. (2021). Cluster Headache: A Review and Update in Treatment. Current neurology and neuroscience reports, 21(7), 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-021-01114-1



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6 comments
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This write up comes in handy . Thanks a lot for this

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A wonderful post from you @nathybongo. I love to read your post it always contains valuable lessons. Now i know more on the connection between headache and eye.

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