Does having hypertension mean reduced headaches?
Can blood pressure cause headaches? High blood pressure is in many cases called a “silent disease,” this is because it does not portray itself with any noticeable signs and does not have any known universal symptoms. Despite this there are some few symptoms which when combined with a number of warning signs found in the history of medicine normally makes a doctor suspect that a person has high blood pressure. Among the signs, worsening and recurrent headaches had been regarded as the closest thing to resemble a realistic symptom of high blood pressure.
For decades it has been observed that the people suffering from high blood pressure have severe and frequent headaches and there was a need to know if blood pressure cause headaches. The physiology and science behind headaches also supports the observation .In addition an increase in blood pressure brings about a phenomenon known as autoregulation found in the blood vessels running via the tissue found under the skull (this is the place where many headaches begin from. To put it differently, the autoregulation results to blood vessel constriction which is a common cause of the symptoms of headaches.
Research on whether blood pressure cause headaches emerging from Norway gives the suggestion that people who have high blood pressure can actually have fewer headaches than the people who have ordinary blood pressure. The studies, which were carried out in patients from Norway and then published in a major medical journal in the US, came as a follow up to previous research. The research also discovered that people who had untreated and elevated high blood pressure stood a fifty per cent chance of suffering from head aches than the patients who had the same health profiles and normal blood pressure.
Among those who participated in the research study, the people who had wide pulse pressures and high systolic pressures appeared to be most protected from headache attacks. What is interesting is that the patients with high blood pressure receiving treatment appeared to be at more risk of suffering from headaches in the same way as the patients whose has an ordinary blood pressure. The headache/treatment risk relationship was persistent in the patients who experienced an increase in their readings on blood pressure even with the treatment.
Researchers have not yet discovered why an increase in blood pressure protects one from headaches. There are a number of theories that have come up from the alteration of some blood chemicals and hormones to the disparity in the stiffness of the artery –The arteries become stiff as the blood pressure rises and this is one major reason why high blood pressure can cause damage to the blood vessels.
Despite the fact that this may disqualify blood pressure as a cause of headaches and may be good news for the people with high blood pressure, the risks involved in increase in blood pressure greatly outweighs any headache reduction advantages. Incase you are being treated of high blood pressure and you are experiencing severe and frequent headaches you should continue taking your prescribed medications. Instead you should seek the advice of your doctor to change the medications. So, can blood pressure cause headaches? Yes it can, especially when it falls below the required levels.