The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English / or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred / and Fifty Thousand

by Ray Vaughn Pierce

HEADACHE AND NEURALGIA.

There is no ill to which flesh is heir that is the source of a greater degree of discomfort to the human race than headache. The farmer, housewife, banker, merchant and laborer seem to be equally prone to the affliction and all who suffer have a great number of days rendered uncomfortable and unhappy by the presence of this most unpleasant affection. Pain is the warning finger of disease—the threatening indication of coming trouble. In headache, we have an indication that the system is subjected to some strain or injurious impression. It may be that the eyes have been overworked or the brain unnaturally taxed; or that the nervous and physical systems have not been properly refreshed by sufficient sleep, and have used up the residue of reserve power. Many suffer from headache only after they have been subjected to sudden changes of temperature and have taken cold; others only when the bowels have become inactive, the liver torpid and the blood vitiated with retained poisons.

All appreciate the discomfort that results from this malady and earnestly seek for permanent relief.

Headaches may be divided in two classes: (1) those due to the presence of poisons in the blood, and (2) those due to irritation of various organs, as of the eyes, stomach, liver, and intestines.

Of the first form, or variety, of headache, influenza, or grip, and acute "cold in the head," are the most common causes. These give rise to most excruciating pain. There is congestion, followed by inflammation in the nasal passages and cavities communicating therewith. The membranes of these passages throw out a thin, watery, irritating discharge, which gradually thickens and becomes pus-like and offensive in character, if the disease continues.

Poisonous matters are absorbed from the affected surfaces into the blood. These poisons, circulating in the blood, produce great irritation of the nerve cells, so much so, that the severity of the attack is felt in the nervous centres, the brain and spinal cord, with pain varying from the most acute and sharp, to a dull, numb ache. The temples, eyes, neck and small of the back, are in their order, the usual locations of greatest pain. Such attacks vary in frequency and severity. One attack is usually followed by an early recurrence, which may be more or less severe, while the period of active pain varies from a few hours to several days. Such attacks leave an exhausted state of the nerve centres and general weakness of the system that often lasts for weeks and may permanently impair the system, except such results be prevented by appropriate treatment. Every recurrence of the attack leaves the system in a worse condition, until profound nervous prostration; ensues.

Malarial headache, sometimes termed "brow ague," is a common form of the malady with those residing in malarial regions. The pain rapidly develops, usually over one eye. It lasts from five to ten hours, and is often of frightful intensity.

Other forms are rheumatic and gouty headache; usually a heavy aching pain appearing on the approach of storms, but at times almost continuous, made worse by improper diet.

Uræmic headache is due to kidney disease, and alcoholic to direct irritation of the brain membranes from the use of alcoholic beverages. The latter is accompanied with much irritation of the stomach and intestines.

Headaches of a similar character result from the presence in the blood of an excess of the active principles of coffee and tea.

Overindulgence in these agents, as with alcohol, affects the nerve cells and membranes, often causing severe attacks of headache.

Nervous headache is another common affliction. This seems to arise from several causes, such as impoverished blood and exhaustion from overwork of the brain. Hysterical headache is not uncommon. There is a severe kind of headache, the attacks of which appear first at early puberty and continue at intervals more or less frequent in women up to the change of life and in men to about the fortieth year.

The periodical headache is usually preceded by yawning, chilliness, languid, exhausted feelings, in others by peculiar emotional or mental activity. This is followed by unusual drowsiness, in which the night's rest is broken by dreams, and from which the patient awakes tired. Gradually, during the day, the headache develops, beginning in the eyes or bones over them. It gets more and more severe, shooting into the jaws and neck or extending to the back of the head and spine. As the pains get most severe, nausea or vomiting, often repeated, follow, in which the contents of the stomach, with mucus and bile, is ejected. The whole paroxysm lasts from five hours to two or even three days.

Neuralgic headache is a common variety; often the pain is not confined to the head, in fact neuralgia may affect almost any part of the system.