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Headaches, whether mild annoyances or debilitating migraines affect millions of people in South Africa. Understanding what causes headaches, the symptoms and treatment options is crucial to finding relief.
Join Doctor Chido as we explore everything you need to know about headaches in South Africa, offering insights into their types, triggers, and the various treatments available. So, discover the knowledge and resources needed to conquer the pain of headaches and lead a more fulfilling life.
Meet Dr. Chido Siame, our Clinical Care Lead at Kena Health. We had the pleasure of engaging in an enlightening conversation with her, where we explored commonly asked questions about headaches.
Dr. Chido is a devoted healthcare professional, deeply committed to ensuring the delivery of top-tier care and nurturing the professional development of telemedicine practitioners at Kena Health. Her educational journey, which includes a background in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Pretoria, coupled with ongoing studies in Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, equips her with the expertise to seamlessly blend clinical knowledge with a profound passion for public well-being.
With a substantial and diverse career that encompasses roles as a Doctor Clinician, OVCY Clinical Technical Advisor at FHI 360, and Hospital Team Lead at Broadreach Healthcare, Dr. Chido excels in the domains of clinical care, technical guidance, and program management.
Her notable achievements extend to international recognition through conference presentations, television interviews, and significant contributions to pioneering medical protocols.
Stay tuned as we delve into the invaluable insights that Dr. Chido kindly shared with us during our discussion.
“Neck pain or neck stiffness is definitely a sign that you should be concerned about when you've got a headache. Please speak to a doctor online or in person or head to a hospital if you think it is an emergency.”
“There are all sorts of different types of painkillers or analgesia. Paracetamol is a good, safe pain killer to use. You can make use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories.”
“You get a number of different types of headaches. The first one is called a tension headache, which I'll mention. Usually, that headache feels like a tight band that's sitting around your head, and it's usually caused either by stress or if you're quite tired that's one sort of headache that that is there.
“Then you get what is called a migraine headache, which people speak about often. I have a migraine, I have a migraine. That is a vascular headache that usually comes on one side of the head, and it's usually associated with other symptoms like vomiting, nausea, sensitivity to the light, that kind of thing.
“Migraines often aren't once-off in people that's it's more of a chronic, long-standing thing. It's headaches that'll happen two, three times, about maybe even more, maybe 15, 16, 20 days a month. They can be triggered by stress or long hours in front of the computer, but they have certain people they occur in that are migraine sufferers and some people don't get those at all.
“Another kind of headache which is common. The first two headaches are quite common in female patients but can happen in both sexes. This type of headache, now that I'm about to describe is called a cluster headache. The cluster headache is more common among men. That's also like a one-sided headache often, and it'll come with like a watery eye or a runny nose, extremely, extremely painful headache often only relieved by a little bit of oxygen actually because it's also a type of vascular headache and you start to get decreased oxygen applied to that side of your head.
“So, cluster headaches, very painful, are more common in men. Then you can get headaches as well from straining your eyes. So, if your eyes are not working as well as they should, your eyesight is not as it should be.
“So, that can be a cause for headaches as well, and then you can just get headaches from strain. Your eyesight is good, but computers, especially laptop screens, give off a lot of blue light, and that can be a cause for headaches. Also, if you sit and watch TV for a very long time, you can get sort of just like a headache from too much of that light going into your eyes. That's the broad category of headaches that we have.
“You may have some headaches associated, perhaps, with a medical condition like hypertension. If your blood pressure is high, one of the symptoms that your BP is high would be a type of headache. This headache usually feels like a tension headache, so it feels like your head is pounding or being squashed. It sometimes goes into the neck and the shoulders as well.
“These are the broad categories of headaches that we have.”
“Good question. So, if your headaches are persistent, so you find that you're getting headaches often, a couple of times a month, for a couple of months in a row, and that could be two, three times a month up to almost every day, that is definitely an indication for you to go to a headache clinic.
“It's important to note, though, that you have different professionals at headache clinics, so some don't have any doctors on site. They might offer alternative medicines. Some headache clinics do have general practitioners there, or they have anaesthetists who are good at managing pain, or they have neurologists.
“So, suppose your headache is persistent, and it's bothering you. In that case, it's affecting your quality of life. Definitely go to a headache clinic, or you can go straight to a general practitioner if there's no headache clinic nearby.”
“You can identify it from the symptoms. So, if it's feeling like a tight band on your head, that's a tension headache, perhaps from stress. If it's one-sided, it's more likely to be a migraine or a cluster headache.
“But sometimes, the headaches have mixed symptoms. So it's difficult for you to identify it if you're having this pain in your neck, but it's one-sided, and it's also feeling like a tight band.
“Because nothing is completely black and white in life. So if you want to get a diagnosis of the type of headache you're having, then it's best for you to visit a doctor.”
“Alright, it can be for a number of reasons. Headaches that usually happen every day are either headaches because you're straining your eyes or you're sitting long at the computer or possibly migraine headaches.”
"So, depending on how they affect your quality of life, all headaches can be serious. If you mean in terms of dire consequences to your health, you can have a headache that's caused by an infection and off the top of my head, I always think of meningitis. So. that's an infection of the lining around the brain, the meninges. And that type of infection can cause a headache. It'll be a very severe headache. You'll be very sensitive to light. Your neck will be stiff.
"There might be some nausea and vomiting and sensitivity to sound as well. So it's a very, very severe headache. Usually, together with neck stiffness, it makes us think of meningitis. And that is a severe headache because, obviously, meningitis itself, if it's untreated, can have some very serious consequences."
“A migraine is a type of headache, so it falls like a subset or a specific kind of headache. So, a migraine is a type of headache.”
“So, that's the type of headache you get when your blood pressure is high. High pretension means high blood pressure. And that's a headache that you feel in your whole head. Also, it might be like a pounding pain.
“It usually goes into the neck and into the shoulders. So you feel like you're carrying something heavy on the back of your neck and your shoulders. And in people that are just ordinary men and women, that's how it presents.
“In women who are pregnant, if they have that kind of headache and their blood pressure is high, that can be a sign of a condition that we call preeclampsia, which can be very dangerous for the woman and her unborn child.
“That kind of headache, that hypertensive headache in a pregnant woman, often comes with stomach pain at the top of the stomach, just below the rib cage. And yeah, that's a specific kind of headache there.”
“It doesn't mean anything specific in terms of, perhaps this is very serious or this is less serious. Still, it gives us an idea of what kind of headache it is because the different kinds of headaches have different treatments.
“So, say, a migraine headache, the medication that we would give for an attention headache would be different from the medication that we offer for a cluster headache.
“So, the position of the headache helps us know or diagnose what subtype of headache it is and then that kind of headache.”
It was great to sit down and chat with Chido about headaches. So, understanding and managing headaches is vital for the well-being of countless South Africans. By being informed and proactive, you can tackle the pain of headaches and find effective solutions, ultimately leading to a healthier and happier life in South Africa.
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