Why do you get headaches when you cry?!
Question: Why do you get headaches when you cry.?
I was just recentely crying today and I got a headache. I realized that I get headaches all the time when I cry. Why is this.? Health Question & Answer
Answers:
A few reasons:
1) When you cry, your whole face tenses up and the muscles in your head contract tightly, meaning that there's more pressure on your skull and the blood vessels under your skin. This causes a tension headache.
2) The mucus created when you cry in your nasal passage blocks your airway through your nose, which creates pressure on your sinuses. This causes a headache because the sinuses are quite delicate and sensitive to pain.
3) When you cry, especially when heavily, your breathing is highly disrupted. This causes your chest cavity to relax and contract erratically; so changing your blood gas levels. This causes a lot of your body to become fatigued and slightly off-kilter so to speak; so you get a headache.
4) The sudden release of the adrenaline hormone from the adrenal glands when we cry causes the heart to beat quicker and our blood pressure to rise. When this happens, the blood racing around our bodies is usually a lot for the tiny blood vessels around the brain to deal with, so the extra pressure on our heads gives us a headache.
And that's why :DHealth Question & Answer
1) When you cry, your whole face tenses up and the muscles in your head contract tightly, meaning that there's more pressure on your skull and the blood vessels under your skin. This causes a tension headache.
2) The mucus created when you cry in your nasal passage blocks your airway through your nose, which creates pressure on your sinuses. This causes a headache because the sinuses are quite delicate and sensitive to pain.
3) When you cry, especially when heavily, your breathing is highly disrupted. This causes your chest cavity to relax and contract erratically; so changing your blood gas levels. This causes a lot of your body to become fatigued and slightly off-kilter so to speak; so you get a headache.
4) The sudden release of the adrenaline hormone from the adrenal glands when we cry causes the heart to beat quicker and our blood pressure to rise. When this happens, the blood racing around our bodies is usually a lot for the tiny blood vessels around the brain to deal with, so the extra pressure on our heads gives us a headache.
And that's why :DHealth Question & Answer
Although I'm not a medical doctor, I do get headaches a lot, every time after I cry, and ESPECIALLY hormonal-fluctuation (PMS) migraines that last 10-14 consecutive days every month, as well as have taken a Pathophysiology course back in the 1st year of pharmacy school.
Where is your headache at.? Is it a band around the entire forehead, possibly wrapping all the way around your head that extends to your lower neck.? Or even slightly to the beginning part of your shoulders.? Is the pain/pressure more around your sinus areas.? Or is it more "inside" your head, like at a place where it feels unreachable.? On a scale of 1-10, how severe is the pain.? During your headache, are you sensitive to any light or sound.? Do you experience any nausea or visual changes during these headaches.? also during the headache, do you feel any dizziness or confusions (like the pain is so bad that you can't keep track of your surrounding or what you're doing).? How long does the headache usually last after each crying.? What methods do you use to relieve the headache (OTC pain meds, laying down, turning off lights, etc).? Do those methods work.? Or does it last until even after you've taken a nap, or went to bed and still wake up with the headache.?
Jot down notes of answers to these questions, which helps to narrow down which category of headaches you have: Muscle-Contraction Headaches (such as possible eyes, ears, and paranasal sinus disorders that produce reflex muscle contractions, or the more common tension headache) or Migraine (the KEY difference from regular headaches is the light & sound sensitivity, sometimes even nausea and vomiting).
There are very little reports recorded in medical literature of patients' crying as a direct precipitating factor in triggering headaches. My personal theory, based upon my recollection of Pathophysiology knowledge, is that the crying causes inflammation or swelling of the mucous membrane of the nose, thus we experience the runny nose and congestion. If you have a genetic disposition for paranasal sinus disorders (such as rhinitis---allergy-related or not---and sinusitis, which blocks the passage through which mucus drains through), the sinus congestion will most definitely cause a headache for you.
If this headache is severe (you rate the pain as an 8 or higher), or if you suspect it's a migraine headache and not just a common tension headache (the light & sound sensitivity, with or without nausea), or if you do have chronic sinus problems/infections (tendency to have it throughout most of the year and not just seasonal allergy problems), definitely go see a doctor. Bring in the notes of answers you have jotted down from the questions above and discuss in full detail with your doctor to try and nail down the culprit of your headaches.
Best wishes.Health Question & Answer
Where is your headache at.? Is it a band around the entire forehead, possibly wrapping all the way around your head that extends to your lower neck.? Or even slightly to the beginning part of your shoulders.? Is the pain/pressure more around your sinus areas.? Or is it more "inside" your head, like at a place where it feels unreachable.? On a scale of 1-10, how severe is the pain.? During your headache, are you sensitive to any light or sound.? Do you experience any nausea or visual changes during these headaches.? also during the headache, do you feel any dizziness or confusions (like the pain is so bad that you can't keep track of your surrounding or what you're doing).? How long does the headache usually last after each crying.? What methods do you use to relieve the headache (OTC pain meds, laying down, turning off lights, etc).? Do those methods work.? Or does it last until even after you've taken a nap, or went to bed and still wake up with the headache.?
Jot down notes of answers to these questions, which helps to narrow down which category of headaches you have: Muscle-Contraction Headaches (such as possible eyes, ears, and paranasal sinus disorders that produce reflex muscle contractions, or the more common tension headache) or Migraine (the KEY difference from regular headaches is the light & sound sensitivity, sometimes even nausea and vomiting).
There are very little reports recorded in medical literature of patients' crying as a direct precipitating factor in triggering headaches. My personal theory, based upon my recollection of Pathophysiology knowledge, is that the crying causes inflammation or swelling of the mucous membrane of the nose, thus we experience the runny nose and congestion. If you have a genetic disposition for paranasal sinus disorders (such as rhinitis---allergy-related or not---and sinusitis, which blocks the passage through which mucus drains through), the sinus congestion will most definitely cause a headache for you.
If this headache is severe (you rate the pain as an 8 or higher), or if you suspect it's a migraine headache and not just a common tension headache (the light & sound sensitivity, with or without nausea), or if you do have chronic sinus problems/infections (tendency to have it throughout most of the year and not just seasonal allergy problems), definitely go see a doctor. Bring in the notes of answers you have jotted down from the questions above and discuss in full detail with your doctor to try and nail down the culprit of your headaches.
Best wishes.Health Question & Answer
Usually, when you cry, you're stressed, which is a common cause a headaches. Other times, it may just be an oxygen issue. Don't worry, I get headaches when I cry too. Health Question & Answer
you get dehydrated which causes the headacheHealth Question & Answer
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I don;t get headaches when I cry.....Health Question & Answer