Question: Why do headaches occur at the top, front of our head and not at the bottom or on the sides of our heads?

Asked by eliteronaldo7 to Emma, Josie, Kristyn, Peter, Sarah on 3 Sep 2013.

0

Keywords:

  1. Photo: Kristyn BatesKristyn Bates
    answered on 3 Sep 2013:

    Nice question!
    I think a lot of headaches happen because the muscles in our neck and shoulders become too tight, these types of headaches are called “tension headaches”. The brain tissue itself doesn’t have any pain receptors, but the blood vessels, meninges (skin-like covering of the brain) and nerves entering and leaving the brain do have pain receptors, so when these structures become irritated they can cause a headache. For example, if blood vessels get larger (dilated) then this can cause a headache.
    There are more of these structures in the front rather than the back or side of the head.

    0

Comments

  1. Photo: narwhalelite001narwhalelite001
    commented on 3 Sep 2013:

    What about the headaches caused by looking at a computer screen too much?

    0

    • Photo: KristynKristyn
      commented on 3 Sep 2013:

      That is the same kind of idea, if your eyes are strained, this means that the muscles around the eye are over-worked and this can also stretch the pain receptors. Your eyes are actually a part of your brain, they develop from the same tissue as an embryo and are connected to the brain through the large optic nerves at the back of your eyeball-cool hey?!

      0