Headache is usually considered a sign of high blood pressure. On the other hand, however, it is stated that it is a ‘silent killer’.
Many people think that when their blood pressure is high, it will show up as headache because of the problem that both headache and high blood pressure are very common. This means that the two certainly occur together. However, the connection between the two is not known.
To understand the connection between headache and high blood pressure, a study was conducted in Poland that has provided some interestingly convincing answers.
One hundred and fifty high blood pressure patients were selected for this study. Most of the patients were taking medications to lower their blood pressures and all of them were referred to a hypertension medical facility for assessment.
The patients were given a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor to wear. The purpose of these monitors was to take blood pressure reading of the patients after every 20 minutes during the day and 30 minutes during the night. The participants were requested to note down the number of headaches they suffer during the 24-hour time period.
The study concluded that 43 of the patients, that is about one third of the participants, reported headache during the 24-hour monitoring period. The patients also mentioned that their headache lasted an average duration of 3 hours.
Furthermore, it was observed that generally there was no relation between headaches and the rise of blood pressure. In most of the cases headaches were not associated with the highest of the blood pressure readings. It was also observed that there was no specific propensity for the blood pressure to rise or fall just before the beginning of headache. Also, in those patients who were taking medications for lowering their blood pressures, no sign of relation between headache and blood pressure was observed.
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