Do you experience headaches frequently, and has the cause been diagnosed? If your answer is in the affirmative for the first question, but you have got a ‘no’, for the second, then it is imperative you read on with all curiosity.
Individuals experience headaches at some points or the other in life, but it is important to know the cause of the headaches in order to treat it accordingly. Experts have noted that there are different kinds of headaches and 9 out of 10 adults will experience one at some point in their life.
A dehydration headache is a secondary headache, caused by not having enough fluid in the body. Dehydration headaches can be relatively mild or severe as a migraine.
In a report on MedicalNewsToday, it was stated that a dehydration headache may occur after sweating when the body loses essential fluids to function properly.
The body requires the proper balance of fluid and electrolytes to function properly. Every day, the body loses water through daily activities, such as sweating and urinating. Thus in order to regularly maintain this delicate balance, it is mandatory to have enough fluid in the human system. It is the shortage of water in the system that brings about a dehydration headache
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It was noted that once rehydrated, the brain plumps up and returns to its normal state, relieving the headache.
Since dehydration headaches only occur when the body is dehydrated, symptoms of dehydration will occur with a headache. These symptoms include the following: extreme thirst, reduced urination, dark coloured urine, confusion, dizziness, fatigue, dry, sticky mouth, loss of skin elasticity, low blood pressure and increased heart rate.
However, there are some factors increase the risk of dehydration and they include the following:
Diarrhoea, vomiting, extreme sweating, either from heavy exercise or heat, fever, excess urination
For the treatment of a dehydration headache, medical practitioners advised they should do the following: increase fluid intake, replace lost electrolytes with a sports drink and temporarily decrease physical activity and avoid heat to reduce sweating.
While the above measures may treat the dehydration, it can take a while for a dehydration headache to be totally relieved. For fast relief; a person may want to take an acetaminophen or ibuprofen for the pain.
