BLOOD-PRESSURE HEADACHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

BLOOD-PRESSURE HEADACHES.

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR

One of the commoner causes of chronic headaches coming on in elderly people is a blood pressure that is higher than normal. In what sense the blood pressure is the cause of the headache we do not really know; so it is probably more correct to say that one of the more common associations of chronic headache is a high blood pressure. Some individuals may have extremely severe headaches and yet have but » slightly raised blood pressure; others may have enormous blood pressures and yet little or no headache. Moreover, the headaches may not infrequently be relieved by ' treatment and yet the blood pressure remain up.

The characteristics of this type of headache are the following. It comes on insidiously, generally after the age of 45, but occasionally earlier. It is generally at its worst in the morning so that the patient wakes up with it first thing. It is inclined to pass off later in the day after the patient has been up and about. It is often made worse by stooping down, as in doing up one's shoes, or by coughing.' Sometimes a meal relieves it temporarily; hut on the whole, over-eating, worry particularly, and excessive energy tends to make it worse.

Not infrequently other symptoms arc associated with the headache; attacks of giddiness on exertion, shortness of breath and palpitations in the chest, and swelling of the ankles.