If the brain itself feels no pain i.e. there’s no nerve endings, then what’s a headache all about?

Answer 1

Hello, Chicane - Very perceptive of you. 99% of "headache pain" comes from the tissues BETWEEN your skull and your scalp. While stress and tension may help to trigger a headache, the word "tension" in "tension headache" does not refer to an emotional condition, but rather to the muscle-contraction, or spasm, of muscle.

Essentially, there are three main muscle structures or layers surrounding your head:

Neck region - small and large skeletal muscles
Scalp region - small, thin muscles
Forehead/face region - very small and delicate muscles encompassing the walls of the arteries and veins of the scalp and neck.

Coming into play here are the temporal and occipital arteries or blood vessels.

The temporal artery rises up on both sides of the head from the neck, goes below and in front of the ears, upward directly in the front of the ears, and then slants forward and upward to the upper temple area. From the temple area, the artery divides widely over the forehead. A large percentage of headaches occur because of the temporal artery.

The occipital artery arises from beneath and behind the ears (on each side of the head) and separates inward from each side across the lower region of the skull and upper neck.

SO, bottom line: headaches (and basically the same goes for eyestrain and neck pain) are caused by sustained/disrupted contraction of muscles - which in turn causes diminished blood flow through the muscular arteries. This combination of muscular and/or blood flow disruption irritates the nerve endings which protest by sending out pain signals.


(last year nursing student)

Answer 2

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Answer 3

There are multiple types of headaches. Common tension headaches are pain in the muscles of the head. Sinus congestion can cause pressure in the sinus walls causing pain. The theory for migraine used to be that it originated with the vessel dilation stretching the meninges around the brain. New theories of brain activity depression in migraine probably contradict that theory. There are no pain receptors in the brain.

Answer 4

There are nerve endings inside the head that reach the eyes, mandibles, etc. Headaches don't originate in the brain. Usually they originate behind the eyes in that general area.

Answer 5

you have nerves all over your body. A headache is other nerves in your head (not necessarily in your brain). These nerves can feel pain also.

Answer 6

A headache does not have anything to do with the brain--it's the muscles and temples around your head that hurt. Google it for more info.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

The pain is associated with the blood vessels. Pain fibers accompany them.

Answer 9

It's about the capillars that dilatate or some cervical posture that affects the back neck.

Answer 10

The pain is in the rest of the head. -eyes, temples, sinus, etc.