Headache is often accompanied by nausea of varying severity, in some cases with bouts of vomiting. This condition can have a huge number of reasons, which it is desirable to understand with the help of a doctor. Headache, nausea, vomiting - what can these symptoms mean?
In fact, this condition may indicate various problems in the body: starting from banal overwork and ending with serious, and possibly even dangerous pathologies of internal organs. To understand the situation will help knowledge of the characteristics of certain diseases and the identification of other symptoms that may be equally important.
The most common causes of headache, nausea and vomiting
What can provoke the development of a pathological condition? Often the causes of headache attacks with nausea and vomiting are the following problems:
- increased intracranial pressure;
- osteochondrosis of the cervical spine;
- the presence of neoplasms in the brain;
- damage to the skull and neck;
- allergic reactions, visual impairment, acute respiratory viral infections;
- infection of the frontal and nasal cavities - sinusitis, pharyngitis;
- inflammation of the membranes and brain tissue - encephalitis, meningitis;
- hormonal abnormalities;
- migraine;
- ischemic disease;
- stroke;
- strong strain on the muscles of the shoulders.
And believe me, this list is not exhaustive. Only a specialist can detect a specific cause of an anomaly using certain equipment.
Do not determine your diagnosis yourself. After all, further treatment depends entirely on the initial causes of the problem. But what if there is no way to see a doctor, and the condition requires urgent intervention? In this case, of course, it is necessary to make every effort to maximize ease your condition. But for this you need to understand the problem in more detail and still try to understand what exactly triggered its appearance.
Dizziness and fainting with headache
Damage to blood vessels often leads to a similar disorder. It is because of this that many people experience unpleasant symptoms such as dizziness, pain, weakness, and even loss of consciousness.
The most common pathology with such a clinical picture is migraine. Although these are not its main symptoms. More often, it is detected due to pulsating seizures that become more frequent with age.
In addition, such a disorder is characteristic of prolonged abstinence from food. This is explained simply: the necessary volume of blood and nutrients does not enter the vessels.
Dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting
Usually, such a condition is faced by people suffering from high or low blood pressure. Pathology resembles drowsiness, severe fatigue. The pain is most often localized in the forehead. If this symptom is accompanied by visual impairment, then the reason lies in the extra pounds.
Often dizziness, pain and fainting with nausea haunt people after some injuries, a little less often - due to cerebral edema. True, in the latter case, patients also have a peculiar clumsiness. If he loses consciousness, then after exiting fainting vomiting and nausea occur.
In addition, a person has a breakdown, the appearance of points in front of his eyes, and cooling of his hands and feet. He may complain of the feeling of being squeezed by a tight bandage. In addition, the patient's hearing may be impaired. With a different severity of edema or trauma, a person may even stop dealing with elementary matters.
Weakness and chills
Severe headache, nausea, and vomiting may indicate the development of meningitis, infection of the tissues surrounding the spinal cord or brain. At the same time, a person rises in temperature, which actually causes weakness. Chills gradually arise.
Adult patients suffer from such symptoms when the head vessels become inflamed. At the same time, it seems to a person as if excessive pressure is applied to the affected areas.
Often, headache, nausea, vomiting, and weakness coincide with some kind of injury, or are its consequences. Usually, in this case, a person suddenly worsens metabolism, and he is faced with such manifestations:
- tingling in the extremities;
- complete numbness of the arms and legs;
- a feeling of severe heaviness in the neck.
Often a combination of symptoms such as weakness, headache, vomiting and nausea is triggered by hemorrhage inside the skull, stroke, subdural hematoma. If the cause of the condition lies in the frontal, pain from the forehead is given to the back of the head and temples. Pathology is accompanied by severe muscle weakness. Sometimes people with such manifestations are diagnosed with giant cell arteritis.
In addition, such symptoms may occur in children and adolescents during their stages of maturation. Although in the vast majority of cases, headache combined with nausea, vomiting and weakness in young patients appears for the same reasons as in adults. All sorts of complications can be detected using ordinary tests.
Headache and fever
Influenza and SARS are diseases that provoke the development of various symptoms. With increasing temperature, suspicion most often falls on them. Against the background of infection, intoxication of the whole organism occurs. The temperature in acute respiratory viral infections and influenza, as a rule, is stable and ranges from 37.5-37.8 degrees. If a person has a headache and fever, most likely he has an infectious disease.
But with meningitis, the patient has a very severe headache, vomiting and nausea. The condition is supplemented with other symptoms. The occipital muscles are very tight. If a person has such a condition, they should immediately call a team of doctors.
With flu, the headache is less pronounced. It affects the temples, eyes and forehead.
This disease can easily be distinguished by specific signs: pain, fever and muscle weakness.
If the nervous system is experiencing a more serious pathology, other symptoms will tell you about this: headache, nausea and vomiting. If such manifestations occur, do not delay with going to the doctor.
Headache vomiting
Such symptoms can occur at the initial stage of the flu. But, it is very important to understand that it appears once. Then the clinical picture changes and becomes stable. If a headache, nausea and vomiting haunts a person for several days, this condition indicates the development of a dangerous disease. In this case, you should immediately consult a doctor in order to avoid the appearance of various complications.
Most often, a headache accompanied by nausea and vomiting is a symptom of meningitis. Attacks begin from the first hours of the disease and are permanent. Sometimes the patient has other signs: delirium, hallucinations, overexcitation, and strong muscle tension.
In other cases, symptoms such as headache, nausea, weakness, vomiting, are the consequences of a severe head injury. Most often, these are concussions, concussions, swelling and bruises. Such symptoms indicate significant brain damage:
- compression
- bone fracture;
- rupture of blood vessels.
The subarachnoid type of hemorrhage also often provokes the appearance of vomiting, and the outcome of this condition is often fatal. Among other things, such symptoms may indicate increased intracranial pressure.
Causes of pain in the morning
Diagnosis of pathology is possible by specific signs. Headache attacks with nausea are a fairly common occurrence. Even individual manifestations of this condition are found in various diseases. To determine the causes of headache, nausea and vomiting, just a survey is not enough. A thorough examination is needed. But to know the likely causes of frequent pain and nausea is necessary.
There are several common causes:
- Brain defects. This group includes chronic and acute injuries, meningitis, benign and malignant neoplasms. Approximately 8-10% of all patients complaining of headache and nausea experience precisely these diagnoses.
- Psychogenic pathologies. Often, it is they who are the causes of headaches in the morning after a full sleep. Usually this condition is provoked by lack of sleep, stress, prolonged concentration of attention and other stresses. In this case, the pain has a weak or moderate nature, but does not have a clear localization.
- Headaches can occur due to vascular damage. This category includes migraine attacks and arterial hypertension.
- Internal reasons. The pain that occurs against the background of pathologies of the internal organs resembles the symptoms of intracranial pressure. Patients complain of intolerable sensations literally bulging from the inside of the brain. Sudden loss of consciousness is not ruled out.
- Causes not related to brain activity. This group includes viral and infectious diseases, side effects with alcohol and medication, metabolic disorders, abnormalities in the skull, eyes, neck, including osteochondrosis. It is the infections that bring the headache along with nausea and vomiting in about 40% of all patients.
What to do
If in your history there is some kind of chronic disease that leads to the appearance of headache, vomiting, nausea, then for sure in this condition another exacerbation or attack occurs. For example, those who suffer from diabetes may feel dizzy or weak with a sudden drop in sugar. So, you probably already know how to act in such a situation.
If you have been working for a long time, then headache, nausea and vomiting could be caused by your activity. In this case, you just need to relax, and in the future it is more competent to distribute working time.
But you should urgently call a team of doctors if you encounter such problems:
- loss of consciousness;
- severe headache or dizziness, which lasts more than two hours;
- sensation of severe weakness in the limbs and muscles;
- if you have hypertension or diabetes;
- if the pain is accompanied by vomiting and fever.
Who to contact
If you notice that recently you regularly experience nausea, vomiting, headaches, weakness, then you should first visit a therapist. The doctor will conduct a survey, get acquainted with your history and, possibly, send you to another specialist. It is possible that your next item will be the office of a cardiologist, neuropathologist or endocrinologist.
Only one thing is important - do not delay the visit to the doctor, but seek qualified help at the first unpleasant symptoms.
Diagnostics
If you are tormented by regular bouts of severe headache with nausea, vomiting, dizziness, weakness, then you need to contact the clinic. Usually, in this case, the patient is prescribed a comprehensive examination, involving a visit to an endocrinologist, neurologist, optometrist, otolaryngologist and other specialists.
As for instrumental and laboratory studies, with such symptoms, the following procedures are most often prescribed:
- general and biochemical blood analysis;
- audiography;
- electrocardiography;
- Doppler ultrasound;
- radiography of the brain;
- MRI and CT;
- assessment of blood glucose.
Usually the described methods are enough to determine the diagnosis. Although in some cases, the patient may need other studies.
How to get rid of symptoms yourself
It is possible to alleviate the condition, which is accompanied by severe headache, weakness and nausea, in the home environment. There are several simple, safe, and affordable ways.
- Saline solution. It can not only eliminate the headache, but also lower the pressure. To prepare, fold the cheesecloth in several layers, dilute in a glass of hot water 2 teaspoons of ordinary salt. Moisten a solution of ears, forehead and nape. Then dip the prepared cheesecloth into it and wrap it around your head. From above wrap a scarf.
- If you have a severe headache, drink some kind of pain medication available in your medicine cabinet. But keep in mind that the drug will only bring you temporary relief.
- For severe nausea, try sucking a slice of lemon.
- Measure the pressure. If the rate is increased or decreased, take the appropriate medicine.
- Ask someone to massage you. You can even conduct a session yourself. Pay particular attention to the neck. Look behind the head under the skull for two small indentations running parallel to each other. Press lightly on these points and gently massage them. This massage allows you to get rid of manifestations of migraine, arthritis, impaired coordination and severe irritability.
- If you encounter such symptoms: headache, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, then take activated charcoal or any other sorbents. You may have ordinary poisoning.
- Prepare a decoction of oregano, lemon balm, St. John's wort or valerian roots. To do this, pour a spoonful of dry grass with two glasses of water and let the product brew for 15 minutes. Such a decoction allows you to get rid of headache and nausea.
But if weakness, dizziness, headache, vomiting, nausea, chills torment you for a long time, do not try to fix the problem yourself. Most likely, these symptoms indicate the development of a serious, dangerous disease in your body that requires immediate intervention. In this case, self-medication can cause significant harm to your health.
The opinion of doctors
Treating headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and weakness as a separate symptom is simply meaningless. With episodic attacks, doctors advise a good rest, fresh air and light exercise. But this applies only to those people who are sure that they do not have diabetes and high blood pressure.
In all other cases, the patient requires a specific definition of the causes of such symptoms and treatment of the main pathology. For example, in diabetes, a person should carefully monitor their blood sugar to prevent sudden spikes in glucose concentration. Accordingly, people with hypertension need to control blood pressure. In such situations, self-medication is simply unacceptable. A person needs a doctor’s consultation and proper therapy.