Headaches can be a sign that something serious is happening inside the brain. The first concern would be related to the presence of stroke, seizure, brain tumor, or injury due to trauma. These "organic" causes for headache are and should be taken very serious.

1)- Call 911 or seek immediate medical attention if you experience:

• Headache or loss of consciousness/awareness following head trauma, whiplash, or bumps to the head
• Headaches accompanied with loss of vision, paralysis, slurred speech or balance
• Sudden unexplained and non-typical headache pain

2)- Migraine or Tension Headaches:

While not life threatening, migraine and tension headaches are extremely annoying if not downright life-altering and impacting! Don't assume that headaches are "normal" anymore than that they are the result of not having enough aspirin in your diet! Rather – assume that a headache has a cause – AND that the cause can be generally fixed. Almost always, muscle tension is one of the major root causes of both migraine and tension headaches.

The activation of the nervous system by sustained muscle tension in the jaws and neck play an important role in creating the sensitization and expansion of blood vessels in the brain, typically seen with migraine headaches – hence the terms "neurovascular headache" or "trigeminovascular event".

Contrary to 'popular' opinion, the so-called "triggers" which "cause" a migraine attack, are not really the true cause of the headache. Rather, the "triggers" cause a reaction in an already sensitized brain and in the brainstem. This CNS brain sensitization happens when chronically tense muscles act on the trigeminal nervous system and produce neurologic inflammation.

While certain drugs (Imitrex) can block the protein receptor sites which this neurogenic inflammation affects, and can thereby stop a migraine attack, it is better to deal with the root causes which set this entire sequence of events in motion in the first place.