Almost everyone has suffered the pain of a headache. Headaches can last for a few hours up to several days, and sometimes involve symptoms such as sensitivity to light and nausea.
They can impact daily life when they occur frequently or for an extended period of time. The most common types of chronic headaches are muscle tension and vascular headaches.
Muscle tension headaches produce dull, constant pain on both sides of the head and may also involve an aching neck or sensitive scalp. They generally start slowly and can last from hours to days.
Muscle tension headaches are sometimes called muscle contraction headaches because it is the tightening of the muscles of the head, face and neck that causes the pain.
This is why tension headache sufferers often describe their pain as tightening bands around the forehead or along the base of the skull.