JAKARTA - Severe headaches can be scary. It's hard not to think the worst if you have a severe headache. If the pain lasts a long time or recurs often, you may wonder if you have a serious problem such as a brain tumor? The good news is that headaches are rarely caused by tumors.
According to a neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Brain Tumor Center, the likelihood of a headache being a sign of a brain tumor is very small.
As reported by the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, headaches are common in many people, but most have nothing to do with cancer.
However, experts suggest that if you have a new headache, or a pattern of headaches changes or becomes more frequent, it is a good reason to visit a general practitioner to make sure there is no serious problem.
The most common age range for brain tumors in adults is 40 to 60 years. Tumors that originate in the brain (primary brain tumors) are much less common than tumors that spread to the brain from other parts of the body (metastatic brain tumors).
Some brain tumors do not cause headaches at all, because the brain itself cannot feel pain. Headaches usually only appear if the tumor is large enough to press on nerves or blood vessels.
If a headache is your main complaint and the pattern is relatively fixed, it is likely that you are suffering from one of the conditions such as migraine, tension headache, cluster headache, or other types. These headaches can be very painful and disturbing, but not life-threatening.
If you go to the doctor for a headache, the doctor will ask if you have the following neurological signs that could indicate serious conditions such as seizures, nausea and vomiting, numbness, swelling in the eyes or vision problems, weakness or paralysis especially on one side of the body, speech disorders, to personality changes.
If there are no serious signs, the doctor will help you relieve headaches through medications, diet, lifestyle changes, or a combination of therapies.
In most cases, examinations such as x-rays, CT scans, or other diagnostic tests are not necessary, as they do not help much in determining the cause of the headache.
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