Because of the number of different reasons why a headache may present itself, a sensible thing for any headache sufferer (especially people who have them on a regular basis), is to keep a headache diary. Why on earth would you want to do this? Because in the long run, you may find that there is a pattern as to why your headache begins, and how long it runs for before it ends.
Headache diaries are recommended by both pharmacists and doctors across the world. For people who regularly face the problems associated with a headache, the information found via a headache diary can be of great use in diagnosing whether or not there is something more auspicious going on, or whether the pain is simply a function of something like a lack of water or nutritional food.
So how do you actually go about keeping a headache diary? Well, keep on reading, and we will detail the most important things you need to record, so that your headache diary can be useful, instead of just a waste of time.
When you start a headache diary, you need to understand that the success or failure of such a device is dependent on whether or not the information included is detailed enough or not. If you provide enough details for your doctor to review, this will go a long way in assisting with a positive diagnosis of the underlying issues on hand. Alternatively, if you only provide a few details - and decide on which things to include on a random basis - you may find that the entire exercise was pointless.
So, what things should you include, and what things are ok to purposely miss out? Let's start off with details of the headache itself.
You will want to include the following details of the actual headache:
- Time it starts.
- Duration
- Severity (scale of 1 - 10)
These are the very basics. Every headache you have should be recorded in the diary, even if it is a simple 1 on a scale from 1 to 10. Following this, you should include some other details about your actions before and after the headache.
- What did you eat?
- What were you doing?
- Misc information which may be helpful.
© Headache Medication - 2009.