Headaches are something almost all of us deal with at some point.
They can last from a couple of minutes to days and the pain can be sharp, dull, throbbing or stabbing and sometimes spread beyond your head to your scalp, face or even your neck.
Dr Xand van Tulleken, who hosts the BBC’s What’s Up Docs wellness podcast, knows the feeling all too well and says he gets headaches once a month or every six weeks and it “feels like someone’s drilling into my eyeball.”
While it’s easy to panic about what might be behind a bad headache, Dr Katy Munro, a GP and expert at the National Migraine Centre, says it’s rarely something serious.
“It’s natural to worry that something is seriously wrong, but the chances of that are actually very small,” she explains.
She advises that if it’s your “first or worst headache, get it checked out by a doctor,” but if you’re getting a pattern of milder, recurring headaches, there are a few simple things you can try at home as well as seeing your GP.
