Q: When I was 16 years old, I had a horse-riding accident. The horse ran under a cement pylon, and the guidewire caught the entire left side of my body, knocking me off the back of the horse. I’m now 52 years old, and I have an almost constant headache. My maternal grandmother had headaches, and one of my daughters has them, too. I do notice that certain triggers, such as various foods and especially stress, aggravate my headaches. But I still keep wondering; could a head injury from my younger years cause me to have migraines even into my golden years?
A: It sounds like you have a family history of migraines, and I suspect the head injury was just a trigger that started a pattern to which you were already predisposed. While you certainly would be expected to develop headaches from the head injury, I don’t think your headaches are related anymore. A chronic daily headache pattern often will persist even when the original trigger is no longer present. Migraine headaches are a lifelong condition that can become chronic over time if not aggressively managed. This could be related to medication overuse or could just have developed as a pattern over the years.
To help decrease your headache frequency, you need to try daily preventive medications, stop taking short-acting pain relievers that could be leading to rebound, and maintain a healthy lifestyle by getting plenty of sleep, eating well and exercising regularly including stretching. Other alternative treatments that might be helpful are acupuncture, biofeedback, physical therapy, herbs and vitamins. Depending on how long the daily headaches have been present and what you have taken in the past, you may now be a candidate for Botox® for chronic migraines.
