Does High Blood Pressure Cause Headaches?
Tue, November 15, 2005 at 05:55AM For the vast majority of people with high blood pressure, headaches are not a feature; very rarely a condition called malignant hypertension is associated with extremely high blood pressure and headache may occur. So how does one explain the results of a new study, which reports that treating high blood pressure with any one of 4 different types of drug reduced the frequency of headaches?
Obviously, some of the 17,500 patients in the analysis must have had headaches. But in the studies analyzed they weren’t asked about the frequency of their headaches before starting treatment. What was surprising was that after taking either a diuretic (water pill), beta-blocker, ACE inhibitor, or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) only 8% of them reported headache as a ‘side effect’, compared with reports of 12.4% by the patients getting the placebo treatment.
As the only recognized effect the 4 types of drug have in common is a reduction of blood pressure, we must conclude that high blood pressure is a cause of headaches. This doesn’t fit with our opening avowal – ‘headaches are not a feature of high blood pressure’.
No matter. This uncertainty regarding a cause-effect relationship doesn’t detract from the fact that antihypertensive medications, whatever the type, prevent headaches in up to a third of patients who otherwise get them. Another reason to take your blood pressure medication!
Reader Comments (1)
Yes, I quite agree with your sharing, headache is not a common indication of blood pressure high. But we have to see our doctor if the headache always come everyday.
My old brother just passes away because of high blood pressure -- but no headaches in daily activity.
Thank to your sharing
Daniel Hartman