30/08/2026
Headache
Who is more likely to experience a headache: someone camping with a loved one in the mountains or by the beach for a week, or someone sitting in an office doing heavy work all week long?
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to answer this.
Headaches are a common occurrence for people doing high-stress work.
First, let’s look at why pain occurs in our bodies.
Blood rushes to the area where pain develops. When inflammation needs to be induced, blood gathers there, and pain arises during the healing process. In the case of the head, when thoughts pile up and cause overload, blood supply increases to deliver more oxygen and glucose. During this process, the blood vessels expand, triggering pain.
When blood vessels expand, pain occurs; when they constrict, pain decreases. Most painkillers we take work by constricting blood vessels.
The reason our body dilates blood vessels, as mentioned above, is to send blood to heal an injured area or to supply more oxygen and nutrients.
Forcibly constricting blood vessels hinders the body's natural healing abilities. Repeating this continuously causes the body to lose its self-healing power.
A headache is not a sign to take medication and keep working; it is a signal from your body asking you to rest, even if briefly, because it is overloaded.
What work could be worth doing at the expense of your own health?
The problem is that painkillers do not only reduce blood flow to the brain, but also act on blood vessels throughout the entire body. Therefore, if blood vessels in the hands and feet constrict, cold sensitivity in the extremities can occur; if blood vessels in the gastrointestinal tract constrict, indigestion can result.
However, a greater problem arises when the process of continuously reducing blood flow to the brain is repeated due to persistent painkiller use. If the supply of blood and nutrients that should be delivered to brain cells is constantly deficient, how can brain cells maintain a healthy state? Furthermore, brain cells do not undergo the process of dying and regenerating like other cells in the body. Once brain cells die, they cannot revive on their own with few exception in hippocampus. According to recent studies, the phenomenon of neurogenesis—where new brain cells are created in specific regions such as the hippocampus—is being uncovered.
