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42 * UNDERSTANDING HEADACHES AND M IG RAI N ES placed on the muscles may leadto chronic headaches. The pain can obviously be in the eyes, but may be felt in the temples or forehead. You should have your eyes checked regularly to avoid this possibility.

HELPFUL TIPS

HELPFUL TIPS! HELPFUL TIPS! HELPFUL

Most opticians recommend eye-testing every two years, but if you notice that yourvision seems to have changed then always see an optician, even if your eyes were tested only a week earlier.

Most people have ‘floaters’ in their field of vision. Floaters (also called mouches volontes) are dark specks that float across our view, and are especially noticeable when we are looking at a bright sky, or a whitewashed wali, or perhaps when reading a book. While many people never notice them, for some they can be an occasional distraction and for others a constant irritation. If you are aware of your floaters most of the time, then flicking the eyes around to watch them move, or trying to focus on them, can create eye strain and thus encourage headaches. There are no cures for floaters, unfortunately. However, if they are really making your life difficult then tinted lenses might help to tonę down the environment and make them less noticeable. Speak to your optician, who will be able to see your floaters by examining the back of your eye.

Medication misuse

Medication misuse headache is becoming increasingly recognised by doctors, and is a rather ironie type of headache sińce it occurs because people are taking medication for headaches! We must not forget that all drugs are poisonous and, assuch, havethecapacityto causeproblems. If you are taking medication regularly because of headaches, this medication itself can eventually create morę and morę headaches. If often occurs in people who are taking drugs for their migraines, where they may start to experience other headaches, often every day or every other day, between migraine attacks. When the medication is stopped, the person commonly stops having these daily headaches, and reverts back to having migraines at a freąuency similar to what had occurred before he or she was prescribed drugs by the doctor. Obviously, no doctor