Nearly all of us have been the victim of one before, but many headache sufferers don’t realize what causes the painful ailments or what they can do to find relief for the anguish.

A headache is a pain originating in the head causing internal pain. They are caused by spasms of one or more of a set of blood vessels in the surrounding tissue of the brain, said Dr. Malhar Gore, staff physician at the Student Health Center.

There are several types of headaches, but the three most common are tension-type headaches, migraine headaches and cluster headaches. People are prone to getting tension-type headaches more than any other type, Gore said.

“Tension-type headaches usually occur when one has had strain on their neck or head for long periods of time,” he said.

Poor posture, misalignment of the teeth or jaws and eyestrain also can contribute to this type of tension headache. The tension is both a physical and psychological phenomenon, Gore said.

A pattern of tension-type headaches generally begins manifesting itself in people between the ages of 20 and 40. They are common in both men and women, though women seem to have a greater incidence of them.

To relieve a tension-type headache, Gore recommends getting plenty of rest, and trying Ibuprofen, Midrine or massage therapy.

A second type of headache is the migraine. Migraines most often occur in women during their late teens to 30s.

“Symptoms can include throbbing pain behind the eyes, spottiness of the vision, a strange sensation of the tongue or noises in the ears,” Gore said.

According to studies conducted by the National Headache Foundation, migraines have been found to be hereditary in 70 to 80 percent of sufferers.

Wendy Warrick, graduate student in journalism and mass communication, has suffered migraine headaches since she was 11. Her migraines were diagnosed by a neurologist after she frequently complained of throbbing behind the eyes, blurry, spotty vision, nausea and soreness of the jaw.

“At first I had the migraines every two months, then they progressively got worse until the age of 14. Since then, they have progressively gotten better,” she said.

Warrick sticks to a healthy diet to avoid aggravating the migraines. She refrains from eating potato chips, movie theater popcorn or clear sodas such as 7-Up, Sprite or Mountain Dew.

“I also have to regulate my caffeine intake and make sure I eat regularly,” Warrick said.

She takes Amitryptoline once a day and takes Excedrin Migraine or Ibuprofen when she feels a migraine forming. The migraines have not hindered Warrick from doing certain activities, but they can get in the way of her everyday life.

“My senior year of college I had a migraine that was so bad I locked myself in my apartment, shut off all of the lights, turned the phone off and slept for eight days straight,” Warrick said.

Brenda Managhan, nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, said sometimes reoccurring migraines never cease. Shots of Imitrex, a pain reliever, are required regularly, she said.

According to the National Headache Foundation, missing or delaying a meal, alteration of sleep-wake cycle or excessive noise may cause migraines.

For migraine sufferers, preventive medication might be the best alternative, Gore said. Calcium channel blockers can be given to migraine sufferers to prevent the vessels in the brain from spasms. As with all headache types, resting in an environment free of noise and with low light is recommended. The third type of headache is the cluster headache. This type of headache is most common in males in their mid-20s to late-30s.

“Cluster headaches are a series of continuous headaches in the posterior part of the head,” Gore said.

Cluster headache sufferers typically get one to four headaches per day during a cluster period. According to the National Headache Foundation, they occur very regularly, generally at the same time each day. The headache periods can last weeks or months and then disappear completely for months or years.

The pain of the cluster headache is generally very intense and severe and is often described as having a burning or piercing quality. The cause of the cluster headache is unknown and is one of the least common types of headache.

“Patients who come into a physician or emergency room with cluster headaches are usually given oxygen,” Managhan said.

The patient with episodic cluster headaches should be started on prophylactic therapy as early as possible. Prophylactic therapy is the term used for therapy that will curtail the length of the cluster period as well as decrease the severity of headaches, Gore said. Although the three main types of headaches all have different attributes, cutting down on stress is always a good way to avoid the headache pain, Gore said.

“Even though all three of the above headache types may have different symptoms and causes,” he said, “one of the things doctors recommend to prevent or treat headaches is stress reduction.”