Drug therapy, biofeedback training, stress reduction, and elimination of certain foods from the diet are the most common methods of preventing and controlling migraine and other vascular headaches. Regular exercise can also reduce the frequency and severity of migraine headaches. Temporary relief can sometimes be obtained by using cold pack or by pressing on the bulging artery found in front of the ear on the painful side of the head. About 90 percent of chronic headache patients can be helped. One theory of headaches is that people who suffer from severe headache and other types of chronic pain have lower levels of endorphins than people who are generally pain free.
Thermography is an experimental technique for diagnosing headache.
In thermography, an infrared camera converts skin temperature into a color picture, or thermogram, with different degrees of heat appearing as different colors. Researchers have found that thermograms of headache patients show strikingly different heat patterns from those of people who never or rarely get headaches. This information is available courtesy of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. It is in the public domain and can be downloaded, reproduced, or copied without permission.