Though 99 out of 100 patients would be cured of their headaches without much medical intervention, the phenomenon is complex enough for doctors to break their head about. At the 100th lecture to promote health literacy on Thursday, neurosurgeon K. Ganapathy spoke about the various causes of headaches to groups of people at 16 centres across the State. The participants included women and school children from Kanniyakumari, Puducherry, Pudukkottai, Thiruvaiyaru and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Taramani.
Prathap C. Reddy, founder, Apollo Hospitals, who inaugurated the lecture session, recalled that Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation signed an MoU in 2013 with MSSRF to promote health literacy to empower villagers in the State.
Experienced consultants interacted with the residents in 12-15 villages using multi-point video conferencing, and discussed various aspects of ailments, he said.
Dr. Ganapathy, director, Apollo Telemedicine and principal mentor, said a patient’s history, including details of such an ailment in the family, is necessary to arrive at a diagnosis. “Anybody over the age of 50 who has a headache must be investigated fully. Children below 10 never get headaches but if they complain, then I would ask the family a lot of questions,” he said.
“ Do not take over-the-counter painkillers. A common cause of headaches is the inability to cope with everyday stress,” he said .
