Q: I am a 42 years old man suffering from severe headache and dizziness for the last 10 years. I feel very weak and dizzy all the time and travelling makes my problem worse. My blood pressure is 144/78 mmHg. What should I do to increase the blood flow to the brain?

A:You are having chronic headache with dizziness for past 10 years. These long standing symptoms suggest at one hand that you are unlikely to have any serious brain abnormality but on the other that you may be quite disabled because of the long-term suffering.

Generally, the long-standing chronic headaches are due to poorly understood reasons but stress, increased intake of analgesics (painkillers) and drug addiction are the main causes. Also, sometimes, intermittent acute headaches like migraine and tension headaches may become chronic and disabling.

The headaches are not due to decreased blood flow to the brain in a general sense although significant obstruction to the blood flow to the brain at times can cause headaches especially to people with risk factors like hypertension, heart problems, stroke and elderly people.

Sense of weakness can accompany headaches at times especially when these are due to migraine.

There is no short cut to the evaluation of chronic headaches and you must consult a good doctor, preferably a neurologist to solve your long-standing problem and to monitor your blood pressure that is slightly high.