The link between headache and blurry vision is something that’s barely talked about. Oftentimes, people just associate these 2 to sight problems and not take the situation seriously. But there is more to blurred vision and severe headache. Experiencing these 2 things at the same time can be bothersome, if you think that you are showing symptoms get your eyes checked right away.
Causes Of Headache And Blurry Vision
The reason why you experience blurred vision and severe headache at the same time vary. Blurred vision is the condition where the eye loses its sharpness which results in the inability to see details clearly. Problems with vision alone could indicate several eye problems like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. LASIK eye surgery can be recommended by eye doctors for these conditions.
While headache can be felt on different parts of the head which are the left, right, top, and back portions. Some people experience a headache on one part alone, other times it can be felt on the whole head giving an explosive sensation.
The combination of these two is a condition that needs to be medically analyzed immediately. Blood sugar and previous injuries are just some of the main factors that contribute to its development.
Pseudotumor cerebri
When cerebrospinal fluid starts to expand on the brain, it produces pressure inside causing severe headaches that can be felt from the back part of the head, followed by blurred vision. Wooziness, ear ringing, and feeling extremely sick are some of its symptoms.
Brain Injury
Several types of brain injury can cause headaches and blurry vision. This condition is quite alarming as it affects the function of the brain. Brain injury may come from accidents where the head gets hit and receives a damaging impact.
Blurred vision and severe headaches are the most common side effect of brain injuries alongside drowsiness, mood swings, losing consciousness, sickness, changes in sleeping patterns, constant feeling of uncertainty, and utmost vulnerability to lights and sounds.
Cases of severe brain surgery have more unpleasant effects on the person such as, seizures, stammering, feeling numb, nervousness, and inability to stay focused.
Low Blood Sugar
The level of a person’s blood sugar can contribute highly to the combination of blurred vision and severe headache. Hypoglycemia is a condition where the blood sugar level gets too low due to diabetes, alcohol consumption, skipping meals frequently, and medication. Some of its symptoms are blurry vision, extreme headache, nervousness, difficulty in concentrating, shaking, tiredness, sudden changes in heartbeat, and sickly complexion.
The signs and symptoms may get severe if the condition is left untreated. A person with very low blood sugar will often experience losing consciousness and seizures.
Migraine
Migraine usually starts from childhood up to early adulthood. Its severity is identified in three stages depending on the symptoms.
- Prodrome. This includes mood swings, difficulty in defecating, cravings, stiff neck, and growing need to drink and urinate.
- Aura. This occurs prior to or after the migraine and includes blurred vision, struggling to speak, hearing noises, and stinging sensation in the limbs.
- Attack. When the migraine attack comes through, it could last for 70 hours or more. This causes severe headache on either side of the head, pain that stings and beats, extreme sensitivity to lights and sound, and worse, sickness accompanied by throwing up.
- Post-drome. After the pain subsides, you might feel a little under the weather, exhausted, and worn out. Making sudden movements may cause pain to come back.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Inhaling carbon monoxide produced from fuel, burning lumber, and gas lead to carbon monoxide accumulation in the bloodstream resulting in poisoning. Aside from blurred vision and severe headache, this event may also cause the person to vomit, feel nauseous and weak, and might fall unconscious.
This situation can be life-threatening and immediate medical attention is necessary to prevent further damage.
Temporal arteritis
Temporal arteritis occurs when the blood vessels are not able to supply blood from the heart to the head leading to limited blood flow. When this happens, severe headache, muscle pain, sickness, and exhaustion will persist. In worst cases, blurry vision to permanent eyesight damage also emerges.
Stroke
When the supply of blood going to the brain gets obstructed suddenly, the brain loses its supply of oxygen as well resulting in a stroke. A stroke happens in a snap making it famously known as a brain attack as well. The effects of it will differ on which part of the brain is damaged. Blurred vision, severe headache, inability to move, feeling numb, and struggle in walking are few indications of a stroke.
High Blood And Low Blood Pressure
High blood pressure takes place when your body has more than enough blood pressure. This disease grows gradually and does not exhibit any symptoms until changes in health start to be noticeable. Low blood pressure on the other hand is a phenomenon where the blood pressure drops too low caused by being dehydrated, previous surgery, and other medications. Both of these can lead to blurred vision as well as headaches.
Diagnosis
To determine the cause and possible reasons why blurry vision and headache often transpire, different tests and examinations are recommended. This is done not only to check the severity of the condition but to see if the patient is also suffering from certain medical conditions that he or she is not aware of.
- MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) depends on a magnetic field, frequency of a radio, and special computer to bring out accurate images of body organs, soft tissues, and general internal body. Doctors use this test to examine the brain and figure out if tumors, brain abnormalities, blood, and oxygen supply problems, eye and ear-related disorders, and other chronic diseases are starting to manifest.
- Spinal tap (Lumbar puncture) is the procedure where a minimal portion of cerebrospinal fluid is taken for analysis. This helps in diagnosing certain health problems such as infections, meningitis, encephalitis, nervous system issues, cancers related to the brain and spinal cord, and other diseases that cause severe headache and blurred vision.
- CT scan (Computed tomography) examination is a combination of an x-ray machine together with advanced computer systems that comes up with several photos of the internal body. It is used to determine any malfunctions and unusual activities in the brain.
- CTA (Computed tomography angiography) is the process of injecting contrast material into the patient’s blood vessels to determine the presence of any blood vessel diseases and any brain-related disorders such as aneurysms.
Headache And Blurry Vision Treatments
After the diagnosis, your doctor will then try to determine what kind of treatment and medication is best suited for you.
Medical treatment may not be necessary if the symptoms occurred once only. CO2 poisoning treatment uses oxygen and tools like a mask to be placed on the oxygen chamber.
Other conditions may include the following treatments:
- pain medication
- headache medicines
- blood-thinning drugs
- medicines for regulating blood pressure
- anti-seizure medication
- corticosteroids
When To Seek Professional Help
If the occurrence of headache and blurry vision takes place too often, seek medical attention immediately. These two symptoms could be an indication of serious disorders and diseases that is starting to take control and put your health in jeopardy. If these are neglected, you may suffer unprecedented illnesses causing you to completely lose your vision.
The state of our overall health can be determined by how healthy our basic organs are. An unhealthy mouth for example could indicate certain chronic diseases and may cause infections in the internal organs without our knowing. A healthy eye on the other hand is almost equivalent to healthier brain functions and a disease-free ocular segment. Please contact the ophthalmologists from Armadale Eye in Melbourne if you want quality services at an affordable price.
