A: Lots of people routinely get headaches. However, if you get what doctors call a thunderclap headache—a severe, sudden headache that’s different from anything you’ve ever felt before—get it checked out immediately. Killer headache isn’t a medical term, but most often people use it to mean one caused when a cerebral aneurysm—a weak place in a brain artery—ruptures, spilling blood into the brain. This causes inflammation and increases the pressure inside your skull, causing a headache that comes on very quickly—usually peaking within 60 seconds—and very intensely. I had a patient who told me that when he was hit by one, he whirled around because he thought someone standing behind him had literally hit him on the back of the head. Time is of the essence, because this kind of bleeding and the damage it causes can result in dementia, stroke-like symptoms, or even death. If you ever have a headache like this, call 911 and get to a hospital immediately. Depending on where the aneurysm is located and how severe your bleeding is, we may be able to give you medications to relieve the pain, place coils in the aneurysm, or clip off the ruptured portion to prevent future bleeding. The patient I mentioned earlier came in right away and did well. A sudden headache can also signal a stroke, which happens when blood flow to part of the brain is interrupted by a blockage in a blood vessel or because a blood vessel has ruptured so that a section of brain cells dies. There are usually other symptoms, too, like confusion, sudden changes in vision, or weakness or numbness on one side. In this case also, get to an ER at once. Remember, with these types of headaches, the symptoms come on quickly, within minutes or seconds. Your body will tell you when there’s a catastrophe—but you have to act on its warnings. More from Prevention: 9 Ways To Never Have A Stroke SANJAY GUPTA, MD, is chief medical correspondent for CNN and a practicing neurosurgeon at Emory Clinic in Atlanta. Send your questions to askdrgupta@prevention.com Sanjay Gupta, MD, is chief medical correspondent for CNN and a practicing neurosurgeon at Emory Clinic in Atlanta.
