Exploring Health Concerns and Treatments

If you suffer from intense and chronic headaches, migraines and other types of head pain, speak to a doctor about neurological disorder testing. There are numerous reasons and causes of intense head pain, including infection of the nerves in your face and head and heredity. One of the best ways to diagnose and treat your head pain successfully is undergo neurological disorder testing. Here neurological disorder testing works and why you should consider doing it.

What's Neurological Disorder Testing?

Neurology is the study of the nerves, spine and brain, which make up the nervous system. Neurology disorders are conditions that affect the nervous system directly, such as hitting your head on a table, or indirectly, such as from chemical balances in the brain. Neurology disorder testing helps specialists find the exact cause of your head pain before they offer treatment.

Neurology disorder testing doesn't involve running advanced tests on your brain. In most cases, neurology specialists perform a series of simple physical exams to test your motor skills, vision, gait, ability to think, and nerve functions. The tests may include having you focus on objects in a room to check to check your vision, reading special cue cards to examine your cognitive skills, and walking short and long distances to examine your mobility. Neurological disorder testing shows specialists how well your brain and nerves communicate with the rest of your body.

The results of the tests can reveal a number of things about why and how you have head pain. For example, if you can't focus your eyes without getting migraines or seeing strange lights and visual disturbances, you may have problems with the part of your brain and nerves that control eye movement. Placing strain on the nerves in your eyes in order to focus causes pain in your head or in the side of your head that has the damaged nerves. The more you try to focus to see the objects, the more intense your head pain becomes.

Eventually, the nerves and cells in your brain develop inflammation, swelling and other symptoms because of the strain placed on them. The blood vessels in and around the damaged areas may also have problems sending or removing blood from them. Because the nerves in your brain connect directly with the small nerves in your face and neck, you experience severe pain throughout your head. 

If specialists can pinpoint the origin of your head pain with the simple neurological tests, the doctors can test your DNA to see why you have head pain.

What Else Can Specialists Do to Find the Cause of Your Head Pain?

Although it doesn't happen to everyone, a great number of individuals inherit genes from their parents and grandparents that cause migraines and other types of head pain. The genes hide deep within your DNA or genetic makeup. Genetic testing is an advanced diagnostic tool that can pinpoint many causes of head pain, including yours.

This involves examining the tissues in your cells, hair, nails, or blood to see if they have abnormalities or changes that shouldn't be present in your body. In many cases, genetic testing companies can locate the main cause of your head pain, which gives doctors an opportunity to prescribe treatments or medications that control your head pain and symptoms appropriately.

Keep in mind that the treatments and medications currently used to control and manage migraines in patients may not be right for you, especially if you carry a gene that affects your blood, eyes or some other part of head that triggers head pain. That's why it's critical that your specialists diagnose you with the right testing methods before they provide treatment. 

If you have concerns about your head pain or want to know more about neurological or genetic testing, contact a neurologist or specialist for more information.