The brain doesn’t have its own pain receptors, so why do headaches hurt so much?
Headaches are extremely common and they can take many forms, ranging from mild to debilitating and lasting minutes to days. When your cranium is in pain, it’s easy to think your brain tissue itself must be hurting. But that’s not likely.
Ironically, the brain senses pain throughout the body, but doesn’t actually have its own pain receptors. So why, then, do headaches hurt?
Headaches can stem from an underlying medical condition, for instance, swollen sinuses, low blood sugar or a head injury. But broadly speaking, most headaches arise due to «referred pain,» meaning you feel the pain in a different place than where it’s actually occurring, Dr. Charles Clarke (opens in new tab), a neurologist and headache specialist at Vanderbilt Health in Tennessee, told Live Science. It’s similar to how a herniated disk in your back can cause sciatica, a pain down your leg. For most headaches, an issue somewhere else in the body — like the jaw, shoulders and neck — causes pain in the muscle and nerves around the brain, he said.
Take tension headaches, which according to the World Health Organization (opens in new tab), are the most common type of recurring headaches. Tension headaches often occur as pain in the muscles across the top of your head or forehead, where a sweatband or a headband would sit, Clarke said. The pain is caused by tightened muscles in the face, neck and scalp and can be stress-related, according to the National Institute of Health (opens in new tab) (NIH).
