If you experience excruciating headaches immediately after eating, it is a condition known as postprandial headache. This condition is familiar and common to many people, however it is not something they can or should ignore, as the symptoms may be uncomfortable enough to affect their lives the person significantly and prevent him from living normally.
Post-eating headache
You may feel a headache immediately after eating, as if there is pressure between the eyes, or from moderate to severe throbbing on one side of the head, and it can also come in the form of a feeling of tightness and pressure in the forehead area.
According to doctors and nutritionists, each of these types of sensations can be from a different source, and a headache after eating may be a symptom of an underlying medical condition.
But in many cases where people get headaches after eating to the point of nausea, they need to seek medical care to properly diagnose and treat their condition.
Therefore, persistent or frequent headaches should not be ignored, as it can lead to sleep problems, stress and depression, as well as unnecessarily resorting to drugs and painkillers.
Other causes of headaches after eating include pain after eating sugary foods, while others may experience headaches after eating salty foods.
Some may feel headaches up to nausea after eating sugars (Getty Images)
Although food may not be the main reason in these cases for feeling a headache after eating, it can be a combination of the effect of food components on a person’s body and his suffering from a certain health condition, and we review in the following the most prominent causes of headache after eating:
Low blood sugar after eating
This condition is also called reactive hypoglycemia, and causes a person to suffer a headache within 4 hours after eating or a basic meal during the day, and this is caused by a sharp drop in blood sugar levels, which leads to headaches.
Some causes include diabetes, stomach and gastrointestinal tumors, hormonal disorders, or food allergies.
While you might think that allergies always have symptoms similar to those of seasonal allergies, such as sneezing or a runny nose, this is not always the case.
In fact, food allergies can cause a range of physical reactions, including headaches, so if you get a headache after eating a particular food or ingredient, it's possible that you are unknowingly allergic to one of the foods or ingredients in it.
food intolerance disorders
Symptoms of food intolerance differ from food allergy, they are always of a digestive nature related to the stomach, however, in some cases, they can cause a headache after eating food or one of the ingredients that your body is difficult to deal with, such as grains, dairy, nuts, etc.
Some people are intolerant of certain food ingredients, such as grains, dairy, and nuts (Shutterstock)
TMJ Disorders
The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is the joint that connects your lower jaw to the part of your skull or the temporal bone in front of your ears.
TMJ disorders are generally characterized by a clicking or clicking sound when moving the jaw, or a feeling of tightness on both sides of the jaw when the mouth is opened and closed.
Since the affected joint is closely connected to the area of your head, chewing may also lead to pain and headaches, and thus give you a headache after eating.
To deal with the problem, you should see a specialist doctor to find out the treatment options.
Head froze due to cold food
Commonly known as a brain freeze or "ice cream headache," this type of headache occurs after eating or drinking something frozen or very cold.
Experts believe, according to the "Healthline" website for health and medical information, that it occurs due to emergency changes in the blood vessels around certain nerves, in an immediate response to cold temperature.
This type of headache can be very severe, but fortunately it only lasts for a few seconds or minutes at most, and does not require any treatment.
Brain freeze or 'ice cream headache' occurs after eating or drinking something frozen or very cold (dpa)
Hypertension
High blood pressure is a common problem that affects millions of sufferers around the world, and this chronic health condition may lead to suffering from headache after eating in certain cases, as eating large amounts of salt leads to headaches in those who suffer from high blood pressure, and this is due to The fact that excess salt draws water into the bloodstream more intensively, which increases its volume and leads to increased pressure.
GERD
When acid leaks into the esophagus toward the throat, this is called acid reflux, a health condition that increases with eating certain foods, such as fried foods and spicy foods.
In general, many people with gastroesophageal reflux disease complain of headache after eating due to the worsening of symptoms, and this complaint is resolved by treating the underlying problem with the available treatment options, according to the American website, The Greatist.
Other cases
In some cases, a person may think that his headache is related to the food he eats or the timing of his meals, but the matter may be more complicated.
One possibility that you might have a headache after eating is trigeminal neuralgia, a headache that occurs after eating when you have diabetes, and another possibility, although rare, that you have a brain tumor.