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Headaches among children due to dietary factors: expert

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Dr Tariq Abuyounus, senior ENT consultant and former deputy head of ENT at Dubai Hospital said headaches in children were largely caused by eating junk food, especially chocolates and other foodstuff that contained preservatives.

“This kind of foodstuff contains a lot of preservatives which if eaten in huge quantities, may trigger headaches,” he said.

Dr Abuyounus said that other reasons for headaches in children could be organic diseases such as fever and nose-blocks.

However, headaches in older school-going children could be due to stress. “In today’s world, there is a lot of competition. Especially during examination time, children feel the pressure building. They may, therefore, complain of headaches,” he said.

The ENT expert explained that headaches in adults were due to two causes. “It’s when adults are stressed out and wear out their muscles in the scalp (causing a muscular pain) and secondly due to migraine (vascular causes),” he said.

“As ENT specialists, we come across several cases in which headaches are caused due to sinuses or allergies. But if these are not the obvious reasons, then we have to investigate,” he explained.

Dr Abuyounus explained that an increasing number of people falling ill were due to stress caused by a hectic lifestyle. “Stress lowers the body’s immunity and makes people more prone to common illnesses such as headaches and colds and fever,” he added.

According to the doctor, people are faced with different kinds of stressful environments during the different phases of life.

“As a child, we are exposed to peer pressure, as adults we have job related stresses. In the UAE, like other places of a growing city, we face stress due to traffic. So we have to learn to cope with it by adopting a positive outlook towards life,” he said, adding that regular pain-killers could also work to reduce associated pains.

“When we are stressed out, we tend to neglect ourselves. We don’t eat well or sleep well. This makes us ill in the long run,” he added.

The doctor advised people to adopt a realistic and positive attitude towards life to counter stress.

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