Have you ever experienced one of those annoying headaches that's right behind your eyes, and it makes it even more difficult to concentrate or even keep your eyes open? You dismiss it, think of it as stress or getting too much screen time—but what if it's something more? Headaches related to eyes are a real thing, and they tend to go unnoticed until they begin affecting your daily activities. Whether you're always on your computer, missing eye exams, or simply believe it's "normal" to reach for a pain reliever and tough it out, this tale is your reminder to pause and pay attention to what your body—and even more specifically, your eyes—are trying to say.

Headaches are a common experience—unwelcome, usually inconvenient, and usually dismissed as the aftermath of a long day or hectic schedule but when that headache targets the back of your eyes and starts disrupting your daily routine, it's time to listen more intently. That is not tension alone it may be your body communicating something more.

For health professionals, especially ophthalmologists, chronic headaches that focus around or behind the eyes can be more than mere stress. They can be indicative of latent ocular or neurological conditions that require professional intervention. To learn when a headache can be more than just about stress—and when it's time to seek medical attention—we spoke with Dr. Neeraj Sanduja, an eye surgeon and ophthalmologist.

Link Between Your Headaches and Eyes

The eyes are intricate, high-performance organs which are used continuously—whether reading, driving, or working on computer screens. When they're being worked too hard or strained from underlying problems, they tend to express discomfort as headaches. These would usually be known as ocular headaches, and in contrast to those caused by stress, they can be accompanied with characteristic signs like eye pain, pressure, redness, or visual changes.

Dr Neeraj says, "The eyes are complex organs that work tirelessly throughout the day. When they are strained or affected by underlying conditions, the resulting discomfort can manifest as headaches. These headaches are often referred to as ocular headaches and can have specific characteristics that differentiate them from other types."

Curiously, pain felt in or around the eye isn't necessarily from the eye. Most of these are "referred pain"—a condition in which pain is felt in one location but is caused by another. This is why it is so easy to miss the actual cause, particularly when visual symptoms are minimal or none at all.

Signs Your Headache Isn't Just Stress

While stress is sure to produce headaches, the following indicators could mean that your headache stems from an eye condition or some other health problem:

1. Frequent or Daily Headaches Behind the Eyes

If you’re waking up with headaches or experiencing them routinely at the end of your workday, eye strain may be playing a central role. This is especially common in people with undiagnosed vision issues or those who stare at screens for extended hours.

2. Blurred or Fluctuating Vision

Headaches with associated changes in your ability to see clearly may point to issues like astigmatism or imbalance of the eye muscles. Such vision inconsistencies make the eyes work harder, resulting in pain that is referred to the temples or brow.

3. Eye Pain Without Redness or Obvious Irritation

If your eye appears to be fine but you still have pain in deep or rear parts of your eye, it might be connected to neurological or inflammatory disorders like optic neuritis. This necessitates urgent professional attention to eliminate pressure buildup or other severe conditions.

4. Glare, Halos, or Nausea

Conditions like glaucoma may raise intraocular pressure, leading to severe headaches and sensations like halos around lights, vomiting, or extreme eye pain. These are warning signs of the utmost concern that need immediate attention.

5. Difficulty with Focus and Coordination

A less familiar condition known as binocular vision dysfunction happens when the eyes are slightly out of alignment. This causes eye muscles to overwork, causing headaches, dizziness, and problems concentrating. Even slight misalignments can drastically affect your quality of life.

Dr Neeraj shares a list of causes which could indicate more than just a simple headache, indicating towards a serious problem at times.

Common Eye-Related Causes of Headaches

Eye Strain (Asthenopia): Prolonged activities like reading, using digital screens, or driving can strain the eye muscles. This strain often leads to a dull ache around the eyes or temples.

Uncorrected Vision Problems: Conditions such as nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), or astigmatism can cause the eyes to work harder to focus. This extra effort may result in headaches, especially after activities that require sustained focus.

Incorrect or Outdated Prescription Glasses: Wearing glasses or contact lenses with an incorrect prescription can strain the eyes, leading to headaches. Regular eye checkups are crucial to ensure your prescription is up to date.

Computer Vision Syndrome (Digital Eye Strain): Spending long hours in front of screens without adequate breaks can cause headaches due to digital eye strain. Symptoms may also include dry eyes, blurred vision, and neck pain.

Glaucoma: This condition increases intraocular pressure and can cause intense headaches, often around the eyes. Headaches due to glaucoma may be accompanied by symptoms like nausea, vomiting, or halos around lights.

Eye Muscle Imbalance: Misalignment of the eyes, even if minor, can lead to strain as the muscles work harder to maintain focus. This condition, known as binocular vision dysfunction, can cause frequent headaches.

Inflammatory Eye Conditions: Conditions like uveitis or optic neuritis (inflammation of the optic nerve) may cause severe headaches along with other symptoms such as vision changes or eye redness.

When to Seek Professional Help?

Dr Neeraj recommends, "If you experience headaches frequently and suspect they might be related to your eyes, it’s important to consult an ophthalmologist." If you’ve tried lifestyle adjustments, hydration, and stress management, and your headaches still persist, it’s time to look beyond the usual suspects. Consider seeking medical attention if:

- The headache is persistent or worsening.

- The headache is accompanied by blurry vision, eye pain, or redness.

- There are additional symptoms such as nausea, sensitivity to light, or difficulty focusing.

- You haven’t had a comprehensive eye examination in over a year.

Even if your symptoms appear to be under control, getting checked out early can avoid complications and reveal underlying conditions that could otherwise go undetected.

Diagnosis and Treatment for Eye-Related Headache

When you go to see an ophthalmologist for headaches, the test normally involves a complete determination of your visual acuity, intraocular pressure, and assessment of the optic nerves. Often, the issue might not be in the eye itself but how the eyes work together or how external usage such as screen time is affecting their health.

Depending on the diagnosis, your treatment could include:

• Corrected vision eyeglasses or contact lenses, updated.
• Lifestyle changes such as the 20-20-20 rule: look 20 feet away every 20 minutes for 20 seconds.
• Surgery or even medication for more severe conditions like glaucoma.
• Vision exercises or therapy for binocular vision dysfunction.

Prevention and Long-Term Eye Care

To avoid eye-related headaches, begin with routine eye exams—even if you don't wear glasses. When working extensively on computers or other digital devices, keep your work area well-lit, employ blue light filters, and take regular visual breaks. Drinking water and stress management will also contribute to overall eye and brain health.

It's also worth mentioning that kids and adolescents increasingly are also coming in with similar symptoms, particularly with our screen-dominated life. So, parents are to stay vigilant about behavioral signs such as irritability, squinting, or complaints of eye strain in younger generations.

All headaches are not equal. If yours center around or behind the eyes, or if they come with visual problems as a bonus, don't attribute them to stress without a probe. Your eyes may be sending a message your body can't ignore.

Dr Neeraj Sanduja is a MBBS, MS, Ophthalmologist, and Eye Surgeon at Viaan Eye and Retina Centre in India

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, over 1.2 billion people ages 30 to 79 have hypertension. The number has increased from 650 million in 1990 to 1.2 billion in 2021. This increase is attributed to many factors, including lifestyle factors, which include salty indulgence, stress, and screen time which has been increased. These three impact your blood pressure levels, know how.

What Are The Three S Worsening Your Blood Pressure?

Salt

As per the Harvard Heart Publishing, an average American consumes the equivalent of about 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt per day, which is 50% more than the recommended amount.

About a third of healthy people and about 60% of people with high blood pressure are salt sensitive.

How does salt affects blood pressure?

When you consume too much sodium, your body holds on to extra water to balance the sodium levels. This added fluid increases the volume of blood in your vessels, which in turn raises your blood pressure and forces your heart to work harder. High sodium intake can also reduce the effectiveness of certain blood pressure medications. For example, diuretics help eliminate excess sodium and water, while vasodilators work by relaxing the blood vessels. However, a high-sodium diet makes your body retain fluid again, refilling those relaxed vessels and undoing the medication's effects.

Stress

As per the official publication of State Medical Society of Wisconsin, stress can cause hypertension through repeated blood pressure elevations as well as by stimulation of the nervous system to produce large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that increase blood pressure. Factors affecting blood pressure through stress include white coat hypertension, job strain, race, social environment, and emotional distress.

As per National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, around 50 million American adults live with hypertension, defined as a systolic blood pressure over 139 mm Hg or diastolic pressure over 89 mm Hg. In about 95% of these cases, the condition is classified as "essential" hypertension, meaning there’s no single identifiable cause. However, experts agree that multiple factors—including stress—can contribute to rising blood pressure in these individuals.

Screentime

As per a 2024 study published in Cureus, hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease. The study links the increased accessibility of smartphones with the increasing hypertension.

This study explored the relationship between screen time and blood pressure (BP) among young adults.

The study also noted that higher screen time was more common among individuals using multiple devices. The prevalence of elevated BP in the sample was 35.8%, aligning with national data and raising concerns about the cardiovascular health of young adults.

Previous studies support these concerns. For instance, Nang et al. and Martinez-Gomez et al. linked prolonged TV viewing to higher BP and an adverse cardiovascular risk profile in adolescents. However, these relied on self-reported data. Other risk factors, such as age, gender, obesity, inactivity, and substance use, have also been linked to hypertension.

Women’s reproductive health is a sensitive subject. Even though there have been many advancements in women’s healthcare, large gaps in research and medical well-being of women have been observed. The general lack of information regarding women’s healthcare and education have also been highlighted in the recent years.

While you may think it is not a matter of urgency, a new report found a very concerning toxin in tampons, levels of which were higher than what is even allowed in drinking water.

A new report from two groups, the Women's Environmental Network (WEN) and Pesticide Action Network UK, has raised serious concerns. They found harmful chemicals in many of the menstrual products sold in regular stores across Britain. The study was particularly worried about finding pesticides, especially glyphosate, which is the most common weed killer used worldwide, in these products that women use in a very sensitive part of their bodies.

Disturbing Levels of Pesticides Detected

The findings are quite shocking. Tampons are a largely used menstruation product, which soaks the menstrual blood by insertion in the vaginal canal. The World Health Organization, a global health authority, has said that glyphosate probably causes cancer. Even more alarmingly, one box of tampons had levels of glyphosate that were 40 times higher than what's legally allowed in drinking water!

It's thought this happens because the pesticide might be sprayed on the cotton crops that are used to make tampons. The report also found another dangerous chemical called chlorpyrifos in some tampons. This is an insecticide that's actually banned in the UK because it can harm the brain and nervous system.

The report was very clear about how serious this is: they said that for some chemicals, there's no safe amount, so any trace found in period products should be less than what can even be detected.

Direct Threat to Health

There's worry about how these chemicals might affect health. This is because a part of the body that absorbs things very easily, the vagina, lets chemicals skip the body's natural cleaning systems and go straight into the blood. People are saying this isn't just careless, it's actually dangerous. They also feel it's wrong that these kinds of chemicals are still in period products today.

Lack of Regulation and Impact on Farmers

The report pointed out a major problem: there are no specific rules in the UK for these products. Manufacturers don't have to tell you what's in their products, and there are no laws to stop pesticide residue from ending up in the final product you buy.

The issue also affects cotton farmers. The report highlighted that "cotton farmers are being exposed to toxic pesticides at concerning levels." Many of these farmers are women, and they face health risks every day from working with these dangerous pesticides both on their farms and even in their homes.

Demands for Clearer Information and Change

People are strongly demanding that the industry be more open. It's simply not okay that users don't know what's in products they use on such private parts of their bodies. There's an urgent need for companies to be transparent (show all ingredients), take accountability (be responsible for their products), and make real changes in how things are done. This is because everyone who has a period deserves better and safer products.

The report asks the government to act quickly:

• Test period products very strictly.
• Make it a legal rule for companies to list every ingredient and extra chemical.
• Include organic, disposable period products in free school programs.

Concern regarding pollution and how it affects our health is a worry that affects many of us worldwide. As years pass on by, the pollution levels are also increasing, and so is our mortality risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that exposure to air pollution is strongly linked with stroke, ischaemic heart disease, lung diseases etc. However, these are not the only things you must worry about when it comes to air pollution exposure. A new study shows that it could also affect the way our brain functions.

A study from Italy, published in a science journal called iScience, found a really important clue in our genes. It seems that when we breathe in polluted air, it can actually change how our genes work in the brain. Think of it like flipping a switch that creates the perfect conditions for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to start growing.

Early Warning Signs and High-Risk Groups

The researchers saw some worrying changes even in young adults. Their brain tissue showed signs of DNA damage that looked a lot like what you'd see in someone with Alzheimer's – but decades before they would normally be diagnosed. This is a huge red flag.

Certain jobs also put people at a higher risk. If you're a miner, factory worker, or driver, you're exposed to more polluted air. Even people who work with plastics face a hidden danger from tiny particles called nanoparticles that can get into their brains.

But here's some good news: this discovery could mean doctors can check for these changes without needing to do anything invasive, like surgery. They might be able to test for something called extracellular vesicles. These are like tiny packages that carry material from damaged brain cells. So, if we can test for these packages, it could give us an early warning sign from the brain itself.

Understanding the Complexities and Taking Precautions

It's clear that being generally unhealthy and breathing polluted air from a young age can increase your risk of these brain conditions. However, we still need a lot more research to fully understand how everything is connected. Experts from News Medical have pointed out that studying air pollution is tricky because the air we breathe in the real world is a mix of many different pollutants.

To help protect yourself on days when pollution levels are high, organizations like Asthma + Lung UK suggest some simple steps:

• Stay indoors as much as possible.
• Avoid exercising outside, especially vigorous activity.
• If you're walking, try to stay away from busy roads with heavy traffic.
• Keep your car windows closed when driving in traffic.
• If you do want to be active outdoors, try to do it earlier in the day, as the air tends to be cleaner then.

Looking Ahead: Prevention and Policy

There's a big call for more research to understand how air pollution affects younger people and other parts of our brain's thinking abilities. The results of this research could lead to exciting new ways to prevent these diseases. It could also push for better safety rules in workplaces, stricter environmental standards to clean up our air, and even new laws to protect public health from air pollution.