Everyone knows the stress of being in college.

It’s an old tune sung by all and will never cease, but those headaches that you are feeling aren’t all due to the hundreds of words that you are having to read in those nursing books or the three hour class that you are having to sit in on a Thurs. night. Those headaches are coming from many things that you would never suspect.

In those moments that you are beginning to feel a slowly pounding build up in your head, look around you. That sun might be doing a little more damage than just to your skin. Even in cooler weather when you are hanging around in the sun too long, those ever small glances that you might find yourself taking are causing pain to your corneas which builds up in on the optic nerves and causes those headaches that aren’t extremely painful but tend to have that dull aching feeling that hangs around an annoyingly long time.

A 2009 study published in the medical journal Neurology found that the risk for severe headaches increased about 7.5 percent for every nine-degree F the temperature rose. With temperature rise, your body is going to keep it cool, and in order to do that it has to pull blood away from your head and brain depriving it of oxygen which will of course lead to your head hurting.

When our heads start hurting we tend to grab the closest bottle of Advil or Ibroprofen and pop a couple to help that pain go away. Unfortunately, with all of the medicine that we take, we are causing more damage than any good. Freshmea psychology major Stacey Morvitz admitted that when she gets headaches she takes Tylenol to get rid of it.

“When taken too frequently, prescription narcotics or medicines containing caffeine and antihistamines can interfere with the brain’s pain-regulation system and lowers your pain threshold and makes your headache feel worse,” says Brian Grosberg, M.D., program director of the headache fellowship program at Montefiore Headache Center in the Bronx, N.Y

“I believe most of the blame for my headaches is from being overwhelmed and being tired. I also tend to get really bad headaches when I don’t eat,” said senior education major Nicholas Lopez.

The two main things that your brain needs are oxygen and glucose. When you may be having a busy day you tend to forget to do one of the simplest things that your body needs…eat. When this happens, your brain becomes like a cranky two-year-old that skipped nap time.

Even further than just needing food, you have to be careful about which foods that you eat because many will only add to the pain instead of help reduce it. When you already have a headache or are not going to be able to eat for a long period of time, avoid foods that contain tyramine, and amino acids will cause headaches because they can expand and constrict the blood vessels. Foods that fall into this line are cheeses such as cheddar, Swiss, blue cheese and luncheon meats like salami or bologna.

Eat your greens and whole grains because they deliver magnesium to your blood stream which will lower the chances of headaches by at least 50 percent.

Along with skipping meals or not eating the correct foods, majority of headaches can be traced back to the simple cause of dehydration. When we don’t drink enough water during the day our blood will thicken which of course causes it to become a slower circulation depriving our body of oxygen which triggers a brain chemical called serotonim that creates that pounding feeling in your temples.

When most people complain of constant headaches we often hear the excuse of daily stress and hear the sentence “I need a vacation” but surprisingly to many folks, restful vacations can actually make you suffer a prolonged headache instead of just the everyday hour or two decompressing break.

“As the strain of everyday life dissolves, levels of the stress hormones cortisol and noradrenalin decrease, sending neurotransmitters into the brain – and this can cause blood vessels to constrict and dilate,” according to a 2007 study published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain.

Now it’s time to hit the all time largest cause for headaches in our generation… those dang computers, TV screens and of course our constant companions, our phones. A study done in 2010 of more than 30,000 Scandinavian teenagers found that half of the teens experienced regular headaches when they would spend multiple hours a day in front of either a computer or a TV screen.

Despite the deadline that you have bearing down on you to finish that paper, it will serve you best to take a break to rest your eyes and look anywhere but at the screen. When watching TV, take better use of commercial breaks and busy your eyes somewhere besides the McDonalds commercials. When it comes to our phones, as hard as it may be, give it a time out (teachers will appreciate this as well) so when in class, shove your phone in your book bag and try not to look at that tiny screen every chance that you can. Your head will thank you for it later on.