Headache Hub
Your headache has a name.
Specialists recognize more than 300 headache types. Knowing which one fits you changes the conversation with your doctor. These guides explain the most common ones and the criteria specialists actually use.
Condition guides
The five headache types people ask about most
- 14.4%global prevalence
Migraine
Most common disabling type
Throbbing, often one-sided pain with nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
ICHD-3 category 1Read the guide - 78%lifetime prevalence
Tension-type headache
Most prevalent overall
Bilateral pressing or tightening pain of mild to moderate intensity.
ICHD-3 category 2Read the guide - 0.1%prevalence
Cluster headache
Severe and distinctive
Excruciating one-sided pain around the eye with tearing, congestion, and restlessness.
ICHD-3 code 3.1Read the guide - 25%of migraine includes aura
Ocular migraine
Visual symptoms
Zigzag lines, blind spots, and shimmering lights - visual aura with or without headache.
Aura lasts 5 to 60 minRead the guide - 1%prevalence, often missed
Vestibular migraine
Dizziness and balance
Episodes of vertigo or dizziness in people with a history of migraine.
ICHD-3 appendix A1.6.6Read the guide
Prevalence figures reflect published epidemiological literature.
A note on sudden, severe headache: a headache that reaches maximum intensity within seconds to a minute (thunderclap headache) is a medical emergency. Seek immediate medical care rather than an online resource.
The clinical standard
Why ICHD-3 matters
The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition, is the taxonomy neurologists and headache specialists use worldwide.
Category 1
Migraine
Including aura subtypes, chronic migraine, and complications.
Category 2
Tension-type headache
Episodic and chronic forms of the most common headache.
Category 3
Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias
Cluster headache, paroxysmal hemicrania, SUNCT and related disorders.
Category 4
Other primary headache disorders
New daily persistent headache, hypnic headache, and more.
Where Ember fits
Reading helps. Tracking changes the visit.
Describe it in your own words
No forms, no tap-to-log grids. Tell Ember what the headache felt like and it captures the details that matter clinically.
See your pattern over time
Frequency, triggers, medications, and how attacks evolve - tracked as they happen instead of reconstructed from memory.
Share a history your doctor can use
Your record becomes a structured, ICHD-3-aware summary, so the visit starts at the decision instead of the data gathering.
Ember helps you track and organize your headache history. It does not diagnose, and it never replaces evaluation by a clinician.
Questions