Types of Headaches: What the Primary and Secondary Split Means for Diagnosis
The types of headaches doctors recognize fall into two groups: primary, where the headache is the disorder, and secondary, where it signals something else.
Claire Ashworth
Staff Writer
Claire Ashworth is a health writer, not a clinician. She spent a decade turning medical literature into language patients could actually use, first for a hospital library's patient-education desk, then for reference publishers. She writes on the principle that people facing a diagnosis deserve the real explanation, not a simplified one. She will tell you what is known, what is contested, and where the evidence runs out.
Articles by Claire Ashworth
Insulin: The Hormone That Unlocks the Cell, and What Happens When It Stops Working
How insulin works at the cell level: what the hormone does to blood sugar, how resistance develops, and what the manufactured versions replace.
Anemia: The Symptoms, and the Three Ways the Body Runs Short of Red Cells
Anemia symptoms and causes explained by mechanism: why low oxygen-carrying capacity produces fatigue and pallor, and the three ways red cells run short.
Arteriovenous Malformation: What the Tangle Is, How It Is Graded, and Why Watching Is a Real Option
An arteriovenous malformation is a tangle where arteries feed veins directly. How a brain AVM forms, how it is graded, and what decides its treatment.
Diabetic Ketoacidosis: The Chain Reaction Behind a Diabetes Emergency
How diabetic ketoacidosis develops, the DKA symptoms and diagnosis criteria clinicians use, hospital treatment, and why euglycemic DKA is harder to spot.