Truth is, that probably isn't much consolation to all you baby boomers who are now in your 50s, though. Remember when you didn't trust anyone over 30?
However, although senior citizens are less prone to migraines and clusters, they are more prone to headaches due to disease or medications. As you get older, your body responds to medicine differently so you are more susceptible to drug toxicity. You've no doubt known an elderly person who appeared to be senile, but it turned out he was simply over-medicated. Once all the drugs were stopped, he was like a new person.
Drugs which often cause headaches include those for high blood pressure, chest pain, lung disease, stomach problems, estrogen replacement, Parkinson's, and depression. They may also make existing chronic headaches worse.
Doctors don't have an easy time diagnosing the cause of headaches in older people. There is more likelihood of a chronic ilness for one thing, along with the drugs used as treatment for that illness. Older people are more likely to have degenerative disc disease or past trauma which can cause referred pain to the head.
Headaches that occur with exertion and improve with rest can be an indicator of heart disease or of poor circulation of blood to the brain. Morning headaches can indicate sleep apnea. Headaches in the elderly can indicate eye problems such as glaucoma, or perhaps temporal arteritis which I've written about before.
I wrote about subdural hemorrhages in the article about roller coaster headaches. In an elderly person the injury causing a subdural hematoma may be a seemingly trivial one. The symptoms are continuing headaches, drowsiness, and some confusion, but again this isn't easy to diagnose when the trauma wasn't serious enough to cause immediate suspicion.
Even though migraine decreases with age (to 5% of women and 2% of men by age 70) and only 2% of migraineurs have their first one after 65, there is a phenomenon called late life migraine. My husband has them, after suffering regular migraines from the age of 17 until he was in his 50s. Now he gets symptoms of lightheadedness, difficulty speaking, and a mild aura, but no headache. I've learned that this is not at all uncommon.
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