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A Reader Answers: Can Exercise Help With Migraines?

Fit Community — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:52:16 PST

FitSugar reader JessicaSmithTV wanted to know: can exercise help with migraines? She asked an expert and posted the answer in our Fit Community.

Today's post comes to us from special guest contributor and medical expert Paul Rizzoli, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School:

When you’re prone to migraines you’re forced to think through whether or not something you do will invite a headache into your life. Exercise is definitely one of those things. Should you skip a workout because you feel a migraine coming on? Or is it better to push through in the hopes a little sweat will make you feel better?

Most headache specialists recommend exercise and an increase in overall physical activity to their patients. However, to date, there’s skimpy evidence to support the idea that working out actually guards against migraine attacks. A few studies have shown that taking regular exercise can reduce the severity, though not the number of headaches.

Keep reading to see what studies say about exercise and migraine relief after the break!

Ease Tension With These Headache Remedies For Your Desk

Anna Monette Roberts — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:35:29 PDT

When tension headaches creep up, you can forget about having a productive day. Often due to tight, contracted muscles in your shoulders, neck, scalp, and jaw, tension headaches result from stress, depression, or anxiety. Getting enough sleep, eating balanced meals, and maintaining a Zen state will help reduce your likelihood of headaches. It's unlikely that you're boss will let you take five in a lotus position; however, here are some desk-appropriate stretches and natural supplements that can help ease the throbbing pain while you are at the office.

Before Popping Pills, Cure Your Headache With These Yoga Poses

Jenny Sugar — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:49:14 PDT

I don't get headaches often, but when I do, I'm not a fan of popping pills. I do these simple yoga poses instead, which really helps put an end to the pain. Headaches can be caused by a variety of reasons like tension in your neck, tight shoulders, or back pain. These yoga poses are designed to gently stretch and open those areas, while circulating blood to your head. You can do one pose, a few, or follow the entire sequence.

Source: Thinkstock

Prevent Migraines With Magnesium

FitSugar — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:00:03 PDT

When I asked my doctor about ways to prevent migraines, she recommended I take a magnesium (oxide) supplement. I headed to my closest drugstore and picked up a bottle of Nature's Bounty Magnesium supplement (500 mg), and I've been taking one pill every morning for the last few weeks.

Even though it's been less than a month, since taking the mineral supplement I've been headache and migraine free! This even includes the times that I've had red wine, which is one of my triggers. In the last few months I've also been incorporating foods that prevent migraines into my diet, like topping my yogurt and fruit with ground flaxseed. But I didn't notice a drastic change until I started taking magnesium. Have you tried any supplements to rid you of your ailments? Any other tips for saying goodbye to migraines?

The Unintended Side Effects of Movies in 3D

FitSugar — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:00:45 PDT

The 3D trend may be great for the movie and television industries, but it's literally making some moviegoers sick. In five percent of the population, moves in 3D can actually induce motion sickness. The cause lies in your eyes; 3D movies impose two slightly different images on top of one another, creating depth perception. Both of your eyes have to work together to create the proper three-dimensional image, and when this doesn't happen properly, you can experience side effects.

Though most people aren't likely to experience motion sickness from a 3D film, as many as 30 percent of the movie-going population suffers from a milder vision issue, causing side effects like headaches and eye strain. "The problem comes in with people who have 3D vision but have a weak fusional mechanism. Your eyes are having to work harder. The brain is sending extra impulses to keep the eyes in alignment," says a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. When forcing your eyes to view 3D images for an extended period of time, viewers can start to feel eye strain, fatigue, or in extreme cases, motion sickness.

Conflicting messages to your brain add to your body's confusion. When you're watching an extremely realistic movie in 3D, but sitting still, your brain processes a false sense of movement. In sensitive viewers, this is leads to the nausea and headaches associated with motion sickness. If watching movies in 3D makes you queasy - but not queasy enough to give up your beloved flicks - an over-the-counter motion sickness medication should give you some relief.

Got a Headache? Try a Natural Remedy

FitSugar — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:47:13 PDT

If you've got a headache, the easiest thing to do is reach for a bottle of ibuprofen or aspirin and pop a few pills. But over-the-counter cures aren't always the best option; you shouldn't take ibuprofen while drinking, for instance, or maybe you're worried about interactions with other drugs.

Thankfully, there are plenty of natural remedies for headaches. Some of these are tried and true, while others are unproven but have people who swear by them. If you've ever had an awful headache, you know that sometimes you'll try anything. So if you've used these or any other natural remedies, chime in and let us know what worked! To see five natural remedies to try,

Got Headaches? Could Be the Weather

FitSugar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:00:00 PDT

I've always wondered if weather-induced headaches are an old wives' tale, and I'm not the only one. A group of medical researchers in Boston recently conducted a study of 7,000 emergency-room patients to see if weather really could cause migraines. Turns out, it can, but differently than you might think.

According to NPR, a study published in the new issue of Neurology found that spikes in temperature often cause headaches. The researchers studied 7,000 patients suffering from both migraines and unspecified headaches, and for both groups, a big uptick in temperature correlated with a higher incidence of headaches. But what about that other common headache culprit, barometric pressure? To find out,

read more. Though the correlation between headaches and barometric pressure was weaker, the docs did notice that headaches were often preceded by low barometric pressure in the days before a hospital visit. Humidity and pollution variables, at least in this study, didn't seem to matter. Here's more:

According to the findings, on the days of the hospital visits the air temperature tended to be warmer. In fact, for every 9 degrees Fahrenheit increase in temperature, [Dr. Kenneth] Mukamal found a 7.5 percent increase in the risk of a headache severe enough to provoke a trip to emergency room. . . . It's not that the hotter it was, the more likely patients were to have a headache, Mukamal stresses. Rather, it is the temperature increase that matters.

I've definitely gotten headaches when the weather suddenly gets warmer, so I find this news pretty enlightening. How about you? Source

Migraines Decrease Breast Cancer Risk

FitSugar — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:00:00 PST

Migraine sufferers take note! In an odd twist of hormone level functions, it looks like your pain might be protecting you. A new study discovered that women who have a history of migraines also have a 30 percent lower risk for developing breast cancer. Cancer researchers know that high levels of estrogen in the blood can increase a woman's risk for breast cancer. The thing about women who suffer from migraines is that they generally have low levels of estrogen. Even though the low levels of this hormone may trigger these agonizing episodes, it may also act as protection from the disease. This new data doesn't do much to help stop migraines, but it may help point researchers in new directions when it comes to finding ways to preventing certain types of hormone-related breast cancer.

Source

Surprising Headache Triggers

FitSugar — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:30:00 PST

Pain pounding at your temples can stop you in your tracks, make you grouchy and interfere with keeping up with your healthy lifestyle. To avoid headaches you need to avoid some common but unexpected triggers. WebMD has compiled a list a five surprising headache causes and here are highlights:

Perfume: Strong odors may activate the nose’s nerve cells, which stimulate the nerve system associated with head pain. Ironically, the offending scents are often pleasant. To remedy the situation look for scent-free products and when a perfume-induced headache strikes try aspirin or acetaminophen, but avoid pain relievers with caffeine.
Weather: Studies show that the headache prone are especially attuned to changes in barometric pressure, rising temperatures, high humidity, lightning, and cloudy skies. The meteorological shifts are thought to trigger chemical and electrical changes in the brain that irritate nerves - sometimes causing fairly dramatic pain. Try ice packs or take pain reliever before predicted weather changes.
Earrings, headbands, and ponytails: The muscle groups around your scalp don’t have pain fibers, but their connective tissues do. “Ponytail headaches” result when tightly pulled hair irritates the muscle system. And your swingy up-do isn’t the only thing contributing to your pain: Tight-fitting hats, headbands, and heavy earrings are also culprits.

There are two more reasons – one involves your belly and the other involves your sex life. Curious to see how these can cause headaches? Then

Being Overweight is More of a Headache Than You Think

FitSugar — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:30:00 PST

Getting a headache could be more related to your weight than you may have thought.

Recent studies from the New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Connecticut have found that being overweight may be contributing to getting headaches. It also claimed that overweight adults are twice more likely to suffer from headaches than non-overweight adults.

Why? Headaches are triggered by constricted blood vessels caused by inflammation. The research connected the dots since being overweight contributes to both inflammation and vascular diseases.

Interestingly enough exercise helps ease headaches and exercise also helps one lose weight. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone.