Exercising for just two and a half hours a week can reduce the risk of migraines, a new study suggests.
Researchers at a headache clinic at the University of Washington analyzed the number of exercises performed per week by patients diagnosed with migraine.
They found that exercise over the two and a half hour limit – the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) – reduces migraine triggers, such as anxiety and poor sleep.
In their sample of more than 4,500 adults with migraines, 73 percent spent less than two and a half hours a week, they found.
Migraine is a common health condition, affecting about one in five women and about one in 15 men, according to the NHS.
Regular exercise can be an effective way to reduce the frequency and intensity of a migraine, which causes intense, throbbing pain that
“Migraine is a disabling condition that affects millions of people in the United States, yet regular exercise can be an effective way to reduce the frequency and intensity,” said study author Dr. Mason Dyess of the University of Washington in Seattle.
“Exercise releases natural painkillers called endorphins, helps people to sleep better and reduces stress.
“But if people with migraines don’t exercise, they may not be reaping those benefits.”
When most of us hear the word “migraine”, we tend to think of a very severe headache.
One sufferer in the UK described migraine as “a throbbing, throbbing pain, so intense that you would do anything to stop it”.
But headaches are just a symptom of migraines and can vary in severity and duration, according to another expert.
“Migraine is a neurological disease that involves nerve pathways and chemicals,” said Brandeis Brockman, a nurse at Delancey Internal Medicine in the United States, who was not involved in this study.
According to Dr. Dyess, headache is a generic term that includes migraines.
Dr. Dyess and his team looked specifically at three causes or ‘triggers’ of migraine that are listed on the NHS website – depression, anxiety and sleep problems.
The study involved 4,647 people, all diagnosed with migraine, but with different levels of severity.
Approximately three-quarters experienced “chronic” migraines, meaning that they had 15 or more migraines a month. The others had ‘episodic’ migraines – up to 14 per month.
Participants answered a questionnaire about the characteristics of migraine, sleep, depression, stress, anxiety and the amount of “moderate to vigorous” exercise they did each week.
The types of exercises classified as “moderate to vigorous” include running, walking very fast, playing sports, cycling and even “heavy cleaning”.
The researchers divided the participants into five groups based on the level of moderate to vigorous weekly exercise – zero minutes, one to 30 minutes, 31 to 90 minutes, 91 minutes to two and a half hours and more than two and a half hours.
They found that 1,270 people (27 percent) of all people in the study reported doing the greatest amount of exercise (more than two and a half hours a week).
In addition, people who did less than two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week increased the rates of the three triggers – depression, anxiety and sleep problems.
Depression was reported by 47 percent of people in the group who did not exercise, or 377 out of 806 people, compared with 25 percent of people in the group who exercised the most, or 318 out of 1,270 people.
In addition, anxiety was reported by 39 percent of people in the non-exercise group compared to 28 percent of people in the intense exercise group.
Finally, sleep problems were reported by 77 percent of people in the non-exercise group, compared with 61 percent in the intense exercise group.
People who did less than two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week increased the rates of the three triggers – depression, anxiety and sleep problems (stock image)
“Our analysis suggests that the level of exercise below that recommended by the WHO is correlated with an increased rate of depression, anxiety and sleep problems,” report the experts.
The researchers also found an association between exercise and the risk of migraines or any other type of headache.
Of the people in the group without exercise, 5 percent had a low frequency of headache, defined as zero to four days of headache per month, and 48 percent had a high frequency of headache, defined as 25 or more days of headache. headache per month.
Of the people in the intense exercise group who exercised more than two and a half hours a week, 10 percent had a low frequency of headache and 28 percent had a high frequency of headache.
While there are some migraine medications, including some types of sleeping pills, exercise can be the cheapest treatment out there.
“There are new therapies available for migraine, but they are very expensive,” said Dr. Dyess, who will present his findings at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, which takes place virtually April 17-22.
‘People with migraines should consider incorporating more exercise into their daily lives because it can be a safe and inexpensive way to manage and minimize some of the other problems that often accompany migraines.
According to the NHS, physical triggering factors like poor posture and strenuous exercise, if you’re not used to it, can also cause migraines.
Dietary triggers include missed, late or irregular meals, dehydration, alcohol, caffeine and foods containing the substance tyramine.
Tyramine is found in cured meats, yeast extracts, pickled herring, smoked fish and certain cheeses such as cheddar, stilton and camembert.