A new study suggests that exercising for just two and a half hours a week can reduce the risk of migraines.
Researchers at a headache clinic at the University of Washington examined the amount of exercise achieved weekly by patients diagnosed with migraines.
They found that exercising above the two-and-a-half-hour threshold, the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), reduces the triggers for migraines such as anxiety and poor quality sleep.
In their sample of more than 4,500 adults with migraines, 73% received less than two and a half hours a week.
Migraine is a common health condition, affecting around one in five women and around 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 disease that affects millions of people in the United States, and yet exercising regularly can be an effective way to reduce the frequency and intensity,” said the study’s author, Dr. Mason Dyess, of the University of Washington in Seattle.
‘Exercise releases natural painkillers called endorphins, helps you sleep better and reduces stress.
“But if people with migraines don’t exercise, they may not get those benefits.”
When most of us hear the word “migraine,” we usually think of a very intense headache.
One UK patient described a migraine as a “throbbing, throbbing pain that is so intense 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.
“Migraines are a neurological disease that involves nerve pathways and chemicals,” said Brandeis Brockman, a nurse practitioner at Delancey Internal Medicine in the United States who did not participate in this study.
According to Dr. Dyess, headache is a general term that includes migraines.
Dr Dyess and his team specifically examined three causes or “triggers” of migraine listed on the NHS website: depression, anxiety and sleep problems.
The study involved 4,647 people, all of whom had been diagnosed with migraine, but with different levels of severity.
About three-quarters experienced “chronic” migraines, meaning they had 15 or more migraines a month. The others had “episodic” migraines, up to 14 a month.
Participants completed a questionnaire about their characteristics of migraine, sleep, depression, stress, anxiety, and the amount of “moderate to vigorous” exercise they did each week.
Types of exercise described as “moderate to vigorous” included jogging, brisk walking, playing sports, cycling, and even “intense cleaning.”
The researchers divided participants into five groups according to moderate to vigorous weekly exercise level: zero minutes, one to 30 minutes, 31 to 90 minutes, 91 minutes to two and a half hours, and more than two to one. . half an hour.
They found that 1,270 people (27%) of all people in the study reported doing the most exercise (more than two and a half hours a week).
In addition, people who received less than two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week had increased rates of the three triggers: depression, anxiety, and sleep problems.
47% of the people in the non-exercised group reported depression, or 377 of 806 people, compared with 25% of the people in the most exercising group, or 318 of 1,270 people.
In addition, 39% of people in the non-exercise group reported anxiety compared to 28% of people in the high-exercise group.
Finally, 77% of the people in the non-exercise group reported sleep problems compared to 61% in the high-exercise group.
People who exercised less than two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week had increased rates of the three triggers: depression, anxiety, and sleep problems (stock image)
“Our analysis suggests that the level of exercise below the level recommended by the WHO correlates with an increase in the rate of depression, anxiety and sleep problems,” the experts report.
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% had a low frequency of headache, defined as zero to four days of headache per month, and 48% had a high frequency of headache, defined as 25 or more days of headache. per month.
Of the people in the high exercise group who did more than two and a half hours a week, 10% had a low frequency of headaches and 28% had a high frequency of headaches.
While there are some medications for migraines, including some types of sleeping pills, exercise may be the cheapest treatment there is.
“There are new therapeutics 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 will be held from Aug. 17-22. ‘April.
“People with migraines should consider incorporating more exercise into their daily lives because it can be a safe and economical way to manage and minimize some of the other problems that often accompany migraines.”
According to the NHS, physical triggers such as poor posture and intense exercise if you are not used to it can also cause migraines.
Dietary triggers include lost, delayed or irregular meals, dehydration, alcohol, caffeine, and foods that contain the substance tyramine.
Tyramine is found in sausages, yeast extracts, pickled herring, smoked fish and certain cheeses such as cheddar, stilton and camembert.