Exercising 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 looked at the amount of exercise performed per week by patients diagnosed with migraines.
They showed that exercise above the two-and-a-half-hour threshold – the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) – reduces migraine triggers such as anxiety and poor quality sleep.
In their sample of more than 4,500 adults with migraines, 73 percent got less than two and a half hours a week, they found.
Migraine is a common health condition that affects 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, causing intense, throbbing pain
“Migraine is a disability that affects millions of people in the United States, and regular exercise can be an effective way to reduce its frequency and intensity,” he said. Mason Dyess of the University of Washington in Seattle said.
Exercise releases natural painkillers called endorphins, helps people sleep better and reduces stress.
“But if people do not exercise with migraines, they may not reap these benefits.”
When most of us hear the word ‘migraine’, we tend to think of a very serious headache.
One sufferer in the UK described migraines as ‘throbbing, throbbing pain that is so intense that you will do anything to stop it’.
But headaches are only one symptom of migraines, and according to another expert, they can vary in severity and length.
“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 the study.
According to Dr. Dyess, headaches are an umbrella term that includes migraines.
Dr Dyess and his team specifically looked at three causes or ‘triggers’ of migraines listed on the NHS website – depression, anxiety and sleep problems.
The study involved 4,647 people, all of whom were diagnosed with migraines but with varying degrees of severity.
About three-quarters experienced ‘chronic’ migraines, meaning they had 15 or more migraines per month. The others had ‘episodic’ migraines – up to 14 per month.
Participants completed a questionnaire on their migraine characteristics, sleep, depression, stress, anxiety, and the amount of ‘moderate to vigorous’ exercise they receive each week.
Types of exercise that qualified ‘moderate to vigorous’ included jogging, very fast walking, a sport, cycling and even ‘heavy cleaning’.
Researchers divided participants into five groups based on the degree 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-‘n- half an hour.
They found that 1,270 people (27 percent) of all the people in the study reported having the most exercise (more than two and a half hours per week).
In addition, people who had less than two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise per week had increased doses of the three triggers – depression, anxiety and sleep problems.
47 percent of the people in the group who did not exercise, or 377 of 806 people, reported depression, compared with 25 percent of the people in the group who exercised the most, or 318 of 1,270 people.
In addition, anxiety was reported by 39 percent of the people in the group who had no exercise, compared to 28 percent of the people in the group for high exercise.
Finally, 77 percent of the people in the group who did not exercise reported sleep problems, compared with 61 percent in the high-exercise group.
People who had less than two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise per week had increased doses of the three triggers – depression, anxiety and sleep problems (stock image)
“Our analysis suggests that exercise levels below the recommended level are correlated by the WHO with an increased rate of depression, anxiety and sleep problems,” the experts report.
Researchers have also found an association between exercise and the risk of migraines or any other type of headache.
Of people in the group who had no exercise, 5 percent had low headache frequency, defined as zero to four headache days per month, and 48 percent had a high headache frequency, defined as 25 or more headache days per month.
Of the people in the high-exercise group who exercised for more than two and a half hours per week, 10 percent had a low headache rate and 28 percent a high headache rate.
Although there are some medications for migraines, including some types of sleeping pills, exercise may be the cheapest there is.
“There are new drugs available for migraines, 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 virtually April 17-22.
“People with migraines should consider incorporating more exercise into their daily lives, as it can be a safe and inexpensive way to manage and reduce some of the other problems often associated with migraines.”
According to the NHS, physical triggers such as poor posture and strenuous exercise if you are not used to it can also cause migraines.
Dietary problems include missed, delayed or irregular meals, dehydration, alcohol, caffeine and foods containing the substance tyramine.
Tyramine is found in cured meats, yeast extracts, pickled herrings, smoked fish and certain cheeses such as cheddar, stilton and camembert.