Migraine – Part 3

In part 1, I explore what a migraine was and how it differed from headaches  and they shared a herbal remedy, last week in part 2 I looked at potential nutrional diffciences.  This week, I want to explore some growing evidence about the impact of exercise.

When you are having a migraine it is natural to want to rest and for some people exercise can trigger a migraine.  So I was slightly surprise about the growing evidence that suggest exercise can help migraine sufferers.  Firstly, the evidence all relates to a certain type of exercise known as High Intentsity Interval Training (HIIT).  This is where you alternative periods of intense exercise with periods of less intense recovery.

Recently scientists compared the effects of twice weekly HIIT sessions with moderate continous exercise and a control intevention and found that HIIT had most beneficial results.  They found HIIT significantly reduced the munber of migraine days amoung sufferers.

Reference

Hanssen H, Minghetti A, Magon S, et al. Effects of different endurance exercise modalities on migraine days and cerebrovascular health in episodic migraineurs: A randomized controlled trial. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018;28:1103–1112. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13023

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