Following up our discussion last time...
BY ONE ESTIMATE, 1 IN 25 adults and almost as many teenagers have at least as many days with headaches as without them. Many veterans of chronic headaches know exactly what will trigger the pain or make it more likely to happen, and take precautionary steps. They may avoid certain foods. They may take up yoga to offset stress at work. If sensitive to strong odors, they may ask friends and family to go light on perfume. Now researchers are learning that overall health is critical, too.
A study published today in Neurology links headaches with unhealthy lifestyle in teens, a group for which little data exists. Researchers in Norway looked at the relationship between three factors—smoking, weighing too much, and exercising too little—in adolescents ages 13 to 18. They found that any of those factors increased the likelihood of frequent headaches (by about 30 percent). Teens who fit all three categories were more than three times as likely as teens with no factors to be candidates for frequent headaches. There's no reason to think the results would not apply to adults. So both adults and adolescents can find headache relief by:
Exercising more. Thirty minutes of walking, biking, or other moderate physical activity at least three times a week is good for managing headaches, says Richard Lipton, a neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Exactly how exercise helps isn't clear, he says. It may reduce stress, a recognized cause of headaches. Following treadmill and other aerobic workouts, participants in a small Turkish study reported fewer and milder migraines, which researchers think was due to the rise in pain-fighting endorphins from the exercise. Getting fit, moreover, improves well-being and staves off other chronic conditions, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which research has also linked to headache...
The research you've gathered sparks an interest in how frequent headaches really are in everyone. Constantly, posts are circulating social media making light of how people question what their headaches are from. i.e. Stress, dehydration, lack of caffeine, too much caffeine, pressure (weather changes), etc. If they are in fact so common why aren't more studies being done on why they occur so that they can be stopped before they're started because it really seems to be that it's all just a question game.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely advocate for more research being done on this topic because I wish there was a way to finally relieve me of my constant throbbing headache for good. More research needa to be done in this area!0
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ReplyDeleteWhy do you think more studies aren't done to further understand why headaches occur and how to stop them before they happen instead of it just being a guessing game?
ReplyDelete"It's all in your head" is the glib all-purpose (and in this case especially badly-punny) dismissal too many headache sufferers hear from the medical establishment. (Again, if anybody would like a chiropractor recommendation let me know.)
ReplyDeleteI persibally hate that response because if it was all in my head, I would not be having headaches anymore and figured out a way to prevent them. I will accept your offer on a chiropractor recommendation and look into that for sure.
DeleteHeadaches could also signify a vision problem. Three years ago, I had an ocular migraine and developed a blind spot for several hours. I went to the eye doctor and they told me as needed glasses. Humans are so complex and our bodies do a pretty good job at telling us when something isn't working the way it should. I would recommend outside exercise rather than indoor. There is just something therapeutic about nature.
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