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Is Exercise Good or Bad for Migraines?
Here’s what experts know — and don’t know — about physical activity and intense headaches
Corina Froese had her first severe headache when she was 11. “I had never experienced that kind of sensation before. I remember realizing, ‘Oh, this must be what a headache is,’” she says. By the time she was 14, she was vomiting and sensitive to light, sounds, and smells whenever an excruciating migraine ruined her night.
As she entered her twenties the migraines became more frequent (five times a month) and intense, to the point where all she could do was lay down in complete darkness. She tried to identify and avoid her triggers, but nothing seemed to help. She also started working out, eventually finding a high-intensity group fitness class she took once a week. “Within about three classes, I started to notice that, like clockwork, later that afternoon, I’d have a migraine,” says Froese, who was 26 at the time.
She loved the endorphin rush, so the Clearwater, Florida resident managed the resulting pain with a combination of ice on her head, over-the-counter migraine medication, and sleeping. After three years, though, the post-workout migraines were too much. “I have never liked any workout as much as that class, but I just couldn’t continue,” she says. Froese switched to indoor cycling, which, to her surprise, actually helped her migraines.
“The brains of people who have migraines want things to be the same all the time.”
Like Froese, many of the 39 million Americans who experience migraines report that working out can induce intense head pain, oftentimes causing them to give up sports and activities they love. Migraines are the sixth-most disabling illness in the world, causing throbbing, pulsing head pain, often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light, sound, and odors. In the past, researchers believed the dilation and constriction of blood vessels in the head caused migraines. However, “the pathophysiology of migraine is very complex and is far more so than we once thought,” says Kevin Weber, MD, a neurologist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. What experts do know is that several things can trigger a migraine, including…
