Migraine is a frustrating
condition for its sufferers. It’s expensive in terms of
pain, money, and pharmacological use need. Drugs are still
the “gold standard” of care. Patients often request choices from their
migraine healthcare providers for non-pharamacological options.
Williamson migraine sufferers want alternative ideas!
Apple Country Chiropractic puts forward that exercise may be one
such positive alternative.
EXERCISE FOR CHRONIC PAIN
Migraine is, for most Williamson migraine sufferers,
a chronic pain condition. It’s not usually a one and done condition. Chronic pain affects
the nervous system as well as the specific pain-generating
issue. Researchers described evidence that exercise helps a
variety of chronic pain conditions including migraine directly and indirectly
with an aim to change the cycle of pain,
sedentariness, and worsening disability. These
changes don’t come overnight. They come with
long-term, consistent, individualized exercise giving rise to improvement in pain and function. (1) Apple Country Chiropractic tells
our Williamson chiropractic patients with all sorts of
conditions that it is slow and steady commitment that gets the result.
EXERCISE FOR MIGRAINE BEING STUDIED
Researchers and migraine sufferers alike hold out hope for a
simple, low-cost approach to migraine care. For
example, a recent comparison study of
neck-specific exercise versus sham ultrasound to reduce
the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks. (2) A recent meta-analysis
in Headache explained that aerobic exercise for migraine patients
decreased the number of migraine days. (3) These are valuable
outcomes for Williamson migraine treatment.
EXERCISE BENEFITS: Overall and Migraine Specific
Williamson chiropractic patients are often
urged to exercise. Exercise appears to be a recommended
panacea for everything from back pain to migraine to depression to neck pain
and so much more. Why? It works. Exercise suppresses inflammation
via reduction of inflammatory modulators (many cytokines) and stress hormones
(growth hormone and cortisol). Exercise positively influences
the microvascular system that certainly influences
a certain type of cortical spreading depression. Specific
to migraine, exercise benefited migraine self-efficacy by permitting
the migraine sufferer to have a sense of control which lessened
migraine burden. How much exercise does this?
“Sufficiently rigorous aerobic exercise” brought about statistically
significant drop in migraine frequency, intensity and
duration. That’s appreciated by Williamson
migraine sufferers! Of course, higher intensity exercise seems
to bring about more benefit. Pharmacological drugs like topiramate were
noted to be better than exercise, but including
exercise into its use was suggested to provide
benefit. Migraine sufferers
who also experience neck pain or tension headache are reported as
benefiting from exercise. Low impact is worthwhile
if high impact exercise is not doable. (4) Apple Country Chiropractic agrees
with the researchers’ bottom-line: exercise is a reasonable
evidence-based recommendation for migraine prevention.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. David Kulla on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares
how he followed The
Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for his patient with
migraine which incorporated Cox® Technic spinal manipulation
as well as exercise for welcomed relief by his patient.