Exercise migraines. Please suggest.

Hello

I get very severe migraines on a regular basis (blacking out, loss of vision and more) and yes, I do see a neurologist but we're kind of stuck at this point.

Anyway, I've noticed that if I exercise in the heat, don't drink enough water OR drink too much water without balancing it with sodium, I'm more likely to get a headache. it's kind of a balancing act but basically do what you can and try to anticipate problems before they start. If possible, make a journal or use your MPF log to show you where you might need to make adjustments.

I recently ran a marathon, so you can do it, it just takes some work to get there

A couple of approaches are possible. Firstly, I can't see what you're eating, but what you eat (regardless of clean or not) can affect your "satiety" and how long you feel "full"/how long it takes you to get hungry again. Many small meals, each containing a little carb, some protein and some fat (nothing higher than 50% of calories and nothing lower than 25% insures some degree of balance), can help get you through the day without ever being hungry. Eating foods with lots of fiber and water can help - salad greens, celery, broccoli, etc. A few nuts can fill a "hole" without a horrible calorie hit (watch portion sizes - nuts ARE high calorie - it's just a small handful can sometimes be "enough"). Refined sugar can stimulate appetite, so it may help to avoid sugar (other than from "whole" fruit or dairy sources)

Make sure you aren't eating other migraine triggers. I can't think what they are - but it should be easy to look up.

Migraines are though to occur when blood vessels in your head either dilate or contract (I think for some it is one and other people the other). Try keeping your head and neck cool (to reduce dilation) or warm (to keep the vessels normally dilated). You may have to experiment and it's possible neither will help.

Settle for walking. It's good exercise, although more time consuming than some other options.

Is the problem tied to specific movements?

I have something similar happen. Sometimes I get migraines from just overdoing in general, but often it seems tied to overdoing on exercises that work muscles in or near the neck and scapula.

The good news is that this has gotten better and happens less often as those areas get stronger and more used to moving.

You might want to talk to a doctor about this, physical therapy may help and a good one might be able to give you special excercises that will fix the problem areas to the point where you can continue on a normal excercise program on your own.

I used to get exercise induced migraines. Hydration might help.

Walking is a perfectly fine exercise. You may find that after longer and longer walking sessions, you will eventually be able to run a bit without the migraine. Overheating causes rapid vasodilation and triggers the migraine.

Try taking a Magnesium supplement - they really helped me. I was on prescriptions too. It is a balancing act, and you may not have success but exercise is really important to your cardiovascular system. Unfortunately the cardiovascular system is also intricately involved in migraines.

I know I would rather never exercise again than suffer a migraine. Good luck.

Dehydration? I drink a gallon of water a day atleast, stops me from getting headaches while working out.

I presume you haven't had a concussion etc recently?

A good few years ago now I fell off the back of a motorbike at around 60-70mph (motorbike was near vertical, I should point out - messed up a wheelie) with a helmet that wasn't quite a perfect fit and rolled on my head and shoulders.

Nasty concussion and for about a year afterwards, any serious exercise saw me get a headache - tapering off over that year.

For me, migraines almost ALWAYS come about when I'm carrying some tension in my back/shoulders. This can either be from stress, or from strenuous work (long runs used to ALWAYS cause a migraine)

The advice to hydrate more is good. Also see if you can work some massage/meditation into your schedule. Try to relax as much as possible.

It's possible that you're getting too worked UP about your workOUT. Try ditching the workout programs and just doing some ad-hoc strengthening exercises, taking it slow and working up in both duration and weight. If the headaches start at 10 minutes... stop at 9 minutes!!! Maybe do them a couple of times a day. Then, after a few weeks of that, see if you can increase your time or intensity or both.

I'm not an expert, so you can take my advice with a grain of salt!

Do you have migraines without exercise or are they usually associated with pushing yourself?

What's your breathing like? Keep it slow and steady - you may find you are actually suffering from CO2 retention which would cause all mother of headaches which can last for several hours.

Look into ways to improve your breathing pattern. It's likely that combined with tension in your shoulders causing the issue.

I love it that a diver posted this.


I've tried to tell people for years about CO2 retention...and it does cause the mother of all headaches. When I first learned to dive I had breath-hold problems due to my poor buoyancy control - boy you only need one of those CO2 headaches to convince yourself to modulate breathing.

Breath control is also related to anxiety - and people with anxiety problems can find relief from breathing control..I also believe anxiety to be caused by a (lesser) CO2 retention problem. The body panics a bit and it causes breath holding, then the anxiety kicks in which causes hyperventilation. Both are easily controlled.