Migraine is a frustrating
condition for its sufferers. It’s costly in terms of
pain, money, and pharmacological use necessity. Drugs are still
the “gold standard” of care. Patients often request choices from their
migraine healthcare providers for non-drug alternatives.
Richmond migraine sufferers want alternative ideas!
Johnson Chiropractic puts forward that exercise may be one
such useful option.
EXERCISE FOR CHRONIC PAIN
Migraine is, for most Richmond migraine sufferers,
a chronic pain condition. It is not typically a one
time situation. Chronic pain disturbs
the nervous system as well as the specific pain-generating
issue. Researchers explained 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 declining disability. These
changes don’t come overnight. They come with
long-term, regular, individualized exercise resulting
in improvement in pain and function. (1) Johnson Chiropractic reminds
our Richmond chiropractic patients with all sorts of
conditions that it’s 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 new comparison project of
neck-specific exercise versus sham ultrasound to decrease
the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks. (2) A recent meta-analysis
in Headache stated that aerobic exercise for migraine patients
dropped the number of migraine days. (3) These are valuable
outcomes for Richmond migraine treatment.
EXERCISE BENEFITS: Overall and Migraine Specific
Richmond chiropractic patients are manytimes
encouraged to exercise. Exercise seems like a recommended
panacea for everything from back pain to migraine to depression to neck pain
and so much more. Why? It works. Exercise stifles 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. Migraine specifically, exercise benefited migraine self-efficacy by permitting
the migraine sufferer to have a sense of control which reduced
migraine burden. How much exercise does this?
“Sufficiently rigorous aerobic exercise” brought about statistically
significant reduction in migraine frequency, intensity and
duration. That’s welcomed by Richmond
migraine sufferers! Naturally, higher intensity exercise appears
to bring about more benefit. Pharmacological drugs like topiramate were
reported to be superior to exercise, but adding exercise to its use was implied as being beneficial. Migraine sufferers
who also have neck pain or tension headache are reported to benefit from exercise. Low impact is valuable
if high impact exercise is not possible. (4) Johnson Chiropractic concurs
with the researchers’ bottom-line: exercise is a reasonable
evidence-based recommendation for migraine prevention.
CONTACT Johnson 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 included Cox® Technic spinal manipulation
as well as exercise for appreciated relief by his patient.