In a new study, researchers found an overlooked relationship between migraine and exercise.
The research was conducted by a team at the State University of New Jersey and elsewhere.
Migraine affects around 10-15% of the population around the globe, and among its most common diagnostic criteria include throbbing, unilateral head pain, hypersensitivity to lights, sounds, odors, and aggravation by activity.
Although regular aerobic exercise has been strongly recommended by doctors as an option for migraine prevention, for up to 1/3 of patients, physical exercise can be a trigger of migraine attacks.
Thus, it can instead be avoided as a strategy to manage migraines.
As observed with other pain conditions, anxiety sensitivity, which refers to one’s fear of experiencing anxiety arousal due to harmful physical, cognitive and socially-observable consequences, may be related to physical exercise avoidance in migraine patients.
This seems to be true especially with vigorous physical exercise, as this exercise intensity is perceived as potentially triggering or worsening of migraine attacks.
In this study, the researchers examined 100 women with probable migraine.
They found that increased anxiety sensitivity scores were linked to physical exercise avoidance of both moderate and vigorous intensities.
A one-point increase in the anxiety sensitivity scale resulted in an up to 5% increase in the odds of avoiding physical exercise.
Concerns about the physical consequences of bodily sensations (e.g. difficulty breathing) linked to a 7.5-fold higher odds for avoiding vigorous physical exercise, while cognitive consequences of bodily sensations (e.g. inability to concentrate), which is thought to reflect headache-related disability, linked to a 5.2-fold higher odds for avoiding moderate physical exercise.
Anxiety sensitivity scores linked to stronger expectations of vigorous-intensity physical exercise as triggers for migraines.
This study revealed a relevant but overlooked aspect of migraine.
Migraine is a highly prevalent and disabling neurological disorder, in which regular physical exercise is part of current treatment recommendations.
The team says patients with migraine and elevated anxiety sensitivity could benefit from tailored, multi-component intervention, ideally including:
Psychoeducation about the positive effect of physical exercise on migraine and the detrimental effect of avoidance, feedback about the perceived versus actual rates of physical exercise in triggering/worsening migraine, and use of gradual exposure to facilitate desensitization to avoided of PA and related bodily sensations.
The study is published in the journal Cephalalgia.
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