Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Can exercise induce headache?

If you get a shooting pain after exercising, it's time to check

WATCH OUT Exercise induced headache can be serious

Exercise gives some people a headache. Sounds like an excuse a lazy person might give to avoid exercise, but it is a fact. And an exercise-induced headache does not necessarily mean you have migraine. People without migraine are just as likely to develop a headache on exertion as those with it.

Effort migraine and exertion-induced headache are the two most common causes of headache after exercise. The former is usually preceded by symptoms like blurred vision and flashing lights. The headache usually lasts for a few hours, and most people can tell they have a migraine coming on before it is full blown.

Exercising in hot weather can induce a headache in migraine sufferers. A strict adherence to prescribed drug therapy can minimise the frequency and duration of attacks. But once an attack starts, there is little you can do but sleep in a dark and quiet room.

Exercise-induced headache was first described in the 1930s. It affects around one per cent of the population.

The headache begins as a throbbing sensation in the back of the head and lasts for a few hours. It recedes with analgesics.

Problems with the cervical spine can also cause a kind of headache associated with blurred vision. If moving the neck brings on a headache, it may be time to consult a doctor.

Not all exercise-linked headaches are benign. Some are deadly serious. If your headache lasts for more than a few hours, if its onset feels like a thunderclap, and if nausea or vomiting too occurs, the headache is unlikely to be benign.

A headache that increases over several days, a history of head injury, unilateral headache, a change in the usual pattern of headache in effort migraine or exertion-induced headache, symptoms in the rest of the body and weakness in the limbs are all indicators that the headache may have a serious underlying cause. Consult a doctor if you experience any of these problems.

RAJIV. M

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail