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Exercises — a pain in the head?
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Are you experiencing a shooting pain after exercising? Call your doctor
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WATCH OUT Exercise-induced headaches 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
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