St. Louis Park Chiropractor Best Practices
Research Commentary;
Exercise to Reduce Headaches
A review of Effect of brief daily exercise on headache among adults — secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial
by Lars L Andersen, PhD,1 Ole S Mortensen, PhD,1, 2 Mette K Zebis, PhD,1 Rigmor H Jensen, DrMedSci,3 Otto M Poulsen, DrMedSci
A Review by Dr. Trenton Yeomans
With increased stress from our daily life more people each year are dealing with headaches throughout the week. According to the World Health Organization, half of adults aged 18-65 experience a headache once a year with 5% of the population experiencing a headache 15 times a month on average. This study looked at the effect of brief exercise to reduce frequency of headaches. What they found was that if you can exercise for at least 12 minutes a day you can cut your number of headaches by half. This could be due to the increased blood flow from moving around or due to strengthening the back and neck muscles to help reduce headaches and the physical stress those muscles have throughout the day from looking down at our phones or having our face in the computer.
“Globally, it has been estimated that prevalence among adults of current headache disorder (symptomatic at least once within the last year) is about 50%. Half to three quarters of adults aged 18–65 years in the world have had headache in the last year and, among those individuals, 30% or more have reported migraine. Headache on 15 or more days every month affects 1.7–4% of the world’s adult population. Despite regional variations, headache disorders are a worldwide problem, affecting people of all ages, races, income levels and geographical areas.”
-World Health Organization
“In conclusion, as little as two minutes of daily resistance training reduces the frequency of headache among office workers with neck/shoulder pain.”
Andersen, Lars L., et al. “Effect of Brief Daily Exercise on Headache among Adults — Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, vol. 37, no. 6, 2011, pp. 547–50. JSTOR
“Due to its high prevalence, tension-type headache is especially a burden to society in terms of sickness absence and work disability. Individuals with musculoskeletal pain experience a four-fold higher prevalence of headache, and those with neck pain are more likely to suffer from headache than those experiencing pain in other restricted areas.”
Andersen, Lars L., et al. “Effect of Brief Daily Exercise on Headache among Adults — Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, vol. 37, no. 6, 2011, pp. 547–50. JSTOR
They took 198 office workers with neck/shoulder pain and put them into 2 groups. One group did resistance training for 2 minutes a day 5 days a week for 10 weeks and the other group did resistance training for 12 minutes a day 5 days a week for 10 weeks. The results showed that for the group who exercised for just 2 minutes a day they had a decrease of frequency of headaches by 43%. The group who exercised for 12 minutes a day showed a decrease of frequency of headaches by 56%. We know movement is important so if we could get up and move just 15 minutes out of your day you could cut your number of headaches by half.
Methods
A total of 198 office workers with frequent neck/shoulder pain were randomly allocated to either one of two intervention groups (10 weeks of resistance training with elastic tubing for 2 or 12 minutes per day, 5 times a week) or the control group, which received weekly health information. Secondary outcomes included changes in frequency, intensity, and duration of headache after ten weeks.
Findings
Compared with the control group, headache frequency decreased in the 2- and 12-minute intervention groups [0.64 days/week (95% confidence interval [95% CI]) 0.23–1.0) and 0.79 days/week (95% CI 0.37–1.2), corresponding to a 43% and 56% decrease from baseline, respectively]. Intensity and duration of the remaining headaches were unaffected.
References
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/headache-disorders
Andersen, Lars L., et al. “Effect of Brief Daily Exercise on Headache among Adults — Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, vol. 37, no. 6, 2011, pp. 547–50. JSTOR
Our Message
When you are looking for a Chiropractor near you that you can trust, choose one who will not only help you reduce back pain, neck pain or headaches but who will also guide you to living a healthier lifestyle to keep you out of pain. Our St. Louis Park Chiropractors located in the West End, near the corner of MN-100 S & Lake Rd./Westside Dr., will teach you what the research says about why we should exercise more to reduce the frequency of headaches, eat a better diet, and have more positive thoughts.