I am getting migraines several hours after working out, running, crossfit. Does anyone have any advice?

[kimberletasha]

Hydration is not the issue. Anyone else have migraines after strenuous exercise or found anything that helped?

[Juliapester3]

I have read that the best way is to pre-empt the attack with ibuprofen/paracetamol before exercising. Obviously it depends on how many times per week you exercise. I,m not sure what is classed as medication overuse so best to check that as well.

[Emma1024 in reply to Juliapester3]

Different people have different propensity to develop medication over-use headaches. However, I believe the NHS guidelines are not to take analgesics on more than 10-15 days per month.

[Janster]

Hi I suffer from the same thing, so was advised by the NMC to take 1 Naproxen tablet about 30 minutes prior to exercising which does seem to help. However it is not always effective when doing very strenuous or prolonged exercise so I have had to adjust the length of time I exercise and try to avoid very high impact exercise. Hope that helps!

[cab1986]

I have this problem - try not to have your heart rate up too much and ignore people who say that exercise helps migraines in general because it really doesn't, my best migraine free time was when I wasn't doing any! And my neurologist concurs. Shame, as I love it, but less strenuous things are fine, like swimming etc.

[Charlotte_NMC Partner National Migraine Centre]

Always good to make sure you are well hydrated and fed (with a slow release meal/snack) before any strenuous exercise and as Janster said it may be worth pre-empting with a preventative. If they keep occurring I would suggest seeing one of our specialists to come up with a personal plan.