Health News and Information

Exercise can bring on headaches in some people, but the reverse also obtains in that physical training can be of benefit in preventing headaches, possibly by ‘toning up’ the body and thereby the blood vessels. The effect of training on performance is well recognized: the heart and lungs work more efficiently so that we do not get out of breath so easily, the blood flow to muscles increases, and the muscles themselves become larger so that we do not get tired as readily. In the trained person, the heart beats more slowly at rest, and, during exercise, it does not beat as fast as before training nor does the blood pressure rise as high. A greater efficiency is achieved due to increased parasympathetic activity. The amount of noradrenalin and adrenalin released for a given amount of exertion decreases; in addition, supplies of energy become more readily available, which also helps to avoid fatigue.When an untrained subject first starts exercising, the level of blood glucose drops, releasing hormones which break down stored supplies of sugar to raise the blood level. (In trained subjects, the blood sugar level shows an immediate rise on commencement of exercise.) Because training makes the body more efficient, it is more able to resist the effects of stress and the subject becomes able to do more during the day without getting tired.Studies of the effects of exercise training on the frequency of headaches in migraine sufferers are producing encouraging results, possibly because the blood vessels alter their tone. Jogging, an activity becoming increasingly popular in both sexes is the best sort of exercise for this purpose because it moves the greatest bulk of muscle and speeds up the heart rate. The distance and speed should be measured each time, the minimum number of runs being three times weekly. It is important to run fast enough to raise the pulse rate above 150 per minute and for long enough to make one slightly tired.
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Cold A cold spray of the type used on athletes produces dramatic but brief relief. It cannot be caused by cooling the deep tissue that is damaged. The provoked impulses arriving in the spinal cord set off a temporary inhibition of the cells transmitting the injury signals.HeatThere is no doubt about the generally comforting, relaxing effect of overall heating, as witnessed in the Roman caldarium and the modern sauna. It is a standard treatment for anyone’s anxiety. A quite different treatment is local heat. In the words of T. S. Eliot:
Here comes the nurse with the red hot poultice, Slaps it on and takes no notice
The nurse may take no notice but the patient certainly does and shifts attention. Attention distraction is the basis of counter-stimulation. A third Cold A cold and quite different intention of heat therapy is to increase circulation and thereby to speed up the end of inflammation. Ultrasound and microwave therapy were invented for this purpose to heat deep tissue. The use of ultrasound will be described in the next chapter as an impressive example of a proven placebo effect.Gentle massage Delightful.Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulationWhen I had discovered that the input from large, low-threshold sensory afferent nerves reduced the response of animal spinal-cord cells to an input from injury-detecting fibres, Sweet and I tried in Boston in 1967 to produce the same effect, first on ourselves and then on patients. We knew that a small electrical stimulus preferentially excited the large fibres so we superimposed a gentle tingling sensation on top of the painful area. When this can be achieved, it produces considerable relief of the pain. We extended the method to direct stimulation of nerves and of the spinal cord, but the most common use is to try to produce the effect by simple electrodes on the skin. It is no panacea but it works.*60\219\2*