Sex can relieve migraine complaints

Sex as a method of relieving headaches and migraines

03/14/2013

Anyone who suffers from cluster headaches or migraines often has to take strong pain medications during a seizure. A recent study looked into whether alternative options exist to relieve pain. A simple and effective method is sex, as scientists now find out. In individual cases, according to the Heidelberg researchers, good results could be achieved.

In a migraine attack sufferers feel not only a headache. In addition, facial pain, neck pain, eye pain, photosensitivity, nausea and vomiting as well as dizziness may be added. Because these symptoms are less well known in migraine, in many cases the disease is recognized too late. So far, there has been a lack of effective healing methods to sustainably alleviate cluster headaches and migraines.

Therapy for two or alone
Neurologists at the University of Münster came across a thoroughly soothing and easy-to-use method during their study. „In some cases, sexual activity can alleviate headaches in migraine“, is the conclusion of this study. It would „It does not matter if the act is done with a partner or if the therapy is done by masturbation itself“, as the scientists of the University of Münster report in the science magazine "Cephalalgia" (headache).

According to the study authors „Most interviewed patients with migraine headaches relinquished sex“. Anyone who was able to get involved despite complaints on sexuality, felt after the act often alleviate the symptoms. 60 percent said they felt much better after that, but 33 percent said they had more pain after sex than before.

Less relief in cluster headaches
In patients suffering from the so-called cluster headache, symptoms improved in only 37 percent of cases. Well, 50 percent of cluster headache patients even said, „I felt worse afterwards“. In addition, men would apparently by the „Sex Therapy“ benefit more than women. Here, a higher pain-relieving rate was found in the course of the study.

The researchers emphasize, however, that „the validity of the study is limited“. On the one hand, only a relatively small group of patients were interviewed by about 350 participants who suffered from severe migraine attacks. On the other hand answers to the question of sex are always glossed over in questionnaires, as the scientists state. This was shown by experiences from previous studies.

Women more often affected by migraine attacks
According to the German Society of Neurology (DGN), migraine is one of the most common neurological diseases. Experts estimate that around 14 percent of women and eight percent of men in Germany suffer from migraine. Women usually experience a first attack between the twelfth and sixteenth year of life, men between the ages of sixteen and twentieth.

A few years ago, when medicine assumed that stress, strife and grief can trigger migraines, it is known that the cause is genetic. Rather, stress and quarrels are heralding an approaching migraine attack because most patients initially suffer from difficulty concentrating, irritability, fatigue, and nervousness. Accordingly, the stress is a result of the initial symptoms. The research suspects that migraine attacks are due „Overstimulation of the brain“. This flooding in turn triggers inflammation of the vessels.

In many cases, a change in habits could help reduce migraine attacks. In tests, regular endurance sports, relaxation techniques such as autogenic training or yoga as well as a well-regulated daily routine with sufficient rest and sleep phases showed good results. (Sb)

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