| Many people seem to believe that they suffer | | | | started swimming, it was on school trips to old, |
| from exercise induced migraines, but as a | | | | run down swimming pools smelling of chlorine and |
| migraine sufferer myself, I am not so sure. | | | | who knows what else. I was never an |
| Consider my experience. I spent many years as a | | | | enthusiastic swimmer and didn't enjoy these |
| road runner, doing distances up to half marathon. | | | | experiences. They were anything but relaxing. |
| This involves considerable impact on the body, but | | | | In contrast, I loved the other two activities. I |
| I never experienced a migraine that I would | | | | used to do some of my best thinking while I was |
| attribute to running. | | | | running. And diving was the opposite. On a nice, |
| I also did about 15 years of SCUBA diving. That | | | | relaxing dive, I was absolutely in the moment and |
| involved plenty of vigorous exercise, hauling gear | | | | never thought about anything else. Both of these |
| around, being thrown around on dive boats and | | | | pass-times had an almost meditational quality |
| fighting strong currents. Here again, I never had a | | | | about them. And I believe that is the key. |
| migraine while diving or soon afterwards. | | | | It is not so much the activity that is the problem |
| On the other hand, when I was younger, | | | | but how you feel about it. And some research |
| swimming often produced nausea, feelings of | | | | has been carried out that suggests that exercise |
| detachment and lights behind the eyes that would | | | | in itself is not a trigger for migraine. In was only a |
| later lead to a headache. I was never a great | | | | small study and by no means conclusive, but it |
| swimmer and swimming, for me, was a much | | | | certainly seems to bear out my own belief. |
| less energetic activity. So what was going on? | | | | Exercise induced migraines are a myth. |
| I have a theory. In a word, stress! When I | | | | |