An unhealthy lifestyle can give you a headache, literally.

Posted on Sun, 29 Aug 10

Chronic headaches are a real pain and although popping pills might help lasting relief could depend on making healthy lifestyle choices.  Smoking, lack of exercise and being overweight are associated with migraine and tension headaches in adults and a new report has found that this is true for adolescents as well.

A study of over 5,000 boys and girls aged 13-18 years old found that chronic recurrent headaches were significantly more common in those who were overweight, physically inactive or smoked. This finding adds to a growing body of research suggesting that healthy lifestyle behaviours may be an important means of reducing chronic headaches.

An accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal Neurology pointed out that “this report is an important step in clarifying the effects of lifestyle factors on headache. Managing these negative factors by making positive lifestyle changes plays an important role in the biobehavioral treatment of headache disorders in adolescents.”

References:

1. Robberstad L, et al. An unfavorable  lifestyle and recurrent headaches among adolescents: The HUNT Study. Neurology. 2010 Aug 24;75(8):712-7.

2. Hershey AD, Lipton RB. Lifestyles of the young and migrainous. Neurology. 2010 Aug 24;75(8):680-1.