Thursday, February 8, 2007

Bicycling cured my migraines

Well, not exactly 'cured,' but it certainly seemed to decrease the frequency of migraine attacks. Bradley once suffered almost daily, debilitating migraine attacks. "Eventually it's just one big constant headache," he writes. "Migraine is more than just head pain though. Along with a sharp stabbing pain next to my eye, I get sensitivity to light and sound, dizziness, confusion, muscle spasms, fatigue, nausea. Sometimes I'll get minor aphasia, the inability to put together sentences."

There's a apparently a link between exercise and migraines, but Bradley tried joining a gym and "all I did was lose $50 a month." Some friends, though, suggested bicycling. "I love bicycling!" he writes. "In Jr. High I would cycle all over the place. Down to the beach, up and down the hills of downtown Long Beach, along The Strand with my mom. Yeah, I could do this!"

Bradley ended up getting a new bike and started riding it every day. Since then, he's been able to reduce his medications and go almost three weeks without an attack. Read more and follow his progress at his Faith From Pain blog.

1 comment:

  1. I've commented before about how riding his bike to school this year has allowed my ADD son to do better without his meds than previous years with meds and no riding to school.

    I'd like to see a Freakonomics study on the relationship to the rise of ADD and ADHD compared to the decrease in children walking and bicycling to school...

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