depression, anxiety and sleep problems, the study found.
Researchers found that 47 percent of the people who did not exercise had depression; 39 percent had anxiety, and 77 percent had sleep problems.
By comparison, about 25 percent of the most active group had depression; 28 percent had anxiety, and 61 percent had sleep problems.
The study also found a link between exercise and headache frequency. In the no-exercise group, five percent had zero to four headache days a month, while many more — 48 percent — had 25 or more headache days per month.
In the high exercise group, 10 percent had low headache frequency and 28 percent had high headache frequency.
Dr. Mark Green, a member of the National Headache Foundation’s Health Care Leadership Council and a professor of neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, urges migraine sufferers to be cautious about their exercise routines.
Consistency is key, whether it comes to exercise or other activities that can be beneficial, such as controlling caffeine, wake and sleep hours, eating and hydration, Green says.
He suggests his patients begin a routine of walking on a treadmill for 3 1/2 miles at an incline of 4 degrees every day. He recommends increasing the angle, not the speed, if someone wants more of a workout.
“I don’t want it to be jogging. I want it to be walking fast. Three and a half doesn’t sound like anything, but it’s actually faster than you think at 10 degrees,” Green shares. “That tends to work out well.”
Migraines are complex and people who experience them do so for a variety of reasons. Yet there are some vital common denominators, Green notes.
“In general, it’s influenced by genes. To give you an example, if you have migraines, your children have a 50 percent risk of developing migraines. If both parents have migraines, the risk is about 80 percent of developing migraines,” Green adds.
In addition to low-impact exercise, Green advises his patients to eat multiple small meals a day, get consistent hydration and maintain consistent sleep schedules. He tells patients they need not limit caffeine intake but they also should