LifestyleDipping your face in ice water can help migraines

Dipping your face in ice water can help migraines

IWhen you have reasonable or extreme ache on one or either side of your head, you’re more likely to be having a migraine assault. And with out fast remedy, these complications can worsen over time and persist all through four to 72 hourswarns the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. So it is sensible that many individuals flip to residence treatments to ease the ache, stat.

A trending fast resolution? Immerse your head in ice water.

Evidence means that ice water could have an anti-inflammatory impact that strikes blood away from the pinnacle by shrinking blood vessels, however little is understood concerning the underlying mechanism that makes this potential. “Though some sufferers report headache aid with chilly compresses, no evidence-based information assist this profit,” says Pamela Youssef, MD, a neurologist HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in Florida. “Quite the opposite, different research additionally point out that chilly water could also be a possible set off for complications.”


Specialists on this article

  • Lars Widdel, MDDr. Lars Widdel, MD, is a neurosurgeon at Mercy Medical Middle in Redding, California.
  • Pamela Youssef, MDDr. Pamela Youssef, MD, is a neurologist at Florida Kendall Hospital in Doral, Florida.

That does not cease individuals from attempting: a complete 2013 examine revealed within the Hawaii Journal of Medicine and Public Health signifies that chilly remedy is the most typical over-the-counter remedy for migraines.

“The usage of chilly remedy for complications was first described within the medical literature in 1849,” says Lars Widdel, MD, a neurosurgeon on the Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California.

The outcomes are decidedly blended. “The direct software of chilly to the pinnacle with chilly wraps or caps reduces headache depth in as much as 70 % of sufferers with migraine,” says Dr. Widdel. ‘Nearly one in ten [say] making use of chilly to their head will cease the headache – conversely, one in ten sufferers additionally report that publicity to chilly will trigger or worsen their headache.”

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Why ice water energy assist your migraines

There are a number of theories about why chilly remedy works for some individuals, and it’s seemingly a mixture of a number of results. “Chilly reduces the discharge of histamines and prostaglandins accountable for inflammatory processes, thereby performing as an anti-inflammatory agent,” says Dr. Widdel. He provides that chilly may constrict blood vessels, which may very well be useful as a result of “migraines are sometimes thought to end result from the dilation of blood vessels,” he says.

Furthermore, the chilly may merely restrict the functioning of our physique senses Ache: “Chilly can overwhelm the ache receptors and block the transmission of ache from reaching the cerebral cortex,” he says. The Mayo Clinic notes that ice packs have a numbing impact that may soothe migraine ache (whereas heat compresses and heating pads can loosen up tense muscle tissue).

The perfect methods to profit from chilly water in actual life

There are a number of methods to make use of chilly water to alleviate migraine ache. “A standard methodology is to use a chilly compress or wrap just a few ice cubes in a towel and place them on the brow or again of the neck for a number of minutes. Different choices embody frozen gel packs or a washcloth soaked in chilly water,” says Dr. Widdel. Nonetheless, medical specialists advocate by no means making use of ice to the floor of the pores and skin for greater than 15 to twenty minutes at a time; take away the chilly compress as quickly as you’re feeling your pores and skin is numb. “Immersing the face in chilly water for a couple of minutes may relieve signs,” provides Dr. Widdel. (Be sure you come up for air!)

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Relating to migraines, therapies like these may be efficient early on, however this diminishes as soon as the migraine is full. So do not wait if you understand a chilly is one thing that works for you.

And bear in mind: chilly water is not efficient for everybody, so should you do not feel any results, search higher remedy. Even should you really feel prefer it helps, know that it solely offers short-term aid. Anybody with migraines ought to seek the advice of a medical supplier for correct prognosis and remedy.

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