It’s a fact that when most people get a headache or even one worse, like a migraine headache, the last thing you want to do is anything. Most will stop at nothing short of putting a drill to their head to relieve the pressure.
A migraine headache is a neurological disease, of which the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache. They have long been studied and researched in the medical community, but to the dismay of many migraine sufferers, there is no clear-cut cause for the disease. However, there seems to be a general consensus that the key element is blood flow changes in the brain; migraine suffers appear to have blood vessels that overreact to various triggers.
In a recent study conducted by the journal, Headache, researchers found surprising results when they tested the theory that migraine and sexual desire may both be associated with serotonin—a powerful chemical agent that induces or initiates responses in the brain, blood serum and gastric mucous membrane.
Lead researcher Dr. Timothy T. Houle of the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, notes that although it is commonly believed that sex drive is reduced by headaches and sexual intercourse can cause specific types of headaches, more and more research is beginning to show that sexual intercourse may alleviate the pain of migraine in some patients due to increased levels of serotonin to the brain. There goes the excuse of “not tonight honey, I have a headache.”
Houle and his team of researchers recruited 59 adults who had at least 10 headaches annually. Among them, seven men and 16 women were classified as having migraines, while the rest (18 men and 18 women) had tension-type headaches. Migraine sufferers have stronger sexual desire than people who get only normal tension headaches. It was hypothesized that a serotonergic link may be implicated in both migraine headaches and sexual desire. Serotonin receptors also appear to be involved in several aspects of sexual functioning.
Lorna McLaren, an expert in communication, stress and the human factor and a facilitator says exercise is also one way to release headache tension.
“Absolutely sex has a positive effect,” said McLaren. “It only takes 7 to 10 minutes of cardio to change the chemicals in your brain, release endorphins and physically and emotionally feel better. Sex is exercise, and as humans we intuitively need to connect with others. What better way than in a loving, sexual experience.”
Until more research is conducted, couples suffering from migraine can experiment in the bedroom and conduct their own research or wait until Houle and his research team is finished focusing on their next task which is mathematical modeling to predict migraine activity. It’s up to you, but we believe you’ll find quicker results by experimenting in the bedroom.
Steve Cooper is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Hitched. You can follow him on Twitter at @hitchedmedia.
