The Effect of a Selected Aerobic Exercise on Some Physiological Factors in Patients with Migraine

Migraine is defined as a recurrent headache that is usually unilateral and associated with a complex neurovascular disorder and concurrent stimulation of pain pathways of trigeminal sensory nerves.The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a selected aerobic exercise on some physiological factors in patients with migraine. 22 women with migraine (their age range 22 -53 years) were non-randomly divided into experimental (n=13) and control (n=9) groups. In addition to medical treatment, the experimental group participated in a selected exercise including 35-60 min. on a treadmill and ergometer bicycle with 50-75% HRmax, 3 sessions per week for 12 weeks. The control group received medical treatment but they were inactive and only participated in pretest and posttest. Data analysis showed that the protocol significantly reduced headache severity, CGRP and fat percentage, and significantly increased cardiovascular endurance of the experimental group (P˂0.05). Headache severity decreased from 34.23 to 14.30, CGRP decreased from 53.50 to 48.45% in posttest, fat percentage decreased from %31.45 to %25.25 and cardiovascular endurance increased from 24.81 to 41.81 ml/kg/bw. It was concluded that in line with other medical treatments, aerobic exercise may be used as a supplementary medical treatment in patients with migraine.