Ft in Sizzling Water for Headache: Exploring This Pure Treatment

Clearly, counting on medical recommendation from TikTok isn’t beneficial (particularly if it’s not coming from a physician or different well being care supplier). Nonetheless, some dwelling cures for migraine truly assist (extra on this later). And whereas some folks flip to conventional migraine remedies like medication, others would possibly desire to have choices—which is why we have additionally written about ice water for migraines, meditations for complications, and eyebrow therapeutic massage for head ache.

So earlier than you low cost the feet-in-heat hack, we requested the consultants if there’s any science to again it up. Learn on to seek out out.

Does dipping your toes in sizzling water assist with migraines?

Hydrotherapy (i.e., utilizing heat or chilly water to deal with well being situations) has been round for eons. “There’s a lengthy historical past of utilizing ice or sizzling baths to assist with migraine,” says Noah Rosen, MD, a neurologist at Northwell Well being. That mentioned, there’s “little proof to assist it,” Dr. Rosen provides.

The frequent perception, particularly on social media, is that heat water diverts blood movement to the toes (i.e., away from the top), and this helps to alleviate head ache. However Dr. Rosen says this rationalization is inaccurate: “The concept that warming the toes attracts blood away from the mind will not be appropriate.”

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That’s as a result of it’s based mostly on older theories about migraines, which hypothesized that modifications in blood movement to the mind brought about migraines. Whereas blood vessels do contract and develop considerably throughout an assault, it’s not the trigger, says Anna Tempo, MD, neurologist and assistant professor on the Icahn Faculty of Medication at Mount Sinai. The principle drivers of migraine assaults are electrical activation within the mind and neuroinflammation, she says.

That mentioned, how heat water helps migraines remains to be “unknown and unclear,” Dr. Rosen says. He theorizes that it might have one thing to do with the way in which sizzling (or chilly) temperatures stimulate nerve cells, particularly peripheral ache and light-weight contact receptors. They might modify ache alerts someway, “having a secondary impact on the central nervous system,” he says. The impact could also be much like “peripheral electrical stimulating gadgets” that assist cease and stop migraines.

Although we nonetheless don’t know why hydrotherapy helps migraine, some preliminary analysis appears to counsel that it does. “Almost 10 years in the past, there was a small examine of hydrotherapy the place members had toes and arms in sizzling water (after which an ice therapeutic massage of the top) for 45 days,” Dr. Rosen says. He’s referring to a 2016 examine within the Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Apply, which discovered that hydrotherapy lowered the frequency and depth of complications in folks with migraine.

Although promising, take the outcomes with a little bit of warning. The remedy used within the examine was fairly rigorous: a far more “intensive expertise then merely dipping toes in sizzling water,” Dr. Rosen says. Plus, it concerned a mix of sizzling and chilly therapies, not simply sizzling water soaks on their very own. All this to say, you could not have the identical success when you simply dip your toes in a heat tub (however hey, there’s additionally no hurt in attempting).

How lengthy to soak your toes in sizzling water for a headache

So long as you’re taking a number of precautions, a sizzling foot soak is usually protected for most individuals. “The [main] concern about that is utilizing too sizzling water the place it might probably trigger burns,” Dr. Tempo says. (As if head ache wasn’t unhealthy sufficient, you definitely don’t wish to add singed pores and skin to your checklist of issues.) You may keep away from burns by ensuring the water temperature isn’t too excessive and capping your soak to twenty minutes, Dr. Rosen says.

That mentioned, some teams might wish to skip the foot soak altogether. “People who find themselves aged or who produce other well being situations (who could also be extra susceptible to overheating or dehydration) could also be in danger for extra regarding unintended effects,” Dr. Tempo says.

This contains folks with coronary heart issues. That’s as a result of sudden or extended immersion in sizzling water can spike your physique temperature, overheat your physique, and tax your coronary heart, in line with the Cleveland Clinic. This could create a domino impact, resulting in a harmful rise (or dip) in blood stress, irregular coronary heart rhythms, or, in extreme instances, even coronary heart assault.

“Anybody with a coronary heart situation ought to contemplate clearance from their doctor” earlier than attempting this, Dr. Rosen says. In case your physician provides you the “okay,” strive it out. Simply keep hydrated (hold a bottle of cool water inside attain) and be careful for signs like dizziness, emotions of faintness, or nausea.

Identical goes for anybody with neuropathy (nerve injury) within the toes. If neuropathy has brought about numbness in your toes, you could not be capable to precisely really feel how sizzling the water is, placing you at larger threat for burns.

Does soaking your toes in chilly water for migraine assist?

Chilly remedy has lengthy been a standard dwelling treatment for migraine. It is smart: Ice packs have a numbing impact, to allow them to assist alleviate head ache.

In comparison with sizzling foot soaks, scientists have additionally completed extra research on chilly remedy for migraines. “There is a little more information for ice packs or ice caps in serving to to alleviate ache and cut back irritation when used on the top” or neck, Dr. Tempo says.

Working example: A July 2013 examine within the Hawaii Journal of Medication and Public Well being² discovered that making use of a frozen neck wrap on the onset of a migraine headache considerably decreased head ache.

That mentioned, there’s nonetheless “no validated information on ice baths or soaking toes in chilly water to deal with migraine,” Dr. Tempo says. So if you wish to go the chilly remedy route, you’re higher off sticking to the science-backed methods and placing an ice pack in your head or neck.

Different remedies for migraines

Whereas it’s all the time nice to have choices for migraine reduction, sizzling foot soaks could also be hit and miss for migraine assaults. That mentioned, you would possibly desire therapies which have a confirmed observe document. Fortunately, “there are myriad medical remedies and different nonpharmacologic remedies for migraine which were proven to be useful for stopping and stopping migraine assaults,” Dr. Tempo says.

Take into accout: “What may match for one particular person might not work for one more,” she says. And infrequently it’s not one method, however a mix of issues that assist. For that reason, it’s vital to all the time “talk about all choices along with your physician to seek out the one that’s best for you,” Dr. Tempo says.

From dwelling cures to treatment and migraine-specific gadgets, these migraine remedies are tried-and-true, per the Cleveland Clinic and Drs. Tempo and Rosen:

• Over-the-counter, pain-relieving drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin, acetaminophen, naproxen, and caffeine are efficient you probably have delicate to average migraine signs
• Drugs to cease migraines can cease or cut back migraine signs like ache, nausea, mild sensitivity, and many others.
• Preventive migraine drugs cut back how typically and the way extreme migraines have an effect on you, although you’ll have to take them each day
• Medical gadgets like Nerivio, Cefaly, and Relivion, vagal nerve stimulators, and transcranial magnetic stimulators use electrical pulses/stimulation or magnetic fields to assist stop migraine
• Constant sleep—lack of sleep is a recognized migraine set off
• Ice packs, ice hats, or different cooling gadgets can assist numb and uninteresting head ache
• Sure nutritional vitamins and dietary supplements like magnesium, riboflavin, coenzyme Q-10, and butterbur might assist stop migraine assaults
• Biofeedback helps you develop an consciousness of pressure in your physique, so you possibly can cut back it and stop, lower, or cease a migraine headache
• Leisure methods like yoga can assist ease pressure and stress, which can contribute to migraines
• Acupuncture might assist activate pathways within the mind that may “swap off” ache
• Topical peppermint oil or lavender might cut back migraine depth, frequency, and signs like mild sensitivity, nausea, and vomiting
• Botulinum toxin sort A injections, AKA Botox, interrupts the ache pathway between the mind and nerves within the spinal wire

When to see a physician

Relating to migraines, typically DIY approaches merely don’t reduce it. In spite of everything, migraines aren’t simply bizarre complications—they’ll trigger debilitating head ache that may sideline you for hours (and even days).

In case you have any of the next signs, it’s greatest to let your physician know, per Drs. Tempo and Rosen:

• When headache/migraine interferes along with your every day life or routine (say, you are feeling too crappy to go to high school or work)
• In case your headache/migraine doesn’t reply to over-the-counter remedies
• In case your headache/migraine comes with different signs like nausea, imaginative and prescient modifications, or mild sensitivity

Along with taking a historical past of your signs, your supplier may advocate bloodwork or imaging. These assessments will assist them get a fuller image of your drawback. “It’s all the time good to know what you’re coping with, and the way to deal with it optimally,” Dr. Rosen says.

The underside line

“Sadly, there’s no scientific information to counsel that dipping your toes in sizzling water will assist remedy migraines,” Dr. Tempo says. Nonetheless, she acknowledges that “some folks do discover enchancment in discomfort with warmth (or ice) remedy.”

On the finish of the day, “consider warmth therapies as extra consolation measures,” Dr. Tempo says. “They might make a affected person really feel rather less uncomfortable and maybe extra calm.”

So whereas a sizzling foot soak is unlikely to cease a migraine assault, per the medical doctors, it may be one other great tool in your migraine toolbox. Once more, for most individuals, managing migraine takes a mix of ways. So long as you will have medical clearance out of your supplier, and also you comply with a number of security precautions, there’s little hurt in giving hydrotherapy a go.