Good news for migraine sufferers.  Your treatment may have gotten a little cheaper.  Exercise is often prescribed as a treatment for migraine, though without sufficient scientific evidence that it really works, but research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg shows that exercise is just as good as drugs at preventing migraines. And so are relaxation techniques.

Doctors use a variety of different methods to try and prevent migraines.  Topiramate is used in the pharmaceutical camp while relaxation exercises help some. Exercise is also frequently recommended but with no sufficient scientific evidence, it was hard to say it if had any effect on migraine patients or if they just got lucky and it happened to work for them. In a randomized controlled study researchers from the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy analyzed how well exercise works as a preventative treatment for migraines relative to relaxation exercises and topiramate.

Detailed in Cephalalgia, the study involved 91 migraine patients, a third of whom were asked to exercise for 40 minutes three times a week under the supervision of a physiotherapist, with another third doing relaxation exercises, and the final third given topiramate. The study lasted for a total of three months, during which the patients' migraine status, quality of life, aerobic capacity and level of phyical activity were evaluated before, during and after their treatment. Follow-ups were then carried out after three and six months.

The results show that the number of migraines fell in all three groups. There was no difference in the preventative effect between the three treatments. 

"Our conclusion is that exercise can act as an alternative to relaxations and topiramate when it comes to preventing migraines, and is particularly appropriate for patients who are unwilling or unable to take preventative medicines," says Emma Varkey, the physiotherapist and doctoral student at the Sahlgrenska Academy who carried out the study.