“Desperate” times calls for desperate measures.
For migraine sufferers, the disabling pain of their extreme headaches can lead them to look for relief in some unusual places — like one Welsh woman who says regular swims in the near-freezing Irish Sea have cut her migraine days almost in half.
Beth Francis of Anglesey, a small island off the coast of Wales, used to have some 25 migraines per month — now, she’s down to 15. Francis, 27, started getting migraines when she was just 9 and had become “desperate” when her symptoms expanded to include not just an excruciating headache but tinnitus, nausea, abdominal pain and even numbness. Her illness became so debilitating that she was forced to take sick leave from a marine biology PhD program at Bangor University.
That’s when she decided to take her treatment outside.
“I knew that I always felt better when I was in, or by, the ocean,” Francis tells the BBC. “I had also read that physical activity in nature was known to aid people with a variety of health conditions.”
She also thought the brisk ocean climate near her home, which registers at a very cool 42 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit this time of year, may offer therapeutic benefits as well: “Perhaps I’d even be able to shock my body into feeling better and use the cold water as an analgesic?”
She and her partner, Andrew Clark, have documented her quest for a cure in a project they call “100 Days of Vitamins Sea.”
While Francis continues to see a migraine specialist and take medication, she thinks her cold-weather workouts are doing wonders. But a cold shower may not work for everyone, experts warn.
“It is certainly hard to know if the benefits of swimming are related to regular exercise” — which many doctors recommend for migraine treatment — “or a more specific effect of cold water based therapy,” Dr. Matthew Robbins, neurologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, tells The Post.
Robbins says the low temps may encourage “neuromodulation” — a sort of resetting of haywire nervous tissue through chemical, electrical or thermal stimulus — in the upper neck and back, which may “indirectly impact the brain and improve chronic migraine.”
“However, that’s speculative,” says Robbins.
Indeed, a cold plunge could spell even bigger problems for some: “A condition of temporary but severe forgetfulness called ‘transient global amnesia’ has several reports of being triggered by immersion in cold water … [and] people with migraines seem to have a higher risk of transient global amnesia.”
Migraine sufferers and swimmers from around the world joined Francis and Clark to document her 100th swim at Llanddola Beach. The two also hope their platform will help researchers find more participants for new studies using cold water showers to relieve migraine symptoms.
Says Beth, “It seems to have touched a lot of people.”