Have a headache? Sex makes it go away
One of the old excuses to not have sex is having a headache. However, science has been able to deny this and if you try to use this again, your partner may have already found out that sexual activity can alleviate these discomforts, even those as intense as a migraine.
Great pains, require great remedies
Cluster headaches are one of the most severe headaches. It consists of episodes which occur in cyclical patterns and usually appear as an intense pain in one eye or around one eye. As explained by the Mayo Clinic (a famous health institute in the United States), the frequent attack episodes can last for weeks or months, and then comes a period in which pain is absent, and can even stay that way for months or even years.
On the other hand, migraine is a very intense headache that is regularly accompanied by nausea, vomiting or excessive sensitivity to light and sound. Some people feel a pulsating pain in one of the sides of the head, as defined by the MedlinePlus portal.
These two ailments were studied by a research team in Germany in order to determine if sexual activity improved or worsened the symptoms and, they found very interesting data.
For the study 306 people were surveyed (men and women) who suffered from migraine and 96 people who suffered from cluster headaches. The first evident result was that most people were not being sexually active when suffering from pain, but those who were, sex helped them improve the situation.
For example, 34% of people with migraine had had sex during one episode and, 60% of them reported an improvement with the pain (70% of those who improved had a moderate to total improvement). Even so, a very considerable 33% reported that sexual activity had worsened it.
In the case of people with cluster headaches, 31% of them had sex during an episode and, from those, 37% said the pain had improved (91% of the ones that improved had a moderate to total improvement), while unfortunately half (50%) said the pain had worsened.
Curiously, even though the percentage of people with cluster headaches who obtain relief with sex is greater, there are more people with migraine that have sex during their attacks. In fact, the study confirms that men with migraine in particular have already identified that sex can be an effective therapy for their pain.
But, why does sex alleviate the pain?
According to the authors, the most obvious explanation of why pain goes away during sexual activity is that the person becomes distracted. However, the release of endorphins (a type of protein that produces a painkiller effect and a sense of well-being), relaxation after orgasm and changes in blood pressure that can have effects on pain, have been studied in the past.
In the case of women, the back of the vagina has a physiological reflex related to the birthing process, therefore, stimulating it can favor pain relief in general.
So now you know this, if you have these types of ailments, you can do your own test and may have high probabilities of finding relief for either of these very painful episodes.
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