How a blast of oxygen could banish your migraine pain

A face mask that delivers pulses of oxygen can help treat migraines.

The device, worn once symptoms begin, is said to work by reducing inflammation in nerve cells that cause pain. It is now being tested in a trial involving 160 patients.

Migraines affect about ten million people in the UK and cause attacks of painful headaches that can be accompanied by nausea, disturbed vision and sensitivity to light, sound and smells.

The exact cause of these attacks is not fully understood. One theory is that it is the result of brain cells activating the trigeminal nerve, one of the main nerves in the face, which then sends pain signals back to the brain.

This causes the release of chemicals that irritate the blood vessels on the surface of the brain and cause them to swell, triggering additional pain signals.

There is no cure for migraines – the main treatments are painkillers and drugs called triptans, which work by reducing inflammation and constricting the blood vessels in the head, reducing pain.

However, these do not always work and triptans can have side effects such as nausea, dry mouth and drowsiness.

Oxygen therapy is already being used in the treatment of cluster headaches – severe attacks of pain on one side of the head, often felt around the eye, which affect one in 1,000 people.

In this case, patients are given oxygen bottles for home and on the go; they are attached to a face mask and are activated at the first sign of a painful attack.

There is some evidence that the oxygen reduces inflammation and activity in nerve cells associated with cluster headaches — and a similar mechanism has been proposed for migraine relief.

The new migraine trial follows an earlier study by Massachusetts General Hospital in 22 patients in which resuscitators were four times more effective than a placebo (filled with air) at relieving pain.

Nausea relief was also higher in the oxygen group — 42 percent compared to 23 percent — and there was greater improvement in visual symptoms — 36 percent versus 7 percent, the journal Cephalalgia reported.

Now, 160 migraine patients seeking emergency care at Turkey’s Ankara Research Hospital are offered standard anti-inflammatory painkillers at the first sign of an attack — and half are also receiving oxygen therapy, via a mask that delivers 10 liters of oxygen per minute. minute.

They breathe the oxygen for up to an hour, and pain levels before and after are compared in the two groups.

Dr. Andrew Dowson, clinical lead at NHS East Kent and Bromley Headache Services, said: ‘It’s always good to see more research on migraines, especially with treatment options that are unlikely to cause bad side effects.

‘The evidence for the use of oxygen in cluster headaches is clinically undisputed and is included in the NICE guidelines.

“Oxygen has been proposed as a potential treatment for migraines, and if the new study is positive, we need to assess how strong the evidence is and balance that with the logistical issues of delivering oxygen to patients at home.”

Did you know?

Eating high-fat, sugary foods can rewire our brains, making us crave them more, according to a study from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Germany.

Researchers measured brain activity in one group that received a high-fat, sugary pudding daily for eight weeks, compared to another group that received a pudding that contained the same calories, but less fat and sugar.

They found that the sugary pudding group had an activated dopaminergic system (responsible for motivation and reward) in response to these foods, so they craved them in the future.