Many of us believe that summer light, warmth, more days off to rest... help calm or eliminate many of the problems that plague us throughout the year. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily true for those who suffer from migraine headaches. Why and how can CBD help them?

What is a migraine headache?

A migraine headache is a severe throbbing pain in the head (e.g., only on one side of the head), which can last from a few hours to several days. Often, the onset of such a headache is heralded by the so-called migraine aura, which occurs about half an hour before the attack. In the peripheral field of vision, it is perceived as flashing lights or glare, zigzag shiny lines, spots, stars, blurred images, dark areas, etc. The sufferer often feels sick and vomits, and with such headaches there is also an increased sensitivity to light and sound.

Why does bright light trigger migraine headaches?

Bright light can often trigger migraine attacks in the summer. When they do occur, they further increase sensitivity to light. The exact reasons why bright light triggers migraine attacks are not yet known, but it has been found that in people whose migraines are triggered by light, something is happening in the area of the brain that perceives light: the brain is not able to control the pain caused by glare or light. This is also confirmed by a study on blind people published in February 2010 in the journal Nature Neuroscience: blind people who perceive light but cannot see a clear image also suffer from such headaches - just like people without visual impairment, while blind people who cannot even perceive light do not have such headaches. So, the problem is said to be in the area of the brain that perceives light, and not in the one that perceives the image.

How can CBD help?

CBD (cannabidiol), a cannabinoid from industrial hemp flowers, may also help manage migraine headaches. Before you read how CBD can help, let's remind you of the classic recommendations for managing migraines.

Recording the circumstances of a migraine can help us identify triggers – for example: light, nitrates, MSG, certain foods, caffeine, cigarettes, etc. Drinking plenty of water in the summer is recommended to avoid dehydration or high blood pressure. It is a good idea to supplement your diet with vitamin D, magnesium, and omega-3 fats, as deficiencies of these substances have been reported in people who suffer from migraine headaches. Protect yourself from bright light with a hat and sunglasses. Avoid overheating your body – stay indoors during the day when the light and heat are strongest. Avoid non-routine, strenuous physical activities that increase blood flow to the brain. Gradually change your sleeping habits, which are associated with lengthening or shortening the day – change your sleep rhythm by no more than 15 minutes over a few days. Avoid stressful situations. Eliminate hay fever, as the inflammatory substances produced by it are said to also irritate the trigeminal nerve, which also causes migraine pain...

More and more research suggests that CBD may also help with migraine headaches, as it has been proven to have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects, among other things, and it also improves blood circulation in the brain, relaxes during stress and lowers high blood pressure. In the study The endocannabinoid system and migraine, Rosaria Greco et al., they state that the endocannabinoid system (you can read more about it in the book How to Protect Your Brain), whose function CBD helps regulate, also plays an important role in the processing of pain signals. Therefore, they see appropriate activation of the endocannabinoid system (e.g. with CBD) as having great therapeutic potential for reducing physiological and inflammation-related pain, which probably also causes migraine attacks. Many other researchers also associate migraine attacks with an inadequately functioning endocannabinoid system.

In 2007, researchers at the University of Perugia conducted a study on people with chronic migraines and wrote in the Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology that, compared to healthy people, they had low levels of the body's cannabinoid anandamide in their cerebrospinal fluid. A lack of this could lead to poor functioning of the endocannabinoid system, which is expressed in chronic migraine pain.

Since, in addition to all the effects already listed, CBD also prevents the breakdown of anandamide, thereby allowing its greater presence in the body, it may also alleviate migraine headaches through this route. So it is no wonder that more and more doctors, including Dr. Ethan Russo, a neurologist and medical researcher, advise regulating a poorly functioning endocannabinoid system by consuming low doses of CBD from whole hemp flower extract (https://www.projectcbd.orgiscience/cannabis-pharmacology/dr-ethan-russo-cbd-clinical-endocannabinoid-deficiency).

Given that a certain percentage of people with migraine headaches also suffer from high blood pressure (https://www.migrainesurvival.com/high-blood-pressure-and-migraine?f=sb), it is also good to eliminate fluctuations in blood pressure to manage migraines. CBD can help us here too, because, among other things, it relaxes or dilates blood vessels and thus lowers blood pressure (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmciarticles/PMC3954478/). Of course, for comprehensive and permanent management of high blood pressure, it will also be necessary to change the harmful lifestyle habits that caused the problem.