Yoga may help ease migraines

Yoga may help migraine sufferers get some relief, a new study suggests.

Medications are the first-line treatment for migraine, but they work for only about half of patients, and many drugs have side effects that make about 10% of people stop using them.

Researchers in India randomized 114 patients with episodic migraines to one of two groups. The first received conventional medical therapy as prescribed by their doctors; the second got conventional treatment, plus a yoga program that included breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and yogic postures. Patients learned the program in one-hour sessions three days a week for a month under the supervision of a yoga therapist and then practiced the routines at home, five days a week, for the next two months.

The study, in Neurology, found that both groups showed a reduction in the frequency and intensity of headaches. But the yoga group tended to get significantly fewer headaches, had less intense headaches and consumed fewer pills, even though the average headache frequency was higher in the yoga group at the start of the study. “If you have migraines, you should talk to your physician about adding yoga to your treatment,” said a co-author, Dr. Gautam Sharma, a professor of cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. And if you decide to pursue yoga,

Aspirin may cut some cancer risk

Besides relieving headaches, fever, pain and swelling, aspirin also may help ward off various cancers of the digestive tract, lowering your risk by 22-to-38%, according to new research published in Annals of Oncology.

Based on an analysis of 113 studies from 2011 through March 2019, the research found that people who took at least one or two aspirin a week were less likely than those who took no aspirin to develop colorectal cancer (27% reduced risk), esophageal cancer (33%), stomach cancer (36%), pancreatic cancer (22%) and cancer of the liver, gallbladder and bile duct, known as hepatobilliary cancer (38%). For all types, the longer people had taken aspirin, the better their odds of not developing the cancer. In some cases, dosage made a difference, with higher dosage creating lower risk, especially for colorectal cancer.

Don’t use the findings of this study to start popping aspirin, however. It can cause internal bleeding, especially in the stomach and also in the brain. You are advised to not take aspirin, at any dosage or frequency, unless it has been prescribed

JEN RYNDA / BALTIMORE SUN MEDIA GROUP / TNS A study in India suggests that use of yoga exercises in addition to medication can reduce the impact on patients of migraine headaches.