Clearly, counting on medical recommendation from TikTok isn’t beneficial (particularly if it’s not coming from a health care provider or different well being care supplier). Nonetheless, some dwelling treatments for migraine truly assist (extra on this later). And whereas some individuals flip to conventional migraine therapies like medication, others may favor to have choices—which is why we have additionally written about ice water for migraines, meditations for complications, and eyebrow therapeutic massage for head ache.

So earlier than you low cost the feet-in-heat hack, we requested the specialists if there’s any science to again it up. Learn on to search out out.

Does dipping your toes in scorching water assist with migraines?

Hydrotherapy (i.e., utilizing heat or chilly water to deal with well being situations) has been round for eons. “There’s a lengthy historical past of utilizing ice or scorching baths to assist with migraine,” says Noah Rosen, MD, a neurologist at Northwell Well being. That stated, there’s “little proof to assist it,” Dr. Rosen provides.

The frequent perception, particularly on social media, is that heat water diverts blood stream to the toes (i.e., away from the top), and this helps to alleviate head ache. However Dr. Rosen says this clarification is inaccurate: “The concept that warming the toes attracts blood away from the mind will not be appropriate.”

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That’s as a result of it’s based mostly on older theories about migraines, which hypothesized that adjustments in blood stream to the mind brought on migraines. Whereas blood vessels do contract and broaden considerably throughout an assault, it isn’t the trigger, says Anna Tempo, MD, neurologist and assistant professor on the Icahn College of Drugs at Mount Sinai. The primary drivers of migraine assaults are electrical activation within the mind and neuroinflammation, she says.

That stated, how heat water helps migraines continues to be “unknown and unclear,” Dr. Rosen says. He theorizes that it might have one thing to do with the way in which scorching (or chilly) temperatures stimulate nerve cells, particularly peripheral ache and lightweight contact receptors. They could modify ache alerts by some means, “having a secondary impact on the central nervous system,” he says. The impact could also be just like “peripheral electrical stimulating units” that assist cease and forestall migraines.

Although we nonetheless don’t know why hydrotherapy helps migraine, some preliminary analysis appears to recommend that it does. “Almost 10 years in the past, there was a small research of hydrotherapy the place contributors had toes and arms in scorching water (after which an ice therapeutic massage of the top) for 45 days,” Dr. Rosen says. He’s referring to a 2016 research within the Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Observe, which discovered that hydrotherapy decreased the frequency and depth of complications in individuals with migraine.

Although promising, take the outcomes with a little bit of warning. The therapy used within the research was fairly rigorous: a far more “intensive expertise then merely dipping toes in scorching water,” Dr. Rosen says. Plus, it concerned a mix of scorching and chilly therapies, not simply scorching water soaks on their very own. All this to say, it’s possible you’ll not have the identical success in the event you simply dip your toes in a heat tub (however hey, there’s additionally no hurt in making an attempt).

How lengthy to soak your toes in scorching water for a headache

So long as you’re taking just a few precautions, a scorching foot soak is mostly protected for most individuals. “The [main] concern about that is utilizing too scorching water the place it will possibly trigger burns,” Dr. Tempo says. (As if head ache wasn’t dangerous sufficient, you definitely don’t need to add singed pores and skin to your listing of issues.) You possibly can keep away from burns by ensuring the water temperature isn’t too excessive and capping your soak to twenty minutes, Dr. Rosen says.

That stated, some teams could need to skip the foot soak altogether. “People who find themselves aged or who produce other well being situations (who could also be extra weak to overheating or dehydration) could also be in danger for extra regarding unintended effects,” Dr. Tempo says.

This consists of individuals with coronary heart issues. That’s as a result of sudden or extended immersion in scorching water can spike your physique temperature, overheat your physique, and tax your coronary heart, based on the Cleveland Clinic. This could create a domino impact, resulting in a harmful rise (or dip) in blood stress, irregular coronary heart rhythms, or, in extreme circumstances, even coronary heart assault.

“Anybody with a coronary heart situation ought to take into account clearance from their doctor” earlier than making an attempt this, Dr. Rosen says. In case your physician offers you the “okay,” strive it out. Simply keep hydrated (maintain a bottle of cool water inside attain) and be careful for signs like dizziness, emotions of faintness, or nausea.

Identical goes for anybody with neuropathy (nerve harm) within the toes. If neuropathy has brought on numbness in your toes, it’s possible you’ll not be capable of precisely really feel how scorching the water is, placing you at greater threat for burns.

Does soaking your toes in chilly water for migraine assist?

Chilly remedy has lengthy been a standard dwelling treatment for migraine. It is sensible: Ice packs have a numbing impact, to allow them to assist alleviate head ache.

In comparison with scorching foot soaks, scientists have additionally completed extra research on chilly remedy for migraines. “There is a little more information for ice packs or ice caps in serving to to alleviate ache and cut back irritation when used on the top” or neck, Dr. Tempo says.

Working example: A July 2013 research within the Hawaii Journal of Drugs and Public Well being² discovered that making use of a frozen neck wrap on the onset of a migraine headache considerably decreased head ache.

That stated, there’s nonetheless “no validated information on ice baths or soaking toes in chilly water to deal with migraine,” Dr. Tempo says. So if you wish to go the chilly remedy route, you’re higher off sticking to the science-backed methods and placing an ice pack in your head or neck.

Different therapies for migraines

Whereas it’s at all times nice to have choices for migraine reduction, scorching foot soaks could also be hit and miss for migraine assaults. That stated, you may favor therapies which have a confirmed monitor document. Fortunately, “there are myriad medical therapies and different nonpharmacologic therapies for migraine which were proven to be useful for stopping and stopping migraine assaults,” Dr. Tempo says.

Take into account: “What may fit for one particular person could not work for one more,” she says. And sometimes it’s not one method, however a mix of issues that assist. For that reason, it’s essential to at all times “talk about all choices together with your physician to search out the one that’s best for you,” Dr. Tempo says.

From dwelling treatments to remedy and migraine-specific units, these migraine therapies are tried-and-true, per the Cleveland Clinic and Drs. Tempo and Rosen:

• Over-the-counter, pain-relieving medicines like ibuprofen, aspirin, acetaminophen, naproxen, and caffeine are efficient when you have delicate to reasonable migraine signs
• Drugs to cease migraines can cease or cut back migraine signs like ache, nausea, mild sensitivity, and so forth.
• Preventive migraine medicines cut back how typically and the way extreme migraines have an effect on you, although you might have to take them every day
• Medical units like Nerivio, Cefaly, and Relivion, vagal nerve stimulators, and transcranial magnetic stimulators use electrical pulses/stimulation or magnetic fields to assist forestall migraine
• Constant sleep—lack of sleep is a identified migraine set off
• Ice packs, ice hats, or different cooling units may also help numb and uninteresting head ache
• Sure nutritional vitamins and dietary supplements like magnesium, riboflavin, coenzyme Q-10, and butterbur could assist forestall migraine assaults
• Biofeedback helps you develop an consciousness of pressure in your physique, so you may cut back it and forestall, lower, or cease a migraine headache
• Rest methods like yoga may also help ease pressure and stress, which can contribute to migraines
• Acupuncture could assist activate pathways within the mind that may “swap off” ache
• Topical peppermint oil or lavender could cut back migraine depth, frequency, and signs like mild sensitivity, nausea, and vomiting
• Botulinum toxin kind A injections, AKA Botox, interrupts the ache pathway between the mind and nerves within the spinal twine

When to see a health care provider

On the subject of migraines, generally DIY approaches merely don’t minimize it. In any case, migraines aren’t simply bizarre complications—they’ll trigger debilitating head ache that may sideline you for hours (and even days).

If in case you have any of the next signs, it’s greatest to let your physician know, per Drs. Tempo and Rosen:

• When headache/migraine interferes together with your every day life or routine (say, you’re feeling too crappy to go to highschool or work)
• In case your headache/migraine doesn’t reply to over-the-counter therapies
• In case your headache/migraine comes with different signs like nausea, imaginative and prescient adjustments, or mild sensitivity

Along with taking a historical past of your signs, your supplier might also suggest bloodwork or imaging. These assessments will assist them get a fuller image of your downside. “It’s at all times good to know what you might be coping with, and easy methods to deal with it optimally,” Dr. Rosen says.

The underside line

“Sadly, there’s no scientific information to recommend that dipping your toes in scorching water will assist remedy migraines,” Dr. Tempo says. Nonetheless, she acknowledges that “some individuals do discover enchancment in discomfort with warmth (or ice) remedy.”

On the finish of the day, “consider warmth therapies as extra consolation measures,” Dr. Tempo says. “They could make a affected person really feel rather less uncomfortable and maybe extra calm.”

So whereas a scorching foot soak is unlikely to cease a migraine assault, per the medical doctors, it may be one other useful gizmo in your migraine toolbox. Once more, for most individuals, managing migraine takes a mix of ways. So long as you have got medical clearance out of your supplier, and also you observe just a few security precautions, there’s little hurt in giving hydrotherapy a go.