Dipping Your Feet In Hot Water Can Help You Get Rid Of Migraine

Of the many internet hacks, whether it is kitchen hacks, study hacks or even health hacks, the one trending is dipping your feet in hot water. Why? Because it helps you get rid of migraines. Is it really so?

Let's See. Maybe, finally, a TikTok hack that may just work.

How Are Migraine Triggered?

We know that migraine can be triggered by estrogen and serotonin - the happy hormone. This can have a variety of effects, including constricting the vessels in the brain which can trigger a migraine.

However, there are many different theories that exists on how a migraine happens. Older theories suggest that it happened due to fluctuations in blood flow to the brain. However, now it is widely understood that chemical compounds and hormones like serotonin and estrogen.

Serotonin is a chemical necessary for communication between nerve cells and it can cause narrowing of blood vessels throughout the body. When serotonin or estrogen levels change, it can lead to migraine. The result of serotonin may exist in both sexes, whereas fluctuating estrogen affects women. For women, estrogen levels vary throughout the life cycle, due to their menstruation.

How To Get Rid Of Migraine?

A piece of advice on TikTok has gone viral, garnering over 10.8 million views and 1.3 million likes. In this video, a woman is sitting on the edge of her bathtub with her feet submerged in hot water. The video reads: "in disbelief" that this remedy actually worked.

What was the remedy? The user was dipping her feet in hot water to get rid of migraine. Many users saved this video and came back to her in the comment section and praised her for the hack.

A small study by Sujan and colleagues found that if you get the toes in warm water, you can reduce the intensity and frequency of migraines. This happens because warm water helps to reopen the arteries in the head and restore blood flow to the area, triggering the headache. There are also some evidences that say applying a cold pack just at the base of the skull for 15 to 20 minutes can also help relieve migraine.

Another small study in 2016 analysed 40 chronic migraine sufferers and divided them into two groups, both were given conventional migraine medication. However, one of the groups also received "hydrotherapy", which meant the participants put their feet and arms in a hot bath and had an ice massage for 20 minutes daily. At the end of the 45-day study, the researchers found that the hydrotherapy group had less pain than the other group.