Headaches in Teens Tied to Obesity, Smoking, and Lack of Exercise

These findings certainly come as no surprise. Teenagers who are overweight, get little exercise, or who smoke may be more likely to have frequent headaches and migraines when compared to teens who do not have these characteristics.

Teens with all three of the previously described negative lifestyle factors were 3.4 times more likely to have frequent headaches than those with none of those factors.

Fifty five percent of those teens with all three of these negative lifestyle factors have frequent headaches where as 25% of teens without any of these factors have frequent headaches. Another result of the study was that those with two negative lifestyle factors were 1.8 times more likely to have frequent headaches.

Looking individually at the negative lifestyle factors: smoking teens have headaches 50% more frequently, overweight teens have headaches 40% more frequently and teens who exercise less than twice a week have headaches 20% more frequently.

These results were based on the data provided by the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study where 5,847 students age 13 to 18 in Nord-Trøndelag county in Norway were interviewed by nurses about headaches and their weight and height measurements were taken. They also completed a questionnaire about physical activity and smoking.  In addition 36% of girls and 21%o f boys from the study reported having recurrent headaches within the last year.

Source: Andrew D. Hershey, Richard B. Lipton. Lifestyles of the young and migrainous. Neurology, 2010.

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