How much water are you drinking and how long are you running? Sounds like dehydration to me. I used to get headaches a few hours after working out and thought I was drinking plenty of water but it turns out I need to drink a lot more water than I thought to stay hydrated.

Have you noticed the time of day if that has any impact? Are you eating enough on a daily basis?

I think that you are a victim of ?benign exercise-related headaches.? They don?t seem to have much if anything to do with dehydration. You can get them as a result of almost any kind of exercise and they can even happen during sex. I don?t get them when I run, but I do sometimes when I weight train. It may happen while you are exercising, but also can slowly build after you have finished your exercise. Most neurologists think that it is due to activity in the trigeminal, or fifth cranial, nerve. This nerve does several things. It is the motor nerve that allows you to chew and it also allows you to feel touch and pain in your head and face. This includes pain from changes in the blood vessels that supply the muscles of the head and neck, the covering of the brain and the brain itself. It is thought that exercise may put traction on these vessels and trigger the pain. For example, if your neck muscles become tense or even if your blood pressure increases after exercise this may cause the vessels to change size and stimulate the trigeminal pain system.

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My Profile[/URL" target="_blank">?Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving." ? Sir Roger Bannister.

I have the exactly same problem and everytime I ask a doctor the answer is the same - drink more! But I do drink a lot after and before my runs and I don't think it is the problem. Now I do take exadrin soon after i finish running and it seems to help. I don't know about taking it before the run - I know you should not take Aspirin, for instance before you run. If you ever find a cause for it, please let me know

I wish y'all would figure this out. I have had this identical problem for years. Any advice would be appreciated. My typical run is about 5 miles, but sometimes longer or shorter. If I run after work in the evening, I am fine. However, if I run in the morning, then I usually have a serious headache later in the day. I sought advice on the problem and was told to drink more water. That did not help. I ran a marathon a couple of years ago, and had blood drawn in the medical tent afterwards while suffering these symptoms. I was told that I had hyponatremia (low blood sodium). An IV cleared my headache right up. Since then, I have tried drinking a V-8 after runs or other ways of adding sodium after runs. I have also eaten my share of bananas to add potassium. The results have been mixed, and I still struggle with the problem. I feel sure that it has to do with hydration/electrolytes, but I am not sure exactly what. I just know that if I run in the evening, there is almost never a headache. If I run in the morning, I generally have a pretty serious headache in the afternoon. It is a very frustrating problem to have. There is a lot a great running to be had in the morning. Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated.

I suffer from exercise induced migraines and have pretty much been able to eliminate them from my runs. My running mentor actually figured out that it is an energy problem...probalby related mostly to going even slightly anaerobic during a run. A study found that vigorous exercise for 30 seconds was able to induce a migraine in susceptibe people within 4-8 hours (during recovery).

My protocol:

1. I drink salted water - 1/2 teaspoon to 1 qt. This has varied over time, but it my most recent plan.

2. Before I leave the house I drink a protein drink in salted water - 2 heaping teaspoons L-Glutamine, 1 heaping tsp. BCAAs, 1/4 tsp. Taurine.

2. To take on run, for every 8 oz. of water I add a heaping teaspoon of L-Glutamine. I drink 4 oz. every 15 minutes or so. L-GLute doesn''t dissolve in water that well, so you have to shake it up.

3. When I return I drink another 2-3 heaping tsp. of L-Glutamine.

4. If I start getting a headache feeling I take additional L-Glutmine as needed.

5. I run all runs aerobically. Use a HR monitor if necessary. Do not over-exert and do not "breath hard". Going up hills is harder effort and even if you feel like you are not going anaerobic you might be. Running long is also more effort and you might have to run slower to do it.

Consider a migraine like any other running injury. You don't run injured and running with a migraine is no fun. They are a neurologic problem...and people with migraines are more susceptible to strokes. (Be sure to eat lots of salmong and take your fish oil!)

Best of luck!