Talk about sexual healing.
Pounding headaches can be agony, but there’s an X-rated DIY cure that’s tucked away in your nightstand drawer.
About 82% of American women own a vibrator, which are now being used in an unorthodox way by many migraine sufferers.
While orgasms might be able to satisfy a headache, people are applying sex toys directly on their noggins in order to ease the pressure and pain from migraines.
“Gotta get by any way I can,” one desperate user wrote on Reddit, where they admitted to using their Hitachi wand vibrator — “cleaned, obviously” — to ease their migraine pain, pressing it on their forehead between their eyes.
Other Redditors vowed to try the unorthodox at-home method, while some said they “do this all the time,” with men often reaching for their partners vibrators on occasion.
“If this is the secret for me I’m gonna be so pissed because it was in my nightstand the whole time,” one person wrote on a post.
“Brb I’m off to charge my toys,” quipped someone else.
“I am SO buying a vibrator right now,” another desperate headache sufferer commented.
One Wired contributor reported that her friend, Jack, “suffers from the most terrible migraines” but “has an unusual solution.”
“When his migraine starts, he lays down and gently straps a vibrator to the top of his forehead,” journalist Helen Thomson wrote. “He swears that it offers instant relief from the pain.”
While bizarre, the DIY method isn’t so far-fetched. Past research suggests that vibration can be a suitable therapy for migraines, which effect one billion people globally.
Dr. Adriana LaGier, an associate professor of biology at Iowa’s Grand View University, told Wired that her research team investigated vibration and migraine relief after hearing her friends’ stories of placing vibrators on their foreheads.
“Some of the people using vibration as a therapy for migraine are experiencing huge benefits, it’s very exciting to see,” Tie-Quang Li, who has studied migraines and vibration at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, told Wired.
But migraine sufferers may not have to reach into their nightstand for at-home pain relief anymore. The science-backed hack has resulted in a crop of vibrating tools marketed specifically for migraines, such as eye massagers and vibrating headbands.
But sex toys aren’t the only buzzy treatment for headaches.
On Reddit forums, users have shared their last ditch efforts to shake off their migraines that didn’t work, such as snorting cayenne pepper, drinking tart cherry juice or eating raw lemons. Others, of course, still swear by the big “O.”
“People with migraines aren’t always looking for a cure — they just want a better quality of life,” LaGier said.
