Water UK

Headache is often one of the earliest signs of dehydration, together with light-headedness, dizziness and tiredness.(1) As many as 1 in 10 individuals may experienced a headache when dehydrated. In some individuals, water deprivation and dehydration also play a role in the development of a migraine, or in prolonging the attacks.(2,3)

One study found that 65 per cent of individuals who experienced water-deprivation headaches gained total relief within 30 minutes by drinking 200 to 1500ml of water; 32 per cent gained relief within 1 to 3 hours by drinking 500 to 100ml.(2)

Increasing water intake might be both valuable and feasible in order to prevent headaches. The group of headache patients who increased their fluid intake by approximately 1 litre per day had a 21 hour reduction in the number of hours of headache they experienced in 2 weeks. In addition, their headaches were less severe because the average headache intensity also decreased.(4)

Last updated: December 2006

(1) Kleiner SM. Water: An essential but overlooked nutrient. J Am Diet Assoc 1999:99:201-7
(2) Blau JN, Kell CA, Sperling JM. Water-deprivation headache: a new headache with two variants. Headache 2005;44:79-83
(3) Gupta VK. Water-deprivation headache: “New” variants of phenomenology. Letters to the editor. Headache 2005;44:1056
(4) Spigt MG, Kuijper EC, van Schayck CP, Troost J, Knipschild PG, Linssen VM, Knottnerus JA. Increasing the daily water intake for the prophylactic treatment of headache: a pilot trial. Eur J Neurol. 2005;12:715-718