Check What Dietitians Have To Say Regarding Getting Headaches When Fasting

There are many people who tend to fast for quite an extended period. Sometimes, people try intermittent fasting for their upcoming blood tests. Even people fast while celebrating any religious event, including Ramadan. Since there are plenty of reasons for fasting, you might encounter a typical side effect – headaches.

It is true that fasting-related headaches are pretty common nowadays. The founder of Chelsea Nutrition, Jennifer Maeng, reveals that these headaches typically occur right after fasting for more than 16 hours. Nonetheless, people can sometimes experience a fasting-related headache when they abstain from eating for just a couple of hours.

That’s in part because there are quite a few reasons why fasting headaches occur. Here are a few things that you need to know about these headaches.

Fasting Headaches – How is it Caused?

Certain culprits behind fasting headaches include changes in blood sugar, low water levels, and lack of caffeine. It is certainly true that the blood vessels become constricted as soon as your body becomes dehydrated.

Further, it causes the tissues within your body to shrink or contract. Thus, even mild dehydration can also inflict a significant headache.

Whenever your brain contracts due to dehydration, it inflicts pressure on the nerves. Besides, it can also cause astringent pain. Sometimes, drinking enough water might also not be sufficient for people. In fact, we acquire at least 20% of our water from the foods we eat.

So, you’re likely to drink more water whenever you’re fasting than you usually do. This is basically to offset the fluid that is being constricted from the food.