5 common triggers of migraine

Are you experiencing migraine pain? Have you ever experienced your migraine getting triggered by certain substances or conditions?

In this blog, we are going to explain ‘what are migraine triggers’ and ‘how can you deal with them’.  

Let’s consider this situation for a person suffering from migraine -

It’s a Friday night and you had a stressful day at office. The work was so intense that you had 3 extra cups of coffee to keep you going through the afternoon and late into the evening. You spent your entire day looking at your laptop screen and had your lunch at 3:30 PM. By the time you reached home, it was already past your usual bedtime and you were too exhausted to cook dinner. Hence, you went straight to sleep. Next morning, you woke up with migraine pain.

So, what exactly happened a previous day that triggered your migraine? There was a change in your routine schedule, you skipped your meal, spent the whole day in front of the screen and under stress, and had extra caffeine. Probably, these things triggered your migraine pain. If you are also a migraine sufferer, there may be triggers which can cause migraine attack in you.

Different things trigger migraines in different people and the same trigger doesn’t always provoke a migraine in the same person.

Few common triggers of migraine headache are:

1. Hormonal changes in women – Women are three times more likely to get migraine pain than men. Around 75% of women find that they experience migraine pain around the time of their menstrual periods (known as menstrual migraine). These types of migraine occur immediately before or during menstruation.
2. Foods - Certain foods can contribute to triggering your migraine symptoms such as chocolate, cheese, foods containing tyramine, alcohol especially wine, and caffeine. So you can make a note of these food items if they trigger migraine in you. Fasting can also trigger a migraine.
3. Emotional triggers – stress, shock, anxiety, excitement, depression are emotional factors that can trigger migraine headache.
4. Strong stimuli - strong smell like perfumes, paint thinner, noise, smoke, bright lights or flickering lights can also trigger migraine pain.
5. Physical factors - If you have a habit of staying awake till late in night, then lack of sleep can trigger migraine headache. Or if you change your routine on “weekends” such as eating time, reduced caffeine consumption, or sleep pattern, you may get a migraine headache. Physical overexertion, tiredness, poor posture may also give rise to migraine pain.

Importance of keeping a track of your migraine triggers

If you are one of the millions who suffer from migraine symptoms, it’s important for you to keep a migraine diary and look for patterns in your attacks. You can write down about your sleeping habits, what all you did, what you ate and drank, exercise, how was your mood, have you taken any medication or not.

By determining your personal migraine triggers, you may be able to limit how often you get migraines and how severe they are. Migraine triggers add up, so the fewer you have at one time, the better your chances of preventing a migraine.

Lifestyle changes to reduce the frequency of migraine

You can adapt to certain lifestyle changes to reduce the frequency of your migraine headaches. Few tips are:

• Get at least 6-8 hours of sleep daily. Try to sleep at the same time and not make any changes in your routine
• Stress can only worsen your condition. Therefore, try doing things which gives you happiness – yoga, meditation, drawing, dance, swimming, music, etc.
• Try to avoid foods that can cause migraine attacks.
• Also, see that you drink plenty of water and exercise regularly.

These little changes might help you to get little relief from migraine pain. But before your condition gets worse you should take appropriate migraine treatment. If you want an effective, long-lasting solution for your migraine symptoms, then homeopathy treatment can help you deal with the condition safely. You can consult our homeopathic experts for an individualized migraine treatment by booking an appointment: https://www.drbatras.ae/book-an-appointment