Top 20 Common Migraine Triggers
What are the most common migraine triggers?
Migraine can be sudden and debilitating. Many people don’t realize they’re about to have a migraine attack until it’s too late and they’re already taking steps to cope with their symptoms—drawing the curtains and curling up in bed with an ice pack. Living with recurring migraine attacks can be very inhibiting and disruptive to a regular schedule and migraine can make it difficult to maintain a normal lifestyle and keep to their commitments.
Since migraine is not well understood by the medical community and the causes of a migraine attack can be so different between individuals, treating a migraine using allopathic medicine can be ineffective and expensive. An easier solution for many individuals, then, is to try and isolate the triggers for their migraine—specific circumstances, diets, events, etc. that might be causal factors. Things like your age, sex, and family medical history are also risk factors for migraines.
Identifying your specific causal factors can sometimes be a very involving process that requires careful tracking of your daily activities, changes in your environment, your hormones, and so on, but over time certain risk factors have cropped up more often than others. For example, the most common risk factor between migraine sufferers is emotional distress.
Whether it’s built up stress from your lifestyle, anxiety, tension, depression, excitement, or even elevated emotions caused by your hormones, heightened emotions are often risk factors for migraine attacks. Almost 70% of people with migraine associate their attacks with their stress. The worst if it is that stress often self-reinforcing because sufferers will begin to feel growing anxiety and dread waiting for their next attack.
Which foods are common migraine triggers?
Your diet might be triggering your migraines. No, that doesn’t mean that going on a diet for weight loss or health management will give you migraines. Rather, eating certain foods or drinking certain beverages might be connected to your migraines. Like most other migraine triggers, these are often very specific to the individual but there are some commonalities between migraine patients. It might take some tinkering and experimenting with your diet to isolate your potential triggers. That being said, these are the foods most commonly linked to migraines:
• Alcohol. Alcohol is very commonly linked to migraines and headaches, not least of all because alcohol is dehydrating and dehydration can cause headaches.
• Chocolate. Unfortunately, it’s true. Chocolate is estimated to be the second most common migraine trigger. It’s thought that this might be due to the caffeine and beta-phenylethylamine present in chocolate.
• Caffeine. Caffeine is interesting because it can actually soothe some of the symptoms of headache or impending migraine, but drinking too much caffeine at once or becoming addicted and then going through withdrawal are both risk factors for regular headaches and migraines.
• Artificial sweeteners. They’re often promoted as being healthier and better for weight management than cane sugar, but sugar alternatives might be a causal factor. Many people have reported that aspartame specifically might be triggering their migraines.
• Preserved meats. The offending compounds in preserved meats that have been linked to migraines are most often nitrates and nitrites, but sometimes just overconsumption of salt. Both nitrates and nitrites are found naturally in many foods, but are also used to preserve and cure meats. Both have been connected to causing or worsening headaches. Eating too much sodium can also be dehydrating.
• MSG. Monosodium glutamate, though also naturally occurring in many foods, is often used as a food additive for flavor or as a preservative. There are some associations between consuming MSG and migraines.
• Other preserved foods. Foods like aged cheeses or pickled and fermented foods are often high in a chemical called tyramine. Tyramine has often been said to trigger headaches and possibly migraines. The cheeses most high in tyramine content are feta, blue cheese, and Parmesan.
• Cold foods. Sometimes a little hard to distinguish from brain freeze or sometimes worsened or caused by brain freeze, migraines or headaches have also been associated with cold or frozen foods. The pain might be worse if you’ve recently exercised, are overheating, or simply devoured your cold treat a little too quickly.
Top 20 Common Migraine Triggers
Food aside, migraines have been linked to plenty of otherwise mundane activities or events—activities or events that don’t affect the majority of individuals but can cause headaches or migraines in a select, unlucky few. Some are surprisingly innocuous.
1. Hormonal changes. One of the primary reasons that women are more prone to migraine attacks than men is because of hormonal fluctuations. Depending on the individual, taking contraceptives that regulate your hormones may lessen or worsen your migraines.
2. Emotional turbulence. Stress, anxiety, or even excitement can be linked to migraines. It’s unclear why our emotions have such an impact on migraines, but it might be related to our hormones.
3. Lack of sleep. It doesn’t have to be prolonged period during which you’re deprived of sleep entirely. Migraines can be triggered or worsened by habitually poor sleep. Less commonly, sleeping too much may also cause migraines. Improving your sleep hygiene may lessen some of the symptoms of your migraines.
4. Medication. Headaches can be a side effect of taking certain medications. Sometimes, migraines can alternatively be linked to overconsumption or overreliance on over-the-counter pain relief. Abusing prescription medications can lead to the development of chronic migraines.
5. The weather. One of the most subtle possible triggers for a migraine is a simple change in the weather. It’s thought that the change in barometric pressure might be what produces a migraine in some people.
6. Physical exertion. Overworking your body, sometimes through overexercise, might be a trigger for your migraines. This is especially common if you are unused to the level of physical exertion.
7. Diet. As mentioned, your diet can be a significant contributor to your migraines, whether they worsen your headaches or trigger them in the first place. If you’re trying to manage your migraines, you should be wary of what you eat and drink.
8. Hunger. For some people, low blood sugar can be related to their migraines. You can try modifying your eating habits to include more frequent, smaller meals or snack times.
9. Dehydration. A relatively simple risk to cope with by itself, dehydration can be exacerbated by drinking alcohol, especially hot weather, or exercising. If dehydration is related to your migraines, you should monitor your water intake carefully. Consider carrying a water bottle.
10. Sensory stimulation. Loud sounds, bright lights, strong smells, or even temperature fluctuations can cause migraines for certain individuals. These sensations can sometimes be especially overpowering in the middle of a migraine and is the reason many migraine sufferers require dark, cool, quiet spaces to which they can retreat. Sometimes the light from computer screens can trigger a migraine.
11. Poor posture. Habitually poor posture can create tension in your back, shoulders, and neck that can worsen over time and aggravate the symptoms of a migraine—especially the pain.
12. Teeth grinding. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Many people grind their teeth, especially when they’re stressed, anxious, or asleep. Wearing a night guard might alleviate some of the tension that grinding your teeth can cause, which is thought to stimulate migraines.
13. Smoking. Smoking generally has an adverse effect on your health, but cigarettes have been linked to migraines for some people. Some people are sensitive enough to smoke that even being in a smoky room can trigger or worsen a migraine.
14. Allergies. Sometimes histamines can stimulate or worsen headaches. Taking an antihistamine may provide some relief, but if possible you should avoid eating foods with histamines or keeping plants that produce a lot of pollen. An air filter or hypoallergenic fabrics may help with indoor allergies.
15. Other illness. The general malaise of recovering from another illness often includes headaches. These can be especially bad for colds, flus, and sinus infections. While there is little you can do in this scenario once you are already sick with a virus, a doctor may prescribe medications for symptomatic relief and regular vaccinations may help stop you from falling sick in the future.
What foods to avoid if you have migraines?
There are many reasons that a certain food might have an impact on your migraines. It’s possible that you’re reacting to a specific chemical or ingredient, a certain smell, a strong taste, or some other factor. As a general rule, plain and bland foods are a better idea when you’re actively coping with the symptoms of a migraine because of the many potential triggers, some of which might be uncommon migraine triggers.
Common chemical compounds that can induce headaches or worsen them include tyramine, MSG, alcohol, caffeine, nitrates and nitrites, and artificial sweeteners. All of these are usually individual to the migraine sufferer, so it’s up to you to learn which ones might be impacting your headaches. It’s possible that none or multiple of these chemicals can worsen your symptoms.
Tyramine is typically found in aged cheeses or pickled or preserved foods.
Nitrates and nitrites are naturally occurring compounds but may also be used to flavor and preserve meats. Cured meats are especially rich in nitrates.
MSG is another naturally occurring compound that may be used as a flavor additive or preservative.
Red wine has been associated with increased incidences of headaches.
It’s possible that your migraine is also related to dehydration. Alcohol is especially notorious for being dehydrated because not only does alcohol dehydrate you by making it hard for your body to retain water, but many people are also unaware of how dehydrated they are because it’s a beverage.
Consuming foods made with yeast, artificial flavorings, or even certain histamine-rich fruits like bananas, oranges, and grapefruits can worsen the effects of a headache or migraine. That includes freshly-baked bread (and pizza), breaded meats, and artificial sweeteners.
For some people, low blood sugar can be a risk factor for their migraines. In such cases, it’s important to keep your blood sugar up, while still being careful of overeating. It may be prudent or advisable for people who associate low blood sugar levels with their migraines to change their dietary habits to eating multiple smaller meals frequently throughout the day instead of eating several spaced-out, large meals.
(Conclusion)
The biggest problem with migraine is that it is not just complex and very individualized in the way it afflicts people, it is also poorly understood. Even with assistance from a medical professional, it can be a difficult task to interpret your migraine and its myriad of possible triggers, not to mention finding solutions. After all, what do you do when pain medication can make the pain worse?
Long-term care solutions for migraine often involve management rather than a cure. The Good Days Program is exactly that. Sign up and receive professionally-curated materials and guidance from a team of experts aimed at keeping you informed and giving you control over your migraine. Retake your life and reclaim your good days.