Migraine Lifestyle Triggers
Your knowledge, behaviour, lifestyle, and diet are all significant factors in building a migraine-friendly life.
Living with migraine
You may be able to identify some of your triggers off the top of your head, but what really counts are the ones that you can’t. Hidden or missed triggers lead to more migraine episodes.
Oftentimes, without structured monitoring, migraine sufferers wrongly identified triggers and protectors.
Common Lifestyle Risk Factors
We’ve come up with a list of some of the most common factors in your day that can impact your migraine and basic ways to start building a migraine-friendly lifestyle.
Dehydration
About 30% of migraine sufferers have listed dehydration as a trigger.
Drink 48 oz (1.5 litres) of water under normal conditions - indoors, cool temperature, no extra physical activities.
Increase your fluid intake if you’re exerting yourself or if your surroundings are warm.
Hunger
When there is a drop in blood glucose levels, the brain is affected. This easily segues into an attack. Keep blood sugar levels within range:
Eat regular meals.
Do not skip meals.
Have a healthy snack if you need it.
Sleep routine
Maintain a regular sleep pattern.
Determine a time for bed and waking up and stick to it.
Avoid oversleeping and, of course, sleeping too little.
Stress
Strong emotions, stress and anxiety can easily add up towards a migraine attack.
Build up your resistance to stress and anxiety.
Set aside time for meditation.
Spend 30 minutes daily on moderate exercise such as walking or yoga.
Understand your stressors and adapt to them. Reframe your problems and adjust your attitude or expectations.
Hug more! Hugging releases a hormone that fights stress - so hug your loved ones and pets.
A cardiac coherence exercise consists of breathing in for five seconds, then breathing out for the same amount of time (for a 10 second breathing cycle).
Do this for 5 minutes without stopping between breathing in and breathing out. Practiced 3 times a day, it has a real impact on your stress level.
Physical tension
Migraine attacks are often led by complaints of neck stiffness and tension in the jaw.
Do a 5-minute neck exercise to prevent or relieve the stress in your neck and a 2-minute jaw massage to reduce the tension in your jaw and temples.
Wearing a mouth guard at night will also help if you suffer from bruxism.
Environment
There are many environmental factors that can cause sensitivity including noise, smells, harsh lights, and high temperatures.
Avoid these conditions as much as possible so you keep below your threshold:
Take regular breaks from looking at your device screens, watch your reading habits and avoid strong, glaring lights. Wear shades in the sun.
Avoid strong smells such as deodorants, cleaning products, cigarette smoke, etc.
Stay away from expected noisy environments.
There are other frequent triggers are harder to control for, such as weather changes, hormone levels, and necessary medication.
Know your lifestyle triggers
Triggers differ between people and even an identified trigger may not always cause a migraine in the same person.
Developing a plan to manage the risk factors that lead to a migraine is complicated but that’s what we’re here for!
Know your food sensitivities
Food triggers vary greatly and identifying them can be hard but understanding your intolerances is important for managing migraine.
