Dealing With Headaches

Topamax (topiramate, for those who want to know the generic name), which was originally used for seizures but now is mostly used for migraine prevention, has been found to increase a person’s risk of getting kidney stones. You will are not 100% guarenteed to get kidney stones if you take Topamax, but your body leans a little more in the kidney stone direction.

Who Says So?

The UT Southwestern Medical Center, that’s who. They’ve finished conducting the largest study to date about the long-term affects of taking Topamax and are the ones waving the warning flag. They say that doctors have long been aware of this complication, but have not informed their patients of the risk well enough. (They don’t mention if the drug company knew about this complication or not. However, looking at the official Topamax website, kidney stones are listed as a potential not fun side effect.)

Before the findings of the UT Southwesten Medical Center study, it was thought that only 1.5% of Topamax takers would develop kidney stones. Now the heads of the study thinks the actual percentage may be a lot higher than that:

“There is a legitimate concern for the occurrence of kidney stones with long-term topiramate treatment,” said Dr. Sakhaee said. “Studies are needed to explore optimal measures to prevent kidney-stone formation with topiramate use.”

Now What?

Quite frankly, if you regularly experience migraine pain, then you can probably deal with kidney stone pain. Treatment for kidney stones is a lot better than just twenty years ago. You and your doctor must decide if this new risk outweighs any benefits that you receive from Topamax.

Some days, I think it’s just easier if I cut off my head…

From the “What’s Old is New Again” Department: More and more people are rediscovering the benefits of natural remedies. They are especially looking for remedies with few side effects. All medicinal herbs are medicines and need to be treated with the same ammount of respect you would any medicine. In fact, many modern medicines were derived from plant and herb remedies, including digitalis (from foxglove) and aspirin (from willow bark and spices like tumeric). For prevention of migraines with auras, patients and healers are looking at a modest little flower called feverfew.

There’s A Reason For The Name

Feverfew is the most common folk name for Tanecetum parthenium. It’s other folk names include bride’s button, featherfew, featherfoil, febrifuge, motherherb, wild quinine, nosebleed (!) and wild chamomile. It’s in the daisy family, so if you are allergic to ragweed (the black sheep of the daisy family), stay away from both feverfew and any kind of chamomile, wild or not-so-wild. Pregnant women should stay away from feverfew, too, as it has been known to stimulate the uterus.

From folk names, we can pretty much figure out what a plant was used for. Feverfew was used as a painkiller, a fever reducer, help for menstrual cramps and arthritis. Usually the flowers were used — fresh or dried. You can find feverfew in capsule form today.

In order to prevent migraines, you need to take a few capsules a day. It’s no good once a migraine or an aura starts. The ingredient thought to help prevent migraines is called “parthinolide”, thought to help regulate the blood vessels in the brain. Although causes of migraines is unknown, one of the theories is that dilation and constriction of the blood vessels may contribute to the pain. Another theory is that the brain’s serotonin levels is the main culprit. Yet another theory is that BOTH seronin and blood vessels in the head are responsible. It is thought 250 mg of parthinolide daily can help lessen the severity and frequency of migraines with auras.

Any Proof?

Two clinical trials were held in the UK in the 1980’s about feverfew (taken fresh or dried) one to six times a day as migraine prevention, where a large percentage of the volunteers reported significant relief from the frequency and severity of their migraines. Another two were done over the years, with similar results. An evaluation was made in 2003 that cited all of the clinical trials findings and recommended feverfew as one of many options in helping to prevent migraines. However, in all totlat, less than 400 people were tested, so the studies are not considered “scientific” enough to warrant be taken very seriously. You need to take feverfew for a month at least before you start getting any of the benefits.

In Canada, feverfew capsules are classified as drugs and not herbal supplements. You need to talk to your doctor before taking feverfew — or ANY herbal supplement in such large doses. If you start getting strange side effects like mouth sores, nausea or hives, call your doctor. These side effects are reversable.

It’s always good to know that there are options if conventional medicines don’t work for you. Hope this helps.

Let’s get this point straight — I am a Peter Gabriel fan. Have been since I was 16 and now I’m….a lot older than 16. The man and his music plays an extremely important role in my life. Perhaps you have a favorite artist or idol that gets your neurons firing, too. So, when I learned that Peter Gabriel contributed original music and vocals to the “Swimming with Dinosaurs”-type movie, Sea Monsters, I was thrilled. Dinosaurs and Peter Gabriel — how can you go wrong? And, it was playing at The Franklin Institue, one of the best places to visit in Philadelphia.

And then I found out that Sea Monsters is only being shown in 3-D.

Ever open up a great present and then be told that it’s not for you and have it taken away?

The Problem With 3-D Movies

3-D movies can cause migraines, especially in those of us who have monocular vision. This means that I see out of one eye at a time, not both at once like “normal”. (I can’t even comprehend how you can see out of both eyes at once!) This not only means I can’t see ANYTHING 3-D about 3-D movies, but I see a series of strange blurs that really don’t make any sense. When the brain is confronted with visuals that do not make any sense, the brain does as best as it can to make sense of the senseless.

So, I get migraines (including vomiting, which would endear me to the other movie goers) in less than ten minutes of any 3-D film. Granted, 3-D technology has advanced considerably since my childhood, but not to the point where anyone with monocular vision is going to be able to see the movie.

Now, I haven’t had any kind of headache in about a week in a half — a record since the womb, I think — and I am really starting to like it. I really want to avoid purposefully inducing a migraine in Center City, Philadelphia, even if Peter Gabriel wrote some of the music (most of the music was written by his lead guitarist, David Rhodes.)

What Am I Going To Do?

My options are:

• Go to the movie loaded up on Excedrin and keep my eyes shut and my head down during the entire film.
• Not go and hope the film is released in good old 2-D
• Go see the film only if Peter Gabriel himself takes me out on a date to The Franklin Institute

Guess which option I’m taking? If you picked the third option, pat yourself on the back. And, if you can go see Sea Monsters, please don’t tell me about it.

In reading all of these articles about what you should do when you have a migraine and how to avoid one and get treatment, you might be wondering what not to do. Fear not! Here’s a list compiled by my life’s misadventures. Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes. They sure would make me feel better about them.

Drink Pink Champagne

On the one hand, it might seem like booze is a great idea (pink champagne is one of my favorite alcoholic beverages — which is why I haven’t touched booze in a couple of years now!)
Booze relaxes you, can sometimes numb pain and can knock you out so that you can sleep through a migraine.

Unfortunately, when you wake up, you will have the migraine.

Also, if you have a migraine, presumably you have taken some form of medication to try and ease the pain to that of a dull roar, at least. Alcohol and painkillers don’t play well together in the schoolyard of your body. There is even a potentially fatal reaction if alcohol is combined with opioid slow release painkillers.

Don’t Even Glance At One Of Those Magic Eye Puzzles

These 3-D visual puzzles, that takes “Where’s Waldo?” to the billionth dimension, were a big hit in my university days. People had posters of them all over the place. Some people even bought books of these torture devices and looked through them to relax, because apparantly a lava lamp was too tame.

My boyfriend at the time was one of these.

When you have a migraine, your eyes need to be as rested as possible. Granted, after a while you do get bored and just want to look at something to have something to do. But don’t look at anything you actually have to foucus on, not unless you are really into vomiting on a major basis.

Have Sex

Although there have been some people with severe headaches that find the release of an orgasm to help with their head pains, people with migraines can’t handle any sexual tension whatsoever. The act of sex is also just a little too gymnastic for those with a migraine. There’s also too many expectations to fufill.

That being said, some people do get strongly aroused when having a migraine, or just before a migraine. Quite frankly, you’re better off putting an ice pack on your head and on your genitals rather than engaging in sex. Seeing someone else have more fun that you are will also aggravate your migraine to no end.

Listen to Peter Gabriel

Now, for some people, they relax when they listen to Peter Gabriel, especially his instrumental work or some of the milder early Genesis stuff. I worship not only the ground the man walks on, but the ground he’s about to walk on. But, unfortunately, listening to Peter Gabriel tends to get me sexually aroused, which is not a good thing when you have a migraine (see previous point). If you need to listen to music, make it something like Chill With Bach.

Go Out To The Movies

Sitting in a mostly dark room is appealing to one who has a migraine. However, even if your date or companion drives you there, pays for the tickets and drives you home, don’t go. Not even if you’ve been planning it. Not even if the date or partner gives you a guilt trip. Not even if Peter Gabriel wrote the soundtrack….well…perhaps you could make an exception for that BUT if you get the migraines that make you extremely sensitive to light and sound, you are NOT in for a treat going to the movies, not even if you put your head between your knees and moan into the popcorn for two hours. It’s not worth it. Trust me.

And you’ll probably avoid a lot of future migraines by getting rid of a date or partner who urges you to drink, have sex or go to the movies when you have a migraine.

My experiences with a cricket this week left me with a killer sleep deprivation headache, which got me to thinking about sleep depreivation headaches in general. This is one of the most common type of headache you can get — you just have to go a one or two days with barely any sleep. The headache seems to be the way the body tries to convince you to go lie down.

What It Feels Like

Sleep deprivation headaches are not as piercingly painful as migraines and sometimes will not even make your stomach feel queasy. It’s more of a dull, heavy ache that makes your head feel a lot heavier than it is. You can wake up with it, or it can develop a couple of hours into your day. Although not usually crippling like a migraine or cluster headache, it can really make you miserable. And when you are achy and miserable, you cannot perform your best. You make more mistakes and have trouble concentrating because you are so tired.

This Should Come As No Surprise

You need your sleep. You need between 7 and eight hours sleep per night (or day, or whenever you get to sleep). You need more when you are still growing or when you are sick or recovering from illness. You’ve probably ben hearing this most of your life, starting with your parents rigorously enforcing a bedtime. Turns out, they had good reason to. Doesn’t it suck when somebody else is right?

Here are other reasons you need your sleep, besides prevention of sleep depreivation headache:

• You are a walking health hazard: When you are sleepy, you make mistakes, your reactions are slower and you have trouble making the split-seconde decisions needed in everyday skills such as driving.
• You are too darn cranky: Of course you’re cranky — you have a headache. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn’t and isn’t very sympathetic.
• Your body’s defenses are down:Sleep helps the body fight off illnesses, even cancer, in ways we aren’t entirely sure about. Reducing your sleep is incresing your chances of getting sick, which can keep you from sleeping, which incresaes your chance of getting even sicker….and so on

What To Do

This might seem obvious, but hey, some people need practical advice. You need to get more sleep. You need to determine why you aren’t sleeping as well as you should and change it. Unfortunately, this bit of free advice is a lot harder to follow than it is to type in a blog. You need to see a doctor if any behavior modification doesn’t help.

A lot of sleep deprivation headaches could be prevented by using your head. If you are out all night and go immediately to work or class with only one hour of sleep, you’re just begging for a sleep deprivation headache. You need your room as dark as you can get it and as coll as you can get it. If you can, leave the bed only for sleep (or sleep inducing activities). If you read in bed, stop and read in a chair. This conditions your body to expect only to sleep whenever it touches a bed, in the same way that the sound of a faucet running can trigger a sudden urge to go to the bathroom.

What You Shouldn’t Do

You should never rely on alcohol or sleeping pills to get you to sleep. Not only does this set you up for a rebound headache, but they are darn expensive.

For example, I’ve had insomnia since the womb. I tried everything, except getting my depression treated. Guess what caused my insomnia? Bingo. Now I’m the Prozac Poster Child, primarily because I finally get regular sleep. It might not sound like much, but it made a huge difference in enjoying my life.

Hope this helps. And sweet dreams.

From the “I’m Really Trying Not To Say ‘I Told You So’” Department: Head and neck cancers will give you headaches (surprize!) If you already get one kind of headache, you’ll be more prone to getting another. One of the fears of those dealing with headaches is that the chronic pain is the sign of something worse — like head cancer. Well, if you don’t drink alchohol or have been on the wagon for at least 20 years, you have one less headache to worry about.

The Latest Study

It shouldn’t come a big shock to know that drinking too much is bad for you. But usually the warnings are given so you can avoid cirrhosis, hangovers and waking up with strange tattoos. Now, you can also had a much incresed risk of head and neck cancers because of too much booze.

A study done by Canada’s Centre For Addiction And Mental Health showed that even with cutting out the booze for two years, your risks for getting mouth, esophagus and larynx cancers plummets.

What gets the cancerous growths in the head and neck are usually soft tissues. Smoking, of course, also greatly increases your chance of getting soft tissue cancers. This is not the same as growing brain tumors. But even if your cancer is in the throat or the mouth, it will give you nasty headaches.

If you want to avoid this, just quit drinking, or at least cut down to one drink a day and drink with food. If you are thinking about having a big boozy bash on your 21st, think again, when you still have a pain free head left to think clearly with.

What This Means

Doctors are aware that their clients expect and deserve privacy. If you confess to your doctor that you are dependent on booze to get through the day, they will not be shocked. They can give you discreet help, tips and contacts to organizations for further help.

Also, if you have constant headaches and really don’t know why, don’t just think they will go away on their own. Get them checked out by a doctor. Not only can this give early enough treatment to head and neck cancers to prevent them from becoming lethal, but you can get effective pain relief.

And, if you are a teetotaler like myself, you have one less worry to deal with.

Hope this helps.

Sometimes I think that humans really decended from pack rats and not apes. We seem to love clutter and junk, hense the problem of compulsive hoarding becoming a real problem for 1-2% of America’s population. Throwing anything away is really difficult. Our species never made enough clutter to have anything to throw away before.

Throwing away medicines can be especially difficult. I used to be homeless, and haven’t come to terms with havings ample closet space. I especially have a problem throwing out any medications or vitamins that are long past their sell by date. I keep thinking, “I might need this someday.” But really, the only thing I need to do — and wound up doing — was throwing it all out in the trash. In researching this article, I discovered that the best and safest way to disposed of any expired medication is to put it in a bag and take it to a pharmacy or doctor’s office to get rid of. Medicines can pollute the ground in landfills or seep into water, or kill animals who accidentally eat it. Oops — sorry, there, enviornment.

What’s the Worst That Can Happen?

Mostly when you take headache medications that are expired, they just won’t work. Their ingredients can only stay active for so long, then they go stale or (in the cases of old vitamin pills) rot. Taking expired medications is like eating spolied or rotting food — you really are risking infections and illnesses. The worst that can happen is that you might get a seizure, a rash, vomiting or damage to your internal organs.

If the medicine has expired only a couple of days ago, you can probably risk it. But if it expired several months ago, it’s not worth the risk, especially if the bottle has in any way been exposed to heat or moisture. This is true both for over the counter medications and perscription medications.

It is recommended to weed out your medicine supplies twice a year (since some medicines have a shorter shelf life than others). If you take care of an elderly person, do the weeding out for them if they forget. Be sure to toss all expired children’s medicine and medicine for animals, too. By getting rid of them, you not only save yourself or someone else in your house an accident, but you have made more space for all new stuff.

Hope this helps.

Headaches and computers just go together like bread and butter, don’t they? And if you are prone to other kinds of headaches or migraines, you may be more prone to getting headaches while working on your computer. A lot of these kind or “computer headaches” are a kind of tension headache, or headaches due to eye strain. You can help better your chances of not triggering a headache is you take the time to do some easy changes:

Take Breaks

You really should look away from the computer screen every fifteen minutes, just to give your eyes a rest. Every couple of hours, stretch or take a walk — even if you have to fake a potty break. Sitting for hours in front of your computer is akin to taking a cross-country airplane ride — you have to get up and move to prevent not only deep vein thrombosis, but headaches.

Since I telecommute, it’s actually even MORE tempting to keep on keepin’ on in front of the computer, expecially if my writing is really in a groove. However, I always wind up paying for it later. Fortunately, my dog Pony reminds me every couple of hours that she needs to go outside to potty.

Get Some Fresh Air

I also have Pony to thank for getting me a lot more fresh air than I normally would if I wrote for as long as I could on the computer. The little breaks help me to relax and relieves any knotted up tension in my shoulders, legs or neck. Get the window open whenever possible when you are working on the computer.

And, if you are in the office when you are working on your computer and smell something strange, report it immediately. Strange smells can wind up giving you and everyone else in the office a headache. If you’ve just painted or sprayed for bugs at home, don’t plan on working on the computer right away until the smell fades, or you will be guarenteed a nasty headache.

Use Larger Fonts

It’s ironic that I wind up getting a professional blog about “dealing with headaches” — and my webhost uses this stupid itty-bitty print! If you are having trouble reading this or any other website — even if you are working on business documents, you should be able to set your computer to a much larger font. With bigger words, it’s less of an eyestrain. Just be ready to move your mouse more often for scrolling down the screen.

Do You Have Enough Light?

As a kid, I hated it when my parents admonished me for reading in dim light. As an adult, I hate it even more becuase my parents turned out to be right. I did strains my eyes and triggered headaches I could’ve easily avoided. Be sure you have enough light when you work. You need light behind you as well as a brightly lit monitor. Be sure your computer monitor isn’t reflecting light from windows or lamps that cause a huge bright glowing spot that covers up the screen. There are also such things as anti-glare filters you can buy, if you find you can’t move your monitor.

Keep Your Eyes At Arm’s Length From The Screen

Well, more or less an arm’s length from the screen. Since I’m nearsighted, I have a bad tendency to practially press my nose against the monitor. This causes more eyestrain than if I just enlarged the font.

If you can, tilt your monitor up a little bit, so it’s easier to read the bottom of the screen. I didn’t believe this when I first read it, but tilting the monitor up a tiny bit seems to have relaxed the strain on my neck.

Hope this helps. For even more details on these tips to avoid “computer headache”, click here.

Yet another thing to blame your parents for. According to Health 24, if one of your parents has migraines, you have a 50% chance of getting them. If both your parents have migraines, then you have a 75% chance of getting them. You are probably getting them for the exact same reasons your parents got them. If your parents do get migraines, then ask them how they manage theirs or what their triggers are. This will save you a lot of time trying to figure out what triggers your migraines.

However, if your parents do not know why they get migraines, then you’re on your own.

WebMD reports that 4 out of 5 migraine sufferes are from families with a history of migraines. I guess the family that pains together stays together, eh?

But why does anyone get migraines in the first place? That is still unknown. One theory is that we inherit an abnormal brain from our parents. Gee, and all I wanted was a pony…

If you have migraines, really think carefully before having kids (if you can help it. Sometimes kids happen beyond the plans of mice and men). If you have kids, you have a HUGE chance of given them the same lifetime of suffering as yourself.

Which raises an interesting question — if all of the people who currently have migraines in the world stopped having kids, would migraines then become a bad dream?

I know, I know — it’s like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop.

And then again, could the theoretical “brain abnormality” only be activated when in the presence of children or people who act childishly? Hmmm —

And science stumbles onward.

You can more than one kind of headache. You can even get migraines and different kinds of headaches, although they usually don’t hit simultaneously. You either get one or the other. One of the kinds of headaches I get is when the barometer pressure drops. For some reason, I get a “weather headache”, usually referred to as barometric pressure headache. Whenever I get it, I know there will be rain soon.

Folk Sayings

Long ago, when we lived more closely with nature, a rainy day meant a lot more than it does now. To be able to forecast the weather was a tremendous blessing. However, it was not always a blessing for those doing the forecasting. In one old Eglish folk poem, called “Old Betty’s Joints” (sometimes called “Signs of Rain”), Old Betty must’ve hated her job as family weather forcaster:

That’s a pretty accurate description of what my “weather headaches” feel like — even my feet hurt. My Mom’s arthritis acts up and we know that at least a heavy cloud system is on it’s way, if not actual rain.

It makes me wonder if cavemen noticed this. “Ooo –whenever Og has a headache, it rains. We need rain. So, let’s give Og a headache!” Times must’ve been really tough for a headache prone person then.

Recent Studies

In a clinical study done at Jefferson university in Philadelphia, 75% of those prone to migraines also got barometric pressure headache. Individuals with anxiety issues also were more prone to barometric pressure headache.

Another earlier study done in 1981 thought that a variety of weather factors had to be in place before you get a weather headache. Perhaps the barometic pressure drops, but also the humidity is high. Or perhaps the barometric pressure drops and it’s time for a woman to have her period. There does not seem to be a definate cause for barometric pressure headache, despite the name.

But it does seem that those prone to migraines were also more prone to having barometric pressure headaches.

What Can Be Done

Once again, the best advice for those with any kind of headache, let alone barometric pressure headache, is to keep a headache journal. If you’re like me, whenever the clouds gather is when I can expect a headache to form on my immediate horizon. But for many others, they might find that they need other circumstances to happen, such as what temperature it is, what they’ve eaten that day or even how much sleep they’ve gotten the night before. By keeping a headache journal, you can determine quickly when to worry and when to not worry if you see a cloud in the sky.

In my case, for example, when the clouds gather, I know that I have less than a half hour to take an Excedrin. If I can’t get to the Excedrin in time, I’ll have to spend at least two hours lying down in a dark room with my eyes covered. This way, I can mostly cut the headache off at the pass.

And, as always, this article is not meant to substitute for medical advice. If you get any kind of headache or migraine, talk to your doctor.

Hope this helps.

We’re currently going through a heat wave here in the Philadelphia area. Last night I treated myself to some ice cream straight from the freezer. Within a few minutes, I wish I hadn’t. I’d totally forgoten what an ice cream headache is like.

Ice cream headache, freezer head, or “brain freeze”, is a temporary but overpowering headache when you consume cold foods and drinks too fast. This is a stabbing pain in the forehead that nearly knocks you over and often makes you gasp. For most people, it lasts for less than two minutes. For me, it lasted nearly ten minutes.

The good news is that ice cream headache goes away. It is also completely preventable (don’t anything super cold), but what about when you are dying for a cold drink or popsicle on a sweltering day? Aren’t you saving yurself from dehydration by quickly downing a few slurps of Slushie or a huge bite of ice cream?

Not really. The cold is too much of a shock to the system. You have to somehow sip or nibble and then really dig in once your body has adjusted. The ice cream headache is actually a good headache — it keeps you from doing yourself a worse injury from internal cold burns. It is the body’s way of saying, “Knock it off, already!”

For a more technical explanation, it is thought that the extreme cold that hits the palate, upper teeth and tonguetriggers the trigeminal nerve which triggers the temporary but crippling headache in order to get the body temperature back into balance.

You usually do not have to see a doctor about ice cream headaches.

For The Migrane Prone

If you have been diagnosed with migraines or chronic headaches, you need to know that you are more suseptable to ice cream headache than other ice cream chompers. This doesn’t mean that you have to exile ice cream from your life. Just slow down even though you want to dive right in. If you can, hold the drink or ice cream at the bottom of your mouth and partly open your mouth, exhaling out the initial cold blast. Cover your mouth if you have to. You might look a little funny, but that’s a small price to pay for having your ice cream and not the headache, too. Bottoms up.

Hope this helps.

When I began having migraines, it was suggested to me to keep a heache journal. At the time I had two jobs so I just couldn’t be bothered to add yet another task to my already over crowded day. So it took nearly ten years for me to discover the triggers to my migraines. When I finally determined them, it was becuse I finally started to keep a headache journal. And I discovered what my triggers were in mere weeks.

I would have literally saved myself a lot of headaches if I had just kept a headache journal in the first place!

Now that I’m a freelance writer, I look back on all my years of panic and misery and call it “research” instead of “me being an idiot.”

Unless you are masochistic, keep a headache journal if you get frequent headaches that interfere with the quality of your life and seem to have no cause whatsoever. Learning what is causing your headaches is the best thing you can do to not only treat your headaches, but take some control back into your life.

Each Journal Entry

You’re not writing The Great American Novel here. No one is going to grade you for proper grammer, punctuation or spelling. You only need to jot down a few words about your latest cranial conundrum. Things you should include are:

• what happened right before the pain started
• what the weather was like that day
• what you ate that day
• what you didn’t normally eat or drink at that time
• for women, what time of the month it is
• what medications you are taking
• how long the headache lasted

The Journal Itself

You could use anything you can make marks on as a headache journal. I used an assignment pad with a hideous gaudy cover so I could see it easier. The small size made it easy to cart about anywhere.

Some people prefer to keep a headache journal on their computers, especially if they want to show the journal to their doctors but yet keep a copy for themselves. There are good links to simple diary or journal keeping software here. You can also make your own Excell spreadsheet of your headaches…unless it’s dealing with Excell that gave you the headaches in the first place.

If you forget to make an entry, you forget to make an entry. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Do it when you can, and fill in what you can remember of your headache. Don’t do as I did and try to make entries while I was having the migraine. You have enough problems as it is without adding onto them.

Over time, look back over your entries. A pattern should be emerging. If you can’t see it, show your journal to your doctor, who might be able to see something you missed. Even show it to your best friend or Mother, who might also be able to see something you missed. Becuase we are so close to our headaches, it can be hard to get a good perspective of where they come from all by ourselves.

Once you find a pattern, then you can get on with proper treatment and management. And if you have been keeping a headache journal for a while now and still don’t seem any wiser as to the causes of your headches, keep on trying and don’t give up on yourself. It is better to do something proactive about your headaches rather than do nothing helplessly and suffer.

In no particular order, the following are the most popularly published migraine triggers. Learning to assess and manage triggers is an important part of migraine relief. If you are unaware of how to avoid triggers or even what triggers may exist for you, please see a professional for guidance (or look here, for a start).

1. Stress, and the habits we tend to pick up to cope with it, such as smoking, excess caffeine consumption and drinking alcohol.
2. Hormones, especially for women as there is a large range of surges throughout the month.
3. Diet, including the wonderful stuff like cheese, chocolate and citrus fruits.
4. Overexertion during exercise. Regular, moderate workouts are great for managing migraines - push it too far and it may backfire.
5. Preservatives and perfumes. Lunch meats, MSG and nitrate-laden foods can bring on a nasty one and I’ve even found sensitivity to household cleaners and body products.
6. Changes in air pressure or weather can bring on migraines for the simple reason that they’re unnatural to our normal daily experiences.
7. Changes is sleeping patterns, whether not getting enough, too much or it’s simply not high quality, will affect some migraine sufferers.

Sources: Health Central, Cure that Migraine and Health News in Ireland.

Migraines, Migraine Triggers, Caffeine, Stress, Headaches and Diet