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Migraine Headache Triggers: What’s starting your migraines?

June 22nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

In America alone, over twenty-eight million people suffer from migraine headaches.  Migraine headaches are more common in women; for every one man who suffers from a migraine headache, there are three women. 

If you’ve ever suffered from a migraine, you know how disabling they are: it’s impossible to move, even to open your eyes - you just pray for the pain to stop. Migraines and migraine headache triggers have become somewhat easier to manage than they used to be. 

Migraines are triggered. Once you know what causes your migraines, you may not always be able to prevent an attack, but sometimes you can.

What Are the Most Common Migraine Headache Triggers?

Of all the migraine headache triggers, the most common one is stress.  Another common trigger of migraines is certain foods, such as alcohol, aged cheeses, chocolate, aspartame, caffeine, msg, seasonings, and some canned or processed foods.  Migraines can also be caused by fasting or skipping meals.

Physical factors such as increased sexual activity, intense exercise, or a change in sleep patterns are also migraine headache triggers.  Changes in the environment and certain medications often act as triggers of migraine headaches, as do sun glare and bright lights.  Hormonal changes can also cause migraines, and this may be why a significantly greater number of women than men are affected by migraines.  Some women experience migraines during pregnancy or menopause. 

Are You at Risk?

There are several risk factors that make someone more prone to migraine headaches.  Migraine headaches most commonly occur in girls that have already passed through puberty.  Women who experience migraines find that their likelihood of experiencing one increases during menstruation, pregnancy, or menopause.  Migraine headaches also run in families; if even one of your parents’ experiences migraines then you are much more likely to develop them yourself.

Treating Migraine Headaches

Although previously, the only way to treat migraine headaches was to take aspirin, this is no longer the case.  Now, there are both preventative medications and pain-relieving medications that are intended specifically for migraine treatment.  There are also other alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, massage, vitamins, herbs, minerals, and biofeedback.  Migraine headaches can be prevented by maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Migraines do seem to hit people at certain stages in their life. As you get older, you may find that you get migraines much less often.

Causes of a Headache - What’s causing yours?

May 23rd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Unfortunately, because there are many different kinds of headaches, there’s no one treatment which works for everyone.

Any constriction or injury to the structure of the neck and head can cause a headache, and your headache may be “referred” pain, that is, pain that’s caused by an injury to another part of your body.

Stress and the tension headache

Perhaps the most common cause of headaches is stress which can cause a person to feel a ‘fight or flight’ feeling that usually is accompanied by shallow breathing and a raised heart rate as well as high blood pressure. As adrenaline rises, muscles constrict nerves, and you get a headache.

You can also get a headache if you eat quickly, or skip meals because you’re hurrying and are stressed.

Sensitivity to food is another major cause of headache, especially the migraine headache. You may suffer from a headache because of variations in the blood sugar levels, or because of withdrawal of caffeine, or because of food additives.

Sometimes a dental abscess can be the cause of headache, especially following extraction when an infection may appear and there may be difficulty with your jaw joints that will cause local pain that is then transmitted to the face and head causing a headache. Even when your teeth are not properly aligned, you will still be at risk of getting a headache; so you need to get a dentist to look into this matter and find a proper treatment for it.

Hormones are what allow a person to experience pain, and sex hormones are believed to play an important role in causing a headache, especially in women before, or immediately after their menstrual period. If the sex hormone levels are low when menstruation is taking place, women may suffer a headache.

Persons with impaired vision will also be at risk of having a headache as this is a common cause of headache, especially when they need to squint, or strain their eye muscles in order to focus their eyes. Even glaucoma which is an eye disease can be a cause of headaches as they refer pain into the head’s structure.

You can also find that headaches come about due to a disorder in the ear, nose or throat and common causes of headaches include sinus headaches, labyrinthitis, infections and traumas. Even damage to a person’s nerves can be considered to be a cause of headaches.

Headaches - why do you get them?

May 10th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

There are more things worse than struggling through the day with a headache. Occasionally, headaches seem to occur more often, and there are many reasons for this.

The most common types of recurring headaches include tension, cluster and migraines. The origination of the pain can vary, depending on the type of headache that you are suffering from, but the treatments can be similar, in terms of the types of medications that you might choose to take to relieve your symptoms.

Acetaminophen, ibuprofen and aspirin are some of the most common headache remedies. Other methods for alleviating the pain include lying down, using a cool compress over the eyes, and sleep. Sometimes the best way to treat a headache is to prevent it before it starts, and you can do this most effectively when you understand what the most common causes for this type of pain are.

Prevent Headaches by Changing Your Diet and Other Habits

For some, headaches can be caused by certain things they eat or drink. For example, eating something cold, like ice cream, too quickly can cause pain. It can also be caused by drinking too much alcohol or caffeine, or not drinking enough water. In these instances, the obvious remedy is to eat more slowly, cut back or increase intake, depending on the substance in question. Exposure to certain types of smoke or chemicals can also cause pain, so stay away from the known substances, like cigarette smoke, as much as possible.

It is also possible that some of the medications that you are taking are causing pain as one of the side effects. If you suspect that a medication is causing your headaches, talk to your doctor about a possible change to your prescription. It is also important to note that this side effect may go away after the first few doses of the medicine. In this case, it might be wise to wait a few days to see if the pain ceases before changing your prescription. Eyestrain can also be a culprit of headaches, so make sure to take frequent breaks when spending time in front of the computer, and use adequate lighting when reading or performing other tasks.

Physical Causes of Pain - stress and anxiety result in muscular tension

Other headache causes include stress and anxiety, which can create tension in the neck and shoulder area. This tension can lead to pain in the head as well. This type of discomfort can usually be alleviated with plenty of rest and regular exercise, which will help you to manage your stress as well as the pain that it causes. Many types of illness are accompanied by a headache as well, including upper respiratory and sinus infections, and illnesses that are categorized by a fever. In these cases, you may not be able to prevent the pain, but you can effectively treat it with over the counter pain medications.

There are many causes of headaches, but the good news is that there are also plenty of options for preventing and treating them. If you get recurring headaches, spend some time thinking about the events in your life which may be causing them.

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