Migraine attacks can be triggered by certain events, foods, or changes in your body. These events are known as precipitants or triggers. While precipitants don’t actually cause a migraine, they can make you more vulnerable to attacks.
It can be very helpful to know these risky habits to be able to do this take this into account in your daily life and thus try to avoid migraine attacks. In this article we will tell you 5 habits that you could be doing and thus trigger a migraine. meet them!
What is migraine?
Not all headaches are migraines, nor are all migraines associated with headaches. Migraine is a recurring, throbbing, intense headache. It usually affects one side of the head, although it can affect both.
The pain begins suddenly and may be preceded or accompanied by other symptoms visual, neurological or gastrointestinal.
Habits that could trigger your migraine attacks
In a study with 200 migraineurs, more than 90% of patients identified at least one precipitant associated with their migraines: the most common are physical or emotional stress (77%), menstruation (72%), exposure to bright or flickering light (65%) and various odors (61%).
1. Drink alcohol
A survey of over 2,000 Dutch people revealed that many people suffer from migraines avoid alcohol as it can trigger severe headaches. 78% of patients who drank alcohol listed red wine as the specific drink that could trigger an attack.
The authors of the study published in the journal ‘European Journal of Neurologysuggest that alcohol is a migraine trigger, affecting about a third of those prone to migraines, and the amount of alcohol and the time it takes to trigger a headache also vary.
2. Stress
Stress is the most common trigger. Everyone has experienced stress and anxiety at some point. Stress is a response to an emotional stimulus (mainly a threat) in a given situation. Anxiety is a reaction to stress.
Undoubtedly those who suffer from migraine attacks shows a difficulty in adapting to times of change. Furthermore, he is known to have a predisposition to suffer from anxiety. People who suffer from migraine attacks are often perfectionist and demanding. Therefore, there is a clear association between migraines and anxiety.
3. The dream
There is a clear relationship between sleep and migraine, which also covers wide and diverse aspects. Variation in sleep pattern, due to excess or deficiency, is recognized as a trigger for seizures.
About half of migraine patients experience difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep: 38% sleep an average of 6 hours or less per night and, coinciding with this disorder, a significant increase in the frequency and severity of migraine attackswith 71% having a headache upon waking.
4. Food
While there are no conclusive studies detailing the mechanism by which a particular product can cause migraines or other types of headaches, some research suggests that the foods most dangerous are those that contain large amounts of a class of substances called biogenic amines.
Two of these amines, tyramine and histamine are the most suspectand are located in:
- Processed meats.
- Canned and smoked products.
- peanuts.
- avocado.
- Alcoholic beverages.
- shellfish.
- Cheeses.
5. Smoking
Tobacco acts as a precipitating factor for headaches, especially migraines. This is indicated by a study that proves it smokers have more migraine attacks. The work appeared in The journal of headaches and pain.
The researchers emphasize the important role played by dose. The results of the interviews reveal this from five cigarettes a day the migraine begins.
Finally, to help you evaluate what are the risk factors that lead you to develop migraine, It is advisable to keep some kind of personal diary. In this diary you can write down on what day and under what circumstances you had a migraine attack and other types of characteristics of that attack.
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