How to Determine Your Personal Migraine Triggers

Nearly 40 million Americans suffer from migraines, a debilitating type of headache that causes significant pain and other uncomfortable and disruptive symptoms, like nausea and visual disturbances. Understanding what triggers your migraines can play an essential role in managing your symptoms more effectively.

At Advanced Medical Care, our team specializes in custom headache treatment, including personalized migraine treatment plans to help patients find real relief. In this post, learn more about migraine triggers, including one strategy for identifying your triggers.

Common migraine triggers

Migraines might be common, but frustratingly, researchers still aren’t sure exactly why they happen. Most agree, though, that for many people, specific triggers stimulate migraines — triggers that can vary from one person to another.

Identifying your personal migraine triggers begins by learning about some of the most common triggers, like:

• Poor sleep
• Stress
• Alcohol
• Caffeine
• Chocolate
• Skipping meals
• Dehydration
• Diets featuring processed foods or foods with chemical additives
• Exposure to bright lights, loud sounds, or strong smells

Hormonal changes are another common cause, particularly among women, and especially during perimenopause or at specific times of a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle. Even weather changes can trigger migraines in some people.

What’s more, while a single trigger can cause a migraine in people susceptible to that trigger, it’s critical to know that triggers are also “stackable,” meaning more than one trigger can combine to increase the likelihood of a migraine and make its resulting symptoms worse.

Recognizing your triggers

One of the best ways to identify your triggers is by keeping a migraine journal. In your journal, you can track details about each migraine episode you experience. That includes what you were doing when the migraine began, as well as what you were doing before the attack, specifically, the 24 hours before your migraine started.

In each journal entry, aim to include information about:

• Your specific symptom (like nausea or sensitivity to light, for instance)
• The severity of your symptoms
• How your symptoms evolve during your migraine
• What you were doing right before you noticed the first symptoms
• What you were doing a day or two before your symptoms began
• Changes in your routine, including changes in sleep patterns
• What you ate or drank
• Your mood or state of mind (were you happy, stressed, depressed, etc.)

As you review your journal over time, you may notice patterns emerging that can prove invaluable in identifying your triggers to avoid them in the future.

Not sure how to start a journal? The Migraine Trust offers downloadable journals you can use, and if you’re more into digital tracking, there are apps for that, too.

Find relief for your migraines

We help our patients find long-term, meaningful relief for migraines using the most advanced therapies to reduce headache symptoms and frequency. To learn how we can help you find real relief for your migraines, request an appointment online or over the phone with the Advanced Medical Care team in Forest Hills, Queens, and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York.