Medication and preventive strategies may help to decrease the frequency, severity and duration of migraine attacks as well as enhance acute treatments’ efficacy.
Talk with your physician about identifying potential triggers of headaches. They may suggest ways for you to do so, such as keeping a headache diary.
Prevention options also include limiting exposure to light, noise and odors; sleeping on a regular schedule; and taking vitamins or herbs such as riboflavin, magnesium, feverfew or butterbur.
Avoiding Triggers
One of the key steps in successfully managing migraine headaches is identifying your personal migraine triggers. To do this, keep a diary or use an app to track when symptoms arise and try eating at around the same time each day in order to establish patterns – for instance if missing breakfast increases your chance of migraine attacks, plan to eat breakfast every morning at around the same time and eat small snacks every four hours in order to prevent sudden drops and rises in blood sugar levels that could potentially set off attacks.
Your diet could also play a key role; try cutting back or eliminating specific foods such as aged cheeses, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, processed food additives and cured meats. Sensory stimuli may also set off migraine attacks – bright lights, loud noises or strong scents may trigger one. Stress changes, weather changes and hormone fluctuations may all trigger attacks as well as cumulative triggers which might not trigger one at first but could accumulate over time and bring on an attack; gradually exposing yourself to more triggers may build tolerance but this remains unverified by science.
Getting Help
If you find yourself suffering from migraine symptoms more frequently than once every month, seek medical advice on prescription for drugs to prevent or reduce attacks. Also discuss any over-the-counter pain relievers you are using as overdoing it can lead to rebound headaches or become dependent on them – too often used they may result in dependency problems.
Your doctor can offer more than medications to ease attacks; they may suggest lifestyle modifications and stress management techniques as well as keeping a journal to identify triggers. There are even headache apps available on smartphones which allow users to record symptoms and identify patterns.
Migraine affects more women than men and tends to increase during their menstrual cycle or pregnancy; it often stops or diminishes after menopause; some individuals may transition from chronic to episodic migraine depending on family history and individual circumstances; treatment options include acute treatment drugs for acute attacks as well as preventive medicines.
Keeping a Journal
Maintaining a migraine journal or headache diary can be an excellent way to monitor symptoms and identify triggers, from simple paper journals to smartphone apps. Doing this will allow your physician to make a diagnosis as well as test preventative treatments or medications more accurately.
A migraine diary should record when and where a migraine began, its length and location as well as any related symptoms like nausea or light sensitivity. Furthermore, it should include possible triggers like skipping meals, weather changes or changes in diet; and take it with you when meeting with healthcare providers in order to show them the information and discuss potential solutions such as non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation by GammaCore(r) gammaCore’s non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation technology.
Changing Your Diet
Migraines can be caused by any number of different things, from changes in weather conditions and beverages to specific foods and additives. One effective way of identifying triggers is keeping a migraine diary and closely documenting every time an attack takes place.
Studies have demonstrated that certain dietary patterns may help lessen both frequency and severity of migraine attacks. This includes low-glycemic diets, ketogenic diets, elimination diets such as the Mediterranean Diet Low FODMAP Diet or gluten free Diet. Also adding in long chain omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish or walnuts can provide additional assistance.
Before embarking on any elimination diets yourself, it’s advisable to speak to a doctor or registered dietitian first. Elimination diets can be hard to adhere to and don’t always lead to relief from headaches. A more holistic approach may be more suitable, such as preventive medication combined with lifestyle modifications like stress reduction practices and taking vitamins like magnesium, B12 or CoQ10 supplementation for an effective migraine management strategy.
