Changes to lifestyle habits that reduce migraine triggers can significantly enhance quality of life for those living with chronic migraines, such as eating regular meals, staying hydrated and decreasing stress levels.
Studies1-11 have demonstrated the efficacy of adopting healthy behaviors as effective tools in reducing both frequency and severity of migraine attacks. Providers should counsel patients regarding such lifestyle strategies during each visit.
Getting enough sleep
Sleep has a direct influence on how frequent and severe migraines become, making a consistent bedtime/wakeup schedule key to relieving migraine symptoms. Any disruption of this routine could trigger migraine attacks; caffeine and alcohol should be avoided prior to bedtime for optimal restful slumber.
Stress can also contribute to headaches. To alleviate it, find ways of relaxing, such as practicing meditation or yoga. Hobbies or activities that you enjoy such as physical fitness may help take your mind off stressful events and keep stress at bay.
An overall healthy lifestyle can be the key to successfully preventing migraines. Through regular physical activity, proper hydration, reduced or discontinuous medication use and avoidance of environmental triggers, interventions such as these can reduce both migraine frequency and severity. Furthermore, such lifestyle interventions are cost-effective and easy to implement; primary care physicians can use SEEDS as a mnemonic to assist their patients with changing their lifestyle and triggers.
Avoiding triggers
Identification of migraine triggers can help to decrease headache episodes and lessen medication needs. Many believe certain foods such as aged cheeses, chocolate, citrus fruits and caffeine to be triggers; however, research shows no conclusive link between these foods and migraine attacks in most people. Dietary changes can help by cutting these items from your diet at the times they increase headache risk; but completely removing all possible triggers from one’s diet would likely prove impossible.
Other lifestyle changes can help lower migraine risk, including adhering to a regular sleep schedule, eating meals at regular intervals and cutting back on caffeine intake. A headache diary can also help identify patterns and triggers. Finally, stay active: aim for 30 minutes of physical activity each day such as walking, swimming, cycling or playing sports to keep yourself fit while simultaneously decreasing stress levels that contribute to headaches.
Avoiding alcohol
Migraine can be an incapacitating condition caused by various triggers, affecting everyone from children to adults. Avoiding triggers may help protect you against migraine attacks; many report alcohol as one such trigger; however, this is not always true; people with migraines may find they can safely consume moderate amounts of alcohol while adhering to certain guidelines.
Maintain a headache diary to record symptoms. This will enable you to determine whether alcohol is the source of your headaches, which could prove difficult as alcohol may not be the only contributing factor.
Make positive lifestyle changes to avoid migraines, such as sleeping well, exercising 30-60 minutes daily, maintaining a healthy diet and managing stress effectively. Migraine medications like topiramate (Topamax), divalproex (Depakote) or propranolol (Inderal) should also be discussed with your physician as these options should be carefully considered in the prevention process.
Keeping a headache diary
Keep a headache diary to track the triggers and treatments of your migraine attacks and make informed decisions. Record length, severity and triggering factors of attacks in this document for future reference.
Your health care practitioner can use the information in your diary to identify patterns in your migraines and develop an appropriate treatment plan. They may suggest lifestyle modifications or alternative remedies, such as acupuncture.
Lifestyle changes to help manage migraine include regular exercise, eating nutritious food and limiting alcohol consumption. Stress management is also crucial, although difficult. Many have found success with trialing low-stress diets for a month then monitoring migraine symptoms to see if they improve; alternatively meditation or yoga could also be effective ways of relieving tension.
