Migraine management strategies involve avoiding triggers like aged cheeses, caffeine or alcohol as well as keeping to a sleep schedule. Exercise, meditation and tense muscle relaxation techniques may also prove useful.
Migraine headaches require the care of a professional trained in diagnosing headaches – commonly known as a neurologist. A neurologist will typically assess symptoms through medical history review, physical exam and neurological assessment to accurately diagnose migraines.
Avoiding Triggers
Assuming you know what sets off your headache, finding its source can help prevent future attacks. But this may be more challenging than expected: your triggers could include stress and anxiety; irregular, disturbed, or poor sleep; menstruation; hunger/skipping meals/dehydration; certain food/beverages such as cheese/chocolate/alcohol consumption/curred meat consumption; bright light; loud noises; strong odours such as smoke or perfume and weather changes are just some of the possible sources.
Keep a daily diary of when and what triggered your migraines to help identify triggers. A diary can take various forms – notebook or app; stopwatches may even come in handy!
Exercise
Migraine sufferers can reduce symptoms and enhance quality of life through regular physical exercise. Studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise, though other forms such as strength training or yoga may also aid in relieving migraine symptoms – with exercises like forward folds, child’s pose, and downward-facing dog providing relief to your shoulders.
However, sudden or abrupt changes to your exercise regimen could trigger migraine attacks if they’re unprepared for it. Therefore, it’s wise to build up gradually with guidance from healthcare providers.
Researchers published in October 2022 in the Journal of Headache and Pain have determined that high-intensity interval training is the most effective form of exercise for migraines, followed by moderate aerobics. They conducted comparative research assessing efficacy across various exercise regimes on migraine symptoms, disability, quality of life and top medications such as topiramate and amitriptyline to compare results with top therapies such as these.
Keeping a Journal
Maintaining a journal can help both you and your healthcare provider to identify triggers of migraine attacks, such as food or drink items that often precede an attack, like aged cheeses, caffeine, chocolate, alcohol and any additives such as nitrates (used in processed or cured meats like pepperoni), monosodium glutamate or aspartame. Some individuals also crave certain foods prior to an attack occurring – although this could simply be an early symptom rather than the source.
Maintaining a regular exercise and diet routine and eating healthily are effective ways to lower migraine frequency. Be sure to get a good night’s rest, drink enough water (since dehydration can lead to dizziness), avoid stress and practice relaxation techniques in order to better manage headaches, and follow all guidelines set by your HCP for best results from their treatment plan.
Taking Medicines
Migraine-specific medications such as triptans and NSAIDs may help decrease the frequency of migraine attacks by using preventive treatment – this process is called preventive therapy and allows your acute medication to work more effectively during an attack. Finding an appropriate medication may take some time; don’t give up!
Preventive treatments are most effective when taken early during an attack. Two of the best-studied medications for this purpose are oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists known as ubrogepant and rimegepant, though these should only be taken with strong CYP3A4 inhibitors such as certain cancer medicines; they should not be given to children as this could make matters worse.
As part of primary care, migraine prevention should fall under the purview of primary care practitioners. Any referrals from specialist care back to primary care must include an effective and comprehensive treatment plan and follow-up assessments should utilize both self-administered Migraine Treatment Optimization Questionnaire and eight-item Headache Under-Responsive to Treatment (HURT) questionnaires for follow-up assessments. Novel preventive treatments, such as anti-CGRP monoclonal antibodies currently under clinical development hold great promise for improving patient outcomes
