Migraines can be a chronic condition, so it is wise to use various preventive methods including lifestyle modifications and medications to manage them.
Medication may help reduce both the frequency and severity of migraine attacks. They may also provide relief from symptoms such as nausea and light sensitivity. They include antidepressants and antiepileptics like topiramate and sodium valproate.
1. Avoiding triggers
Migraine triggers can include both environmental stimuli like light or smells and internal changes like stress. Your healthcare provider may recommend keeping a migraine diary to identify potential triggers including foods you eat.
Some individuals are sensitive to certain foods or additives used in processed meats like hot dogs. By avoiding such items and adhering to a regular sleeping, eating, and exercise schedule, migraine attacks may be reduced significantly.
2. Getting enough sleep
Studies indicate a correlation between insomnia and stress levels and migraines, as well as physical inactivity, such as not getting enough restful sleep, and increased physical exertion leading to migraines. Exercise may help, although you should introduce it gradually because more vigorous physical activities could trigger migraines.
Migraine patients should aim for at least seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep every night, without watching television or reading in bed, taking medications such as caffeine and stimulants in the evening, or keeping to an irregular sleep schedule. Hiding clocks from view may help people sleep more soundly.
3. Getting enough exercise
Studies have demonstrated that regular exercise can significantly decrease headache frequency and intensity, as well as help keep them at a healthier weight, which reduces their risk of obesity, which is often a major trigger of migraine attacks.
Studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of aerobic exercises such as walking, swimming and cycling in terms of decreasing headache frequency, severity and duration. High intensity interval training (HIIT), which alternates short bursts of high-intensity training with lower intensity exercises like walking and rest, may also help some.
4. Keeping a headache diary
A headache diary is a tool designed to allow you to track symptoms and triggers of migraine attacks, helping you identify patterns and reduce future episodes.
Keep a headache diary in various forms, from physical journals to smartphone apps. Record keeping can help identify triggers like stress, sleep or diet that could be contributing to migraine attacks; using this data when trying new treatments; as well as monitoring whether daily preventive medications are working effectively.
5. Keeping a food diary
Diaries can help make it easier to identify food triggers. Use either a notebook, app or another method to keep track of things such as sleep quality, weather changes, hormone shifts and certain foods causing reactions.
Studies are ongoing, yet most headache specialists recommend following a diet consisting of consistent meals and adequate hydration. Any dietary changes should first be discussed with your physician as cutting out certain food groups has been shown to aggravate migraine pain symptoms in some individuals.
6. Taking preventive medications
Migraine preventives help decrease the frequency, severity and duration of migraine attacks while aiding acute therapies more efficiently.
Doctors can prescribe one drug gradually upping its dosage (monotherapy). Or they may use two separate classes of drugs combined at lesser-than-maximum dosages in order to complement each other and limit side effects.
Other treatments can also help relieve migraine symptoms, including stress reduction techniques and acupuncture, as well as preventive devices that send electrical stimulation directly to nerves involved in migraine pain.
7. Stopping preventive medications
Though preventive medications can help alleviate headaches, taking too many can cause what’s known as medication overuse headache. This condition usually occurs when someone uses painkillers or migraine medicines more than 10 days per month.
Maintaining a diary can help identify potential triggers and enhance treatment. Writing down everything you eat and drink – including missed or delayed meals; women should also include information on their menstrual cycle.
Migraine attacks can have a serious negative impact on quality of life, but they can be managed using both pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical strategies.
8. Keeping a migraine diary
Maintaining a migraine diary (also referred to as headache journal or migraine tracker) is an invaluable way of tracking symptoms and possible triggers of migraine attacks. You can keep one on paper or using mobile applications.
Diaries can help track headaches and migraines over time, identify patterns or potential triggers, monitor medication use and effectiveness, as well as track symptoms such as symptoms, what you were doing (6-8 hours before an attack), weather changes etc.
