Please talk to me about your migraine triggers

[Caramel81]

I’ve started suffering with migraines regularly over the past couple of years. They are definitely migraines and not just bad headaches as I get the visual disturbances, pain on one side and just feel very weird and unwell while it’s happening. The following day I feel spaced out like I have a hangover and could sleep for 100 years.
I don’t drink alcohol or coffee. I do have chocolate every day though which I know is a bad trigger. I love the stuff and will really struggle to give it up but I know I need to try.

What are your main triggers and do you have any tips on dealing with them? Also what sort of contraception are you on and do you find it helps/hinders things?
Thanks x

A protein that's in the alium family. So raw onions, garlic, chives, leeks etc. Fine when cooked.

Then a combination of dehydration, exhaustion, stress and low blood sugar.

I take a preventative now after suffering with at least 3 a month, propanalol once a day, haven't had one since

Red wine, coffee, stress, hormones, anything with white musk in it and most perfumes/body sprays.
I can't take any hormonal contraceptive as they make my migraines so much worse.

Lots of the things already mentioned plus orange juice

Mine are normally hormonal- they coincide with the start of my period.

Some times a lack of sleep can bring them on also but it is normally my period - not every month but more months than not.

Hormones trigger mine plus bad weather, if it is overcast but doesn't rain it is worse than if it does rain. If I eat a ridiculous amount of cheese too

Dh has them and cannot pinpoint his triggers at all. We are trying everything, he was meant to have physio but then, you know, Covid. I think he needs a deep muscle massage to ease out all the tension out of his neck and shoulders from sitting at a desk all day. Previously he would have been in and out of meetings so would have moved about and been in different buildings.

Treatment? I take migraleve the second I know I am getting one and it lessens it considerably. Dh was on preventative meds so can't take any pain relief at the minute. Very sad for him. We are trying him with a massage gun (the one that pummels you) so he uses it on his neck and shoulders and that seems like it might be helping but it is early days.

Sleeping too much

Mine is a combination of things.
Tiredness is a big one. Skipping a meal or not drinking enough. Stress.
Someone mentioned having a lie-in. Apparently that’s really common and it’s because you miss your morning drink so you get dehydrated and short on caffeine!!
Mine are usually triggered by more than one of those things at once, so I’m tired and then don’t drink enough - guaranteed migraine. I work in a school and this week has been frantic. I’ve been stressed, tired and forgotten to drink so today is the first day I haven’t felt dreadful.

Things that help:
Ibuprofen and codeine combo from Boots deals with my pain where ibuprofen alone and paracetamol do nothing.
A cold sports pack (fridge cold,not freezer) really takes the edge off the pain.
Get in quick with pain relief. My mouth goes dry and I start to feel bunged up which tells me it’s a migraine coming not a headache. Migraines affect your digestive system (which is why people are often sick) so you need to take painkillers ASAP or you don’t absorb them and they just sit in your stomach until the migraine has gone anyway.

Hormones - day 5 of a period without fail I get a migraine - the coil has helped that.

Orange citrus fruit - I can eat one satsuma / tangerine / clementine but two or a whole orange will set me off, but I can drink orange juice.

Pork

Coffee - I can have one but more than one will give me a migraine.

Low winter sun reflecting off other things / fluorescent lights / bright car headlights

Lack of sleep (i.e. three hours or less a night) and stress.

If I can take a sumatriptan as soon as the aura starts then I can minimise the experience to just feeling a bit groggy and spaced out without the pain.

for all you sufferers, it is truly shitty to experience

The thing is,other people's triggers aren't necessarily going to be yours. So cutting out chocolate may be pointless,and that's a hard one to prove anyway. But stress,a build up of tiredness and erratic eating are definite suspects. Aerobic exercise also does for me. I keep caffeine to a very minimum but that may just be a placebo for me.
Keeping a migraine diary may be useful so that you can begin to see patterns.

Migraines totally suck and if you're getting them regularly and they're disrupting your life (and the unpredictability is especially hard to take)then it's worth getting proper medical help /advice. You can be prescribed preventative drugs as well as things like triptans for treatment.
I totally sympathise as I've 'been round the block' many times trying to get mine under control-with some success (tempting fate there!).
My mum and grandma also had them and now my 2 sons seem to have inherited it too,sadly.

@UglyHoose I also seem to get one around day 4-5 of my period. Do you know why this might be? Are hormones starting to rise then maybe?

@campion keeping a migraine diary is a good idea to see if I can work out a proper pattern to it all

Lack of sleep, stress, low blood sugar, change in air pressure/change in weather. It must be hormonal as well because I did not get any while pregnant.

Lights and hormones mainly. Lush stores and perfumes can trigger too. Also found out that cranes raspberry and pomegranate cider triggers them too. Gutted as I love it 😭.

Other that that I’m fine with the usual cheese chocolate etc. I don’t drink wine so can’t tell with that. It’s light mainly. Can’t escape light unfortunately. It’s everywhere.

I think it's tiredness / lack of sleep for me and possibly also hormonal

Oh and hormone wise it’s a couple of days before period starts and around a week. My period is only 2-3 days long (and even now I have a mirena coil it’s the same pattern).

Two or more in combination of the following:
Lack of sleep
Dehydration
Time of the month

Hormones - I used to get one every month but not since I got the implant. Dark chocolate, milk is fine but I can only eat really small amounts of dark chocolate. Dehydration, I need to be really careful when I exercise to make sure I've hydrated properly beforehand and rehydrate afterwards. And light, training sessions where they have screens but turn down the lights are awful for me. These days I ask them to put the lights back on!

Hormones. Usually get one a couple of days into my period and also around ovulation.

I can also be triggered by smells - perfume, coffee etc. And dehydration/heat.

Lack of sleep for me especially if I have had alcohol too.

Dehydration, dairy or acidic foods, tiredness, tension in my shoulders, basically everything

It’s awful so many of us have to suffer with them :-(

I had them from the onset of puberty.Then an episode of Status Migranosis (migrane attacks one after the other lasting 10 days )when I started the pill in my twenties.During both pregnancies I had regular attacks and in each pregnancy a Status Migranosis.Since the birth of my second child in 2000 I rarely get a migrane and when only Optic Migrane.Having kids cured me.Now menopausal and only very infrequent migrane.

Hormonal
Lack of sleep
Stress
Neon strip lights
Flickering lights

The majority of mine are fragrance/food related:
Mulled wine (the smell alone)
Lavender
Oranges
Chocolate
Strong perfume in a confined space (like a lift for example)

Mine are triggered by lack of sleep, stress, hormones and hot chocolate

Mine are chocolate, alcohol, post-stress (a stressful day is often followed by a migraine).

I havent eaten chocolate on purpose since 1999, now I hate the smell. I miss the mouth feel of cocolate though and fine yogurt covered raisins are SO similar.
I do drink alcohol, and am OK if I dont deviate from what I am used to. So if I normally have a glass of wine with dinner then two will trigger a migraine. But if I steadily increase my wine intake to 2 glasses in a session then I am fine.
I found my triggers with a really detailed food and headache diary, coupled with a strict weight loss diet when I cut out chocolate and wine and discovered I had been OK for months.