What's your Migraine Trigger?

[Twaintime]

I have suffered with nasty migraines most of my adult life, but they have been particularly bad for the past 10 years. Sumatriptan helps with most episodes but I really hate taking it – it makes me feel so drained and weird.
Apart from alcohol – which I avoid – I have never been able to identify a definite trigger. Yes, I get a migraine if I'm very stressed or sleep-deprived – but sometimes I get an absolute horror seemingly from nowhere.
Has anyone ever discovered a migraine trigger years after onset that has really helped to eliminate them? It would be amazing to turn things round with diet for example.

I use to think it was not eating/skipping breakfast. However, (I think it was on here) that I read about the pre- migraine phase whereby you sometimes actually crave what you think of as being the trigger (coffee, chocolate etc) and therefore think of it being a trigger as you've eaten it immediately before an attack, when it's actually all part of the migraine. In my case, it isn't a craving but if I have one coming on the first sign is usually that I go slightly off my food (very unlike me 😂) and so I can (if I notice) make myself eat a bit of toast, take some meds etc which helps. May be worth considering?

@forlornlorna

Hormones Dehydration Artificial lighting Salty foods Red wine

I've had a bit of a breakthrough with taking propranolol. Stopped my usual triptan and gave it a go. It's halved my migraines

@forlornlorna Does the propranolol give you side effects? I’ve been offered it but hate the idea of medication all the time… though it’s getting to the point when I’m having painkillers most days!

Hormones pretty much every time although stress too. When I'm feeling migrainey strobe lighting or just flashing white light sets me off.

Alcohol - so rarely drink
Flickering light even if it is almost too difficult to spot
Blue or cold led lights - I have to have warm ones

Being too hot or too cold
Periods
Lack of sleep
Stress

Some blue cheeses - I get cravings but try to leave it alone

A big one for me is when I do shoulder presses at the gym. I really, really try and avoid them but sometimes my PT puts them in a session. That, and exhaustion, usually lack of sleep but sometimes generally just overdoing it.

@Twaintime look at medication overuse headache, it's likely that

A royal pain, I fared better tapering rather than going cold turkey but it really has helped.

I have tried propranolol, gabapentin, amitriptyline, nortriptyline, candersarten (sp?) and none of them helped. The propranolol landed me in hospital with heart rhythm issues.

I would really try reducing the painkillers before taking new meds

210 days ago I discovered mine is chocolate!
I’ve suffered from migraines for 32 years, had ALL the medications, you name it. My mum always said it was chocolate, I never listened (obviously…chocolate is delicious).
I used an appointment to track my migraines and thought it was worse when I was hormonal and periody…..when I wanted to stuff my face with chocolate! So I stopped eating it and touch wood haven’t had a migraine in 210 days! Yeah I’ve had headaches but NOTHING stops me getting through the day.

Weather changes, esp air pressure
Storms
Very hot weather / too much sun
Strenuous exercise
Dehydration
Travel
Stress / excitement
Alcohol
Strong perfume

If I wake up then fall back to sleep again and end up sleeping too much I am then out of my usual sleep rhythm and I will feel a dullness in the right side of my head almost immediately, which will then progress to a migraine.

Even one or two glasses of wine

Low blood sugar.

Intense stress over a few days.

Migraine bingo here too, so no one trigger but lots of things that can pile up and cause one:

Artificial sweeteners - I mainly drink tea/ coffee or water as the sugar tax means there are sweeteners in everything now
Lights, sunlight that's too bright especially when the sun is lower in the sky. Always have big sunnies in my bag
Not eating enough or missing a meal, it's the blood sugar drop I think
Hormones - I'm perimenopausal and it's hideous!
Stress and tiredness too

I've tried so many treatments. What helps is a GON block every 6 weeks but the NHS can't support that more than annually (and not at all since 2019 as my neuro department is a covid ward) and I can't afford to go private.

The only thing I’ve noted consistently is hormones.

@Twaintime it did make me a little lightheaded for the first couple of weeks but that soon settled

Hormones
Paint smell
Flashing lights of any kind
Dehydration

These are the main ones I have noticed
Writing this is making my head sore so maybe thinking about migraines?!? Being in cold weather without a hat makes part of my head ache but not a full blown migraine.

Garlic for me is a horror story. Sugar not great. But garlic is like Thor's bloody great hammer in every ready meal and restaurant dish.

Propranolol turned me into a total drongo so I couldn't find out if it helped the migraines.

Chocolate, dehydration, fasting for too long, lights in office. I feel crap after sumatripitan too, makes me queasy for hours and hyper sensitive especially to hot things like holding a hot drink my hands feel like they are burning and can't drink anything too hot for a while either.

I've made a determined effort to not eat any choc and to stay hydrated and eat consistently. So far, despite a very stressful time I've not had a migraine since before Christmas

Dairy and refined carbs.
Too much sugar.
Tiredness.
Genetic predisposition.
Crying.
The sun - too much.
Heatstroke.
Over exertion.

As you can tell, I'm live laugh loving over here 🙄

[quote LefttoherownDevizes]@Twaintime look at medication overuse headache, it's likely that

A royal pain, I fared better tapering rather than going cold turkey but it really has helped.

I have tried propranolol, gabapentin, amitriptyline, nortriptyline, candersarten (sp?) and none of them helped. The propranolol landed me in hospital with heart rhythm issues.

I would really try reducing the painkillers before taking new meds[/quote]
@LefttoherownDevizes Yes, I’m sure there is an element of this. I can go several days without painkillers and without getting a headache so I don’t think I’m addicted as such, but I can get stuck in awful cycles of taking them. The problem is when I try to ride a headache out, I can go past the migraine point of no return and end up with a hideous episode with vomiting every 10 mins etc. Just can’t stand it - and it’s so hard not to reach for a painkiller when I get the warning signs. My GP was really unsympathetic about the painkillers too and basically said ‘just stop taking them’!

How did you manage the tapering? Did you ride out the migraines?

Hunger and going too long without eating.
Perfume
Alcohol (whilst drinking not the day after) and that led in to getting a migraine even at the thought of a night drinking (so in the day before going out)

I’ve found my people!!

Game changer for me was cutting out ALL raw or not well-cooked alliums… so all onions, garlic, chives, leeks including a lot of flavourings (in most crisps) and dressings which have raw onion in them.

The smell of some synthetic oils, and some perfumes, I’ve been told it’s aldehydes but I’m not sure.

I have to be super careful with alcohol.

And then a combination on other things… stress, poor sleep, dehydration, low blood sugar etc.

I pinpointed the alliums about 15 years ago… have gone from a severe attack every 2-3 weeks to 2-3 a year at the most.

Painkillers have never really worked because they are sporadic and escalate so quicky so longer-term are no good, then I vomit a lot so meds on onset of symptoms aren’t much use either.

Stress
Flickery lights or overly artificial fluorescent type lights
Dry ice (not sure why on that one!)
Lack of sleep
Hormonal changes (periods and pregnancy especially)
Aspartame (but not others sweeteners)

Eye strain, sometimes.
Teeth grinding, sometimes.
Positional problems sometimes, eg. If my neck is stiff or I injure myself.

Caffeine sometimes helps and sometimes contributes, but I'm miserable without caffeine so I'm not going to quit that (and I have tried a few times!)

I also don't drink alcohol. I used to get a migraine from one sip of red wine so I've never drunk that anyway.

I find if I'm low in salt/electrolytes that can trigger me too. But might be because I have POTS and am now also doing low carb/Keto

I have quite a few unfortunately: too much light, too much noise, being too warm, not eating regularly, not drinking enough, not getting enough sleep, a strong smell, my period and neck / jaw pain.

I've found propranolol helps, it's definitely reduced the number of migraines I have.

@Twaintime two things helped, the neurologist recommended a better triptan (zolmitriptan) which works much better for me

I was taking full dose painkillers each day so dropped one pill at a time every few days (ie from. 8/7 a day etc). I then reduced the strength too, but I was taking codeine based meds.

I find more than half of days I'll start having hints of a migraine, my biggest trigger I can't avoid is bag posture/grinding so I'm on the waiting list for nerve blocks, finding triggers had helped most so I need the meds less (and the triptans work so I don't need as many painkillers)

Oh and I've found recently using a cool gel pack on the back of my neck and slightly higher than normal pillows can head off a migraine if I catch it early.