What Causes Your Migraine Headaches?

Before you jump two steps ahead and try to find relief from your migraine headaches you need to ask yourself a question. What question? Are you sure you have migraine headaches? Migraine headaches are vascular (to do with blood flow around the head) but they're not the only type of vascular headache that you can come across - cluster headaches are another example.

So first things first is to get yourself checked over by a doctor to make sure you're actually suffering from migraine headaches in the first place. Your doctor will be able to recommend over-the-counter or prescription (if your migraines are that bad) treatments to give you relief from migraines.

One word of "caution" on some of the prescription pain killers you can get for migraines - they can knock out the pain but they also tend to knock you out too. Check about potential side-effects with your doctor before you start any treatment.

The next thing to figure out is what causes your migraine attacks. In the world of migraineurs (those who suffer from migraines) these are called triggers. It makes sense though right? Something has to trigger your migraine attacks.

The most common causes (triggers) for migraine headaches are:

Caffeine
Drinking too much coffee can bring on a quick and sudden migraine. Swap out decaff for your normal cup of joe each day and this hould help
reduce the chance of migraines.

Chocolate
Everyone loves chocolate but milk chocolate is a root cause of migraines in most people. If you can swap over to eating dark chocolate this is less likely to cause a migraine attack.

Stress
Stress isn't good for your body full stop and the fact it sets off so many migraines is proof of this. Do what you can to reduce or remove things around you that cause stress. Or try meditation, yoga, tai chi or even martial arts to relax and destress.

Dairy products
There's no easy way around this one - if you find that dairy products trigger migraines you'll have to reduce or eliminate your intake of dairy.

Tanins
These can be found in red wine and tea and drinking too much of either can give you a nasty migraine. Everything in moderation!

Weather
Some migraine sufferers have reported being able to feel an attack coming on when the weather is heavy and humid or if there's a storm approaching. At least somebody gets the weather forecast right eh?

Once you've figured out your trigger (possibly more than one) you need to pay special attention to them. These are what cause your migraines to start so do yourself a favour and control your triggers as much as you can.