Migraine Headaches

Migraine is a neurological problem which is characterized by chronic headaches, often accompanied by nausea and sensory changes. Most migraine experts believe that many migraine headaches are triggered by a range of different environmental events including food and beverages, weather, and other factors. Research suggests that migraine triggers vary from person to person. Generally migraine headaches are very painful, one sided and may last from 4-72 hrs. Most common migraine symptoms include increased sensitivity to light and sound, nausea and vomiting. More than half of migraine sufferers perceive an aura-unusual visual, aromatic or any other type of sensory experience which usually arises before the headache begins.

According to scientific literature there are 4 main categories of migraine studies that follow different process for identifying the migraine trigger. They are as mentioned:

Challenge studies- here, migraine sufferer are deliberately exposed to factors that can act as potential triggers, to see whether the pain occurs or not. Researchers using this highly experimental approach have found very strong evidence for cause-and-effect linkages between triggers and headaches.

However, several experiments using the challenge approach have failed to confirm findings about triggers, most of these studies did not focus specifically on individuals reporting a special susceptibility to the trigger under investigation.

Treatment studies- according to this branch of study, the migraine sufferers are requested to avoid any contact with a particular set of migraine triggers (especially suspect food items) for a period of time, to see if this reduces the rate/frequency of headaches. This gradually helps in identifying the triggers, which if avoided leads to no headache.

‘Treatment studies’ are generally considered to be a mixed bag as some studies report beneficial effects of diet control which eliminates large numbers of foods, whereas other studies say there are no benefits. In general, it is hard to get many people to comply faithfully with food regiments in which many of their favorite foods are “off limits”. For this reason, the treatment study approach has not yielded either a generally effective therapy or robust research results.

In diary studies, patients are asked to maintain a record of the headaches and what were the factors they got exposed to that are on a list of suspected triggers. Some studies have used statistical analysis to examine whether there is a strong cause-and-effect relationship between trigger exposure and later headaches.

Survey studies- in survey studies, patients are asked to give their opinions about what they think and have observed cause their headaches.

In 1995, Silberstein and his colleagues conducted a survey of 500 migraine sufferers and found the following percentages believe their headaches were prompted by various categories of triggers like:

Stress

79.0%

Changes in Weather

44.0%

Before Menstruation

37.2%

Changes in Light

33.8%

Eating certain Foods

30.0%

During Menstruation

26.8%

Fatigue/insomnia/other

6.6%

Other Events (combined)

13.2%

These are some of the methods for identifying the triggers a person might be having before migraine headache and which causes them pain. The results of these studies together make it clear that migraine triggering is a reality. However, the heterogeneity of results strongly suggests that different individuals have different migraine triggers. Thus, to avoid headaches migraine sufferers cannot merely avoid items from common lists of triggers; instead, they will obtain more effective prevention if they determine what is causing their headaches in particular.

By: Migraine Solutions

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