Good Suggestions: How To Prevent Migraines
Monday, October 18th, 2010Migraine prevention is the great goal of almost all the research currently being done on this condition. As the causes and mechanisms of migraine are being discovered and understood, this leads to new developments in both treatment and prevention. While it might seem that actual prevention is just a fantasy that isn’t really achievable, migraine research has shown that there are some surprisingly simple things that can be done not just to provide effective treatment but to help with actual prevention itself.
One of the biggest advances in the research has been with regard to migraine triggers. A great many of these have been discovered, falling into two categories: controllable and uncontrollable. Uncontrollable triggers might be things like changing weather patterns. For example, big swings in barometric pressure, a high humidity, and certain types of wind can all trigger a migraine. One might think migraine prevention would be impossible when it comes to these factors, but they might at least be mitigated to some extent.
Another type of migraine that some feel falls into the “uncontrollable” category would be the menstrual migraine. After all, a woman can’t very well just stop menstruating to prevent a headache. Yet the trigger here seems, at least in part, to be either too much or too little estrogen. Menstruating women can’t entirely control their estrogen levels, yet they might be able to alter the dosage to some degree in their birth control pills. And post-menopausal women can certainly adjust dosages in their hormone replacement therapies. So migraine prevention might even be possible in these cases.
Certain other factors are most definitely controllable, and may bring a degree of migraine relief. For example, some people’s headaches are triggered by glaring light, so they can help themselves with proper sunglasses or by closing a curtain. Other triggers, the majority of controllable ones, in fact, seem to be food-related. So the person’s migraine prevention program may be to stop eating peanut butter, cheese, chocolate, or any other food that seems to bring on the headache. Triggers involving food, strong smells, or even light conditions can often be altered or eliminated.
A generally healthy lifestyle will automatically contribute to someone’s personal program of migraine defense. For example, if they make sure they get enough sleep, keep stress to a minimum, exercise and eat regular healthy meals, then those will all be factors in keeping migraines away. However, migraine prevention can also be greatly helped if the person can learn what their own triggers are, whether foods, smells or even glaring light, and take as many steps as they can to do away with them.
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