Relieve-Headaches

There are many different kinds of triggers, and every person has different ones.

You may have some triggers that start your headache attack at one time, and then these triggers can change. Triggers can be divided into different groups, including:

Emotional triggers: These are triggers that have to do with emotions and your state of mind. Some examples of emotional triggers are: family problems, problems at work, success at work or school, anticipation, anxiety, an emotional crisis, the post-crisis period, a new job, a new school, weekends, and so on.

Stress triggers: These have to do with physical effort, such as strenuous exercise, excessive physical work at the work place or at school, physical sickness, not enough sleep, too much sleep, and so on.

Environmental triggers: These triggers are responses to our surroundings. For example, bright lights, different kinds of aromas like perfume, tobacco, or any kind of odor. We can also include loud noises, altitude, weather, and barometric pressure changes. I have a patient who can predict rain two hours before it starts because of the barometric pressure change that triggers her headaches.

Chemical triggers: The most common chemical triggers are hormonal changes that occur during the premenstrual period, during a woman’s period, or during the post-menstrual period. These triggers are extremely common in women who suffer headache. But there are a variety of chemical triggers, such as low blood sugar that results after not having eaten for many hours. This is a very common trigger for headache.

Food and beverage triggers: Rarely do we connect our eating habits with headaches, but there is a strong relationship that often goes unnoticed. Some foods are commonly related to headaches.

• Some of the most common trigger foods are:
  • Hard cheese
  • Hot dogs
  • Chocolate
  • Nuts
• Less common food triggers are:
  • Smoked fish
  • Vinegar
  • Fermented food (cream, yogurt)
  • Freshly baked yeast products
  • Peanuts (and peanut butter)
  • Monosodium glutamate (commonly found in Chinese food)
  • Soybean
  • Onion
  • Canned figs
  • Citric food
  • Bananas
  • Pork
  • Caffeinated beverages
  • Avocado
  • Liver

I have noticed that a few of the above-mentioned triggers are more common than others. Bananas, pork, and Chinese food seem to be high on the list. You have to take into account that certain foods may serve as intermittent triggers, but once a food has affected you once, it becomes a risk factor. In addition, almost any alcohol drink may trigger a headache, but red wine is the most common culprit.

How Can You Recognize Your Triggers?

One of the most important aspects of headache treatment is your own control over your headache, and control starts with identifying your own triggers, and learning to avoid them.

I recommend writing down your triggers in a trigger diary. Each time you have a headache, try to relate it to one or more of the triggers that are listed above. At the end of the month you can sit down and analyze your results to see which are the most common triggers in your case.

In your bed and on your pillow and on most furniture and carpeting in your house, live millions of microscopic creatures that are sustained by the dead skin that cells that flake off of you and your household pets. Grossed out yet? Good, because the really nasty part is that over one hundred thousand of these dust mites can live in one square meter of carpet and each one of these cuties can leave up to 20 droppings a day. Still not grossed out? Well good, because every day you breathe in thousands of little microscopic mite turds and you may be suffering from an allergic reaction to the icky combination of dead skin and mite feces that float around your house.

Fun Fact: An average mattress can harbor as many as 10 million dust mites. Sweet dreams!

Allergens produced by dust mite detritus are on of the common triggers of asthma and are also to blame for a variety of other respiratory ailments. Symptoms of dust mite allergies can include itchiness, sneezing, inflamed or infected eczema, watering eyes, runny nose, hay fever, headaches, and clogging in the lungs.

Fun Fact: 80% of that dust you see in a sun beam is … yeah, mite feces and dead skin

So how do you eliminate this dread infestation from your home? Well, you don’t really. You can, however, minimize their impact by making a few changes around the house.

Getting Rid of Dust Mites

1. May sound obvious, but get rid of the dust. Give your entire house a thorough cleaning, especially the bed room.
2. Throw away all of you pillows and buy hypo allergenic pillows with mite resistant pillow cases and mattress cover. Mites love the mattresses and pillow ’cause it’s all nice an warm up in there.
3. Splurge for the HEPA filter. They can be pricey, but they do make a difference.
4. Keep the pets confined to certain portions of the house. Pets greatly increase the amount of dust mites in a home so if Fido has to stay inside, best to keep him confined to one or two rooms. Preferably not the bedrooms.
5. Get rid of your collection of stuffed animals from the state fair. These things are mite hotels. Well, actually more like birthing centers.
6. Vacuum all the time. Every spare minute. The mites are your enemy!  And since you will be vacuuming so much go ahead and get a nice hypoallergenic vacuum cleaner.

Cluster headaches affect approximately one in one thousand people and are among the most painful types of headaches.

The two types of cluster headaches include episodic and chronic. Episodic headaches are more prevalent, affecting over 90 percent of cluster headache sufferers. Episodic headaches can occur once or twice a day during periods of activity and then not at all for months or even years between bouts.

Sufferers of chronic cluster headaches have been known to have nine or more headaches in a day. The pain is located around the eye socket and temple and is so severe that the condition is considered a neurological disease since many chronic cluster headache sufferers eventually kill themselves.

The exact causes of cluster headaches are not known and therapies vary according to the patient. Over the counter medications often prove ineffectual so many cluster headache sufferers take any number of medications including ranging from inhaling pure oxygen, to taking beta-blockers and anti-depressants. Some more traditional methods that have worked include inhaling pure oxygen, caffeine, exercise, taking hot showers, and even sex.

A recent study suggests that obese children may be at a much higher risk of experiencing headaches than their peers. The study of over 900 children and teens revealed that as the body mass index of the children lowered, the occurrence of headaches decreased.

BMI, or body mass index, has long been linked to increased frequency in chronic headaches among adults.  The study, conducted by the Headache Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, concluded that although there has been no causal link established between obesity in children and headaches there may be substantial environmental conditions that are common in both conditions. In other words, poor lifestyle choices are likely to effect health even at an early age.

Frightening as it may seem, sex can cause migraine headaches in many people. Sex headaches can occur at the onset of orgasm or at any point during intercourse. Symptoms can start as a dull ache at one or both sides of the head. Pain levels tend to increase as excitement increases.

Headache Symptoms: Symptoms can start as a dull ache at one or both sides of the head. Pain levels tend to increase as excitement increases.

Headache Causes: Any type of sexual activity can cause a migraine headache. In many cases, the cause is simply a side effect of birth control or some other over the counter or prescription medication.

Headache Risk Factors: Sex headaches tend to effect those who already suffer from some sort of chronic headaches. Having sex multiple times in succession or having sex when particularly stressed or tense can also increase the risk of a sex headache.

Headache Treatment: Occasional headaches during sex is typically not a cause for concern but if they continue or increase in intensity, then you seek the advice of a medical professional.