Migraine triggers are not the same as migraine causes. A migraine trigger is any environmental or physiological factor that starts a headache in people who are prone to migraines. Knowing your migrane triggers and avoiding them can help prevent migraine attacks or get prepared and relieve the pain.

Typical migraine triggers are:

• hormonal changes (pregnancy or menstruation)
• weather changes
• certain foods, such as cheese, red wine, citrus, chocolate and caffeine containing products,
• certain smells (perfumes, cigarette smoke, fresh paint or other chemicals)
• stress
• overworking
• too little or too much sleep
• changes in your daily schedule

Migrain triggers differ from individual to individual. A factor that triggers migraine on one person does not necessarily trigger migraine in another migraineur. It is important to know your own migrane triggers.

Migraine Triggers: Personal Research

If you read this blog and find that your migraine experience and symptoms are similar to mine, this small research may be helpful.
In fact, I love almost all of the foods on migrain trigger list and thinking that I had to give them up because of my migraine was pretty sad. So I decided not to give them up them all at once and run my own small research. For some time I ate or drank all these foods and drinks separately in rather large quantities to find out which ones are to blame and which are not because I usually ate all of them together. And I kept a diary of all events or conditions that could trigger migraine. Finally, it turned out that red wine was a frequent trigger of my migrains, drinking it separately or combining with other foods or beverages didn’t make any difference.
Red wine was a migraine trigger in all cases. Even 20 ml of red wine caused a terrible pulsing pain around my eye next morning and all the symptoms of a state known as hangover. None other alcohols or foods had that effect. However, I love red wine and there are occasions when red wine cannot be avoided. In such cases I have nothing left but take Maxalt.
Sweet tea and coffee produced the opposite effect: they worked as migrain relievers. Cheese or citrus and other foods are absolutely harmless to me. Bananas in large amounts would trigger a slight headache easily cured by a night’s sleep.

My migrain triggers are:

• Red wine – any quanitity!
• Stress combined with crying (hysteria) – migraine sets in next morining
• Oversleeping (not undersleeping! Unless I undersleep several days)
• Weather changes
• Strong perfume
• Saunas

I hope this information helps you discover your migraine triggers.