3 Little-Known Migraine Triggers to Avoid

When you struggle with the pain of migraine headaches, whether once in a while or more than once a week, your life can grind to a halt. Understanding your unique migraine triggers can help reduce the frequency of your migraines, but everyone experiences different causes. 

Dr. Christopher Brooks, and the team at Brooks Plastic Surgery in Hollywood, Florida, offer personalized migraine treatment. We also want to help shed light on some migraine triggers you might not know about. 

Most people know that not drinking enough water, certain smells, some foods and food additives, weather disturbances, and changes in your hormone levels can cause a migraine headache to erupt. But keep reading to learn about three often overlooked migraine triggers to avoid.   

1. Caffeine

Many people swear by caffeine to help with headache pain. But the truth is that caffeine can actually trigger migraine headaches. This is because of how caffeine changes the adenosine in your brain.

Adenosine is a substance that affects your brain activity and some aspects of movement and sleep. It’s also involved in the expansion of blood vessels in the brain. Chronic caffeine consumption changes the number of adenosine receptors you have and how they work, making it more likely you’ll get migraines.

What’s more? Caffeine can increase your sensitivity to pain, making you feel the added pressure of blood vessels in your brain during a migraine headache. This means that caffeine can make your migraines more painful.   

2. Alcohol

Most people associate having a drink or two with relaxation and good times with friends. However, if you’re prone to migraines, having that after-work drink or a glass of wine with dinner may trigger a migraine.

Medical researchers are still working on figuring out the exact reasons alcohol can trigger migraines. They believe it relates to the fact that alcohol is a diuretic, increasing urination and leading to dehydration, which, in turn, leads to migraines.

However, scientists are investigating if the chemicals in alcohol or the byproducts of alcohol could cause migraines. In addition, alcohol makes your blood vessels expand, which increases pressure in your skull and could trigger a migraine headache. 

If you notice that you tend to have migraines after drinking alcohol, it’s best to avoid imbibing or stick to minimal amounts of your favorite drink.  

3. Sleep troubles

You probably already know that not getting enough good-quality sleep spells bad news for your overall health. But did you know that sleep troubles, like insomnia, having a hard time falling asleep, and sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, can trigger migraines? 

Having a migraine headache can also make it more challenging to fall or stay asleep, creating a vicious cycle of pain and fatigue. Be sure to talk to your provider if you’re having a hard time sleeping. 

You can also work to improve sleep quality by having a nighttime routine, not using screens close to bedtime, and using relaxation methods before falling asleep. . 

Lasting treatment for chronic migraine

If you’ve tried avoiding migraine triggers but continue to suffer from head pain and prefer to avoid medications, which come with serious side effects, migraine surgery could be the right option for you.

At Brooks Plastic Surgery, Dr. Brooks recommends migraine surgery for patients whose headaches don’t respond to other treatments. This minimally invasive procedure helps reduce the frequency of your head pain, the duration of your migraines, and the severity of your pain.

Dr. Brooks first identifies the trigger points most likely involved in your migraines. Medical scientists believe when certain nerves or blood vessels in your head get pinched or compressed, it can trigger migraine headaches. 

People may have different trigger points. However, some trigger points are highly linked with most migraines, including the temporal (temples), occipital (back of the head), frontal (forehead), and rhinogenic (nasal area). 

Once Dr. Brooks assesses your most likely trigger points, he performs a procedure called nerve decompression surgery, which reduces the pressure on the nerves related to the trigger point. In fact, migraine surgery gives up to 92% of patients significant relief.  

This outpatient surgery takes about two to three hours, and optimal results generally appear within four to six months, though often sooner. Get help for migraines by requesting an appointment online or over the phone at Brooks Plastic Surgery today.