Migraines are more than just headaches — they're complex neurological events that can be debilitating and unpredictable. Understanding what causes them is key to managing their impact. Triggers vary from person to person, but patterns often emerge with careful tracking. Identifying and avoiding individual triggers can help to reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks. Here, we'll explore different migraine triggers, including foods, environmental triggers, hormonal influences, stress, allergies, and more.
Understanding migraine triggers
Some migraine triggers — like bright lights and skipped meals — are obvious, but others are more subtle and can build up over time. Triggers can be acute (like experiencing a migraine after being around a certain scent), or they can build up over time (like a migraine that comes after weeks of life stressors). The good news: being aware of your migraine triggers can make it easier to prevent attacks, and digital tools can help you avoid allergens, foods, and other migraine-triggering issues.
Dietary triggers: what foods can trigger migraines
Food and drink are among the most commonly reported migraine triggers. For some, even a small amount of a certain ingredient can lead to an attack.
Some of the most common food-related migraine culprits include:
- Aged cheese: Cheeses like blue cheese, cheddar, and Parmesan contain tyramine, a naturally occurring compound that's linked to migraines.
- Cured or processed meats: Nitrates and nitrites, often used as preservatives in meats like bacon, hot dogs, and deli meats, can cause blood vessel dilation in the brain, potentially triggering migraines.
- Alcohol: Beer and red wine are common migraine triggers. Any type of alcohol, however, can disrupt sleep, dehydrate the body, and affect blood vessels, potentially increasing the likelihood of migraines.
- Caffeine: While a small amount of caffeine can sometimes help relieve a migraine, excessive intake (or suddenly lowering or stopping your caffeine intake) may provoke a migraine.
- Chocolate: Chocolate contains both phenylethylamine and caffeine, which may trigger migraines in some people.
- Artificial sweeteners: Aspartame is a well-known migraine trigger in some people. Sucralose (Splenda) may also trigger migraines in certain people.
- MSG (monosodium glutamate): Often found in package foods and some restaurant meals, MSG can lead to headaches in some people.
Keeping a food diary on paper or using an app (like MyFitnessPal) can help to pinpoint specific foods that trigger your migraines. It's not always about cutting out entire categories. Sometimes, it's about moderating intake or avoiding certain combinations.
Environmental and sensory triggers
Your surroundings can influence migraine onset more than you might expect. Sensory input — what you see, smell, or hear — can directly affect the brain's processing pathways and sometimes provoke an attack.
- Light sensitivity: Bright lights, florescent lights, flickering screens, and glare can all act as migraine triggers, especially for people with photosensitivity. This is especially true in environments with poor lighting or excessive contrast.
- Sound sensitivity: Loud noises, concerts, and chaotic environments may overwhelm the nervous system and trigger a migraine. In many cases, it's not just the volume but also the unpredictability or frequency of sound that can cause issues.
- Strong scents: Perfumes, cigarette smoke, gasoline, and cleaning products can cause migraines in people with a heightened sense of smell. This type of trigger can be especially difficult to avoid when you spend time in public spaces.
- Weather changes: Sudden changes in barometric pressure, humidity, or temperature can also influence migraine onset. These environmental changes affect some people's blood vessels and fluid balance in the brain, triggering pain or aura.
- Screen exposure: Prolonged screen time without breaks, poor posture, or inadequate lighting while using screens may contribute to eye strain and tension headaches that can eventually evolve into migraines.
Strategies to reduce exposure include wearing blue-light filtering glasses, using fragrance-free products, and adjusting screen brightness in the evenings.
Hormonal influences on migraine onset
Hormonal changes are a migraine trigger for many people, especially women. Estrogen, in particular, plays a significant role in modulating brain chemicals that influence pain. Fluctuations in estrogen levels are often tied to migraine episodes.
- Menstrual migraines: These migraines typically occur in the two days before or after menstruation begins, when estrogen drops. They can be more severe, longer-lasting, and less responsive to treatment than other migraine types.
- Pregnancy: Some women experience a reduction in migraines during pregnancy — especially in the second and third trimesters — while others may find that pregnancy causes their migraines to worsen.
- Birth control and hormone replacement therapy: Hormonal medications can either stabilize or aggravate migraine patterns. Combined oral contraceptives, in particular, may trigger migraines in susceptible individuals.
- Menopause: Migraine frequency may increase during perimenopause due to fluctuating hormone levels but often decreases after menopause, when hormone levels stabilize.
Apps that can help track menstrual cycles (like Ovia) can help you notice whether your migraines may be tied to hormonal fluctuations.
Stress and emotional triggers
Stress is one of the most common and complex migraine triggers. Emotional tension affects the brain's neurotransmitters and can lead to physical responses, such as muscle tension and inflammation. Chronic stress also alters pain perception and can make the nervous system more sensitive to other triggers.
Stress-related migraine triggers include:
- Work or school deadlines
- Family conflicts
- Financial pressures
- Major life changes
- Unprocessed emotional trauma
"Let-down" migraines often occur after a period of stress, such as the weekend after a hard week or a vacation after a stressful period. Stress management tools like meditation, breathing exercises, therapy, and consistent routines can help.
Allergy-related migraine triggers
There is a growing recognition of the link between allergies and migraines. Allergens (substances that trigger allergic reactions) may cause inflammation, which can lead to headaches and migraines.
Common allergens include:
- Pollen
- Dust mites
- Mold
- Animal dander
- Food sensitivities (like gluten or dairy)
Apps that can help you track triggers
Using an app can help you keep track of migraine patterns and triggers. Evidation connects with other apps — like the ones you use to track your nutrition and fitness — to provide you with insight into how one health-related behavior affects another. We use the information you choose to share to provide you with personalized, content-based insights that help to drive your health forward. Evidation's MigraineSmart tool can help you identify issues that may make you more susceptible to migraines, allowing you to take the steps necessary to lower the frequency and severity of migraine attacks. Click here to learn more about Evidation and MigraineSmart and get started today.
