327 migraineurs submitted their migraine journals for a large study that was performed in order to better understand a migraine trigger. Here are the results:
Leading the pack as the #1 risk factor for occurrence and persistence of headache and migraine was menstruation. Changes in hormones can be disastrous for the patient with migraines. Most hormone related migraines will take place within a 5 day window around mestruation.
A distant second is muscle tension in the neck. The chicken or the egg scenario comes to play here as the researchers were not confident to say if neck tension was a symptom or trigger.
In third was fatigue. Restless sleep or sleeping for too short a time were present in about 35% of the participants.
On the flip side…
They found favorable influences around holidays or when taking days off as well as when performing aerobic exercise.
Side note… they also found that drinking a beer the day before a headache onset reduced the risk of a headache or migraine.
There you have it, the latest and greatest on headache and migraine triggers.
