11 Major Migraine Symptoms, triggers, and its Prevention

Are you a migraine sufferer? Do you often get attacked by the ‘beast’ called migraine? If your answer is yes, then I am sorry to hear that, but you are not alone in this. The majority of the population are the victims of migraine. Most people get afraid of the migraine because of the fact that there is no cure to migraine. Getting scared and being afraid of migraines only worsen the situation. There is no cure, but you can prevent it (or at least reduce its frequency) and you might have heard ‘prevention is better than cure’ so you got it.

Get Sufficient Information

For prevention, you need to know your migraine symptoms and understand your triggers first. Triggers are actually the reasons that initiate the migraine. Only after getting sufficient information related to your migraine, you would be able to prevent it or reduce its frequency. For this, you need to thoroughly observe your migraine symptoms, know the factors that result in migraine, the frequency of your migraine etc. Besides, you might be aware of the type of migraine that you get (classical migraine, common migraine etc.). Some migraine patients don’t get headaches along with the migraine. So, make sure you know everything about your migraine.

Stages of Migraine

Migraine has significant stages such as:

Prodrome: This is the first stage of migraine that can last for a few hours or even days. The stages differ for each individual. You might experience it or not. Almost 60 % of the patients experience it.

Aura/Headache: An aura is a combination of sensory, speech or motor symptoms that is a warning sign for migraine. It is often mistaken for strokes/seizures. It happens before your pain kicks in. Almost 15 % — 20 % patients experience it. It lasts for 5 minutes or about 60 minutes.

Headache lasts for a few hours or days even depending on the individual. The severity of pain varies for different people. Sometimes you might get aura along with headache and sometimes separately. It starts from one side, gradually penetrating to the other side.

Postdrome: 80 % among the sufferers experience the migraine ‘hangover’ or postdrome stage. It usually lasts for a day or two.

Major Symptoms

Migraine is a complicated neurological state having a lot of symptoms. Some symptoms are common for all while some are specific to the individual. Each stage of migraine has its own symptoms. Some of the primary symptoms are:

• Aura (which is a combination of various symptoms including blurred or loss of vision, blind spots in visions, problem in speech etc. You can see in details about the aura here)
• Sensitivity towards light, sound and smell
• Fatigue
• Bloating
• Nausea, abdominal pain or vomiting
• Extreme headache
• Tingling sensation in neck
• Numbness in arm or leg
• Crankiness, mood changes
• Loss of appetite or food cravings
• Fever, diarrhea (rare symptoms)

According to the American research, about 90 % people suffer from severe headaches, 91 % sensitivity to light and 49 % from vomiting

Triggers

You need to identify your triggers. Triggers might be certain food, weather conditions, certain smells or even an unusual sleeping routine. Some of the triggers are:

• Disturbed sleeping pattern. Oversleeping or lack of sleep is one of the most common triggers for migraine.
• Stress, depression or anxiety.
• Bright light
• Certain foods like cheese, spicy food, food additives, alcohols etc.
• Hormonal changes (specifically in females).
• Various medicines like vasodilators, triptans, ergots, opioids etc.
• Caffeine (for some people, it helps in relieving while for some, it is a trigger)
• Physical activity
• Excessive exposure to screen (mobile, laptop, TV etc.)

According to the research, the vast majority of the sufferers have reported migraine triggers. The findings appear to not vary by geographical region, race or ethnicity.

Preventive Measures

Although there is no cure, you can prevent frequent migraines by being careful and taking certain precautionary measures.

Avoiding Triggers: The first and foremost measure is identifying your migraine triggers and avoiding them. This can help in reducing its occurrence upto a great extent. Carefully observe what you eat, what causes your migraine, what you do that results in the form of migraine.

Avoid Getting Stressed: Managing stress is an important factor for the prevention of migraine. Relaxation techniques like yoga, breathing techniques, meditation might help you. You can look up various yoga poses online for migraine relief.

Manage Sleeping Routine: It is quite important to manage your sleeping schedule. Take a proper amount of sleep. Avoid oversleeping.

Eat Healthy and Stay Hydrated: Take your meal on time and regularly. Do not skip meals. Mostly, people go for dieting to lose weight, resulting in the onslaught of migraine. Drink a lot of fluids and stay hydrated.

Exercising: Do suitable exercise daily and don’t skip it. But make sure it doesn’t turn out to be a trigger. Do light exercises so that it doesn’t result in vasodilation and fatigue.

Preventive medication: Consult your doctor and ask for preventive medicines which include antiseizure, antidepressants etc.

Other preventive measures include avoiding bright light and noise. Avoid smells that trigger your migraines at all costs. Make sure you are well aware of the hormonal changes and be careful about your diet and migraine triggers during these hormonal changes, intake of supplements etc.

Migraine Journal: I would suggest keeping a migraine journal where you can keep track of your symptoms, triggers, frequencies, how long your migraine lasts, what helps, what medicines are you taking, etc. It will help you in keeping records and telling your history of migraine to the doctor.

Migraine is a horrible beast that looks undefeatable, but certainly, you can keep it at bay from attacking you by taking preventive measures. You can try certain remedies when it attacks you. You can lie in the dark for some time, listen to soft and relaxing music via headphones in slow volume. Using ice packs, acupressure and acupuncture techniques, certain herbs, massaging your scalp, using balms, etc might also help you in relieving the pain.

Can you relate to any of the symptoms, triggers, or preventive measures? Did I miss anything (in triggers or symptoms), tell me in the comment sections. Would you like to suggest any other way to prevent it? Let’s fight this beast together!