It is estimated that migraines affect up to 12 percent of the general population. These headaches can be extremely painful and disabling. Furthermore, the extreme pain can be a source of angst as some may fear them as a sign of something ominous such as a brain tumour which they are often not.
There are various effective pharmacological treatment options for these headaches which include prophylactic therapy as well as rescue therapy.
However, certain lifestyle changes can have an additive effect on treatment and may even reduce the dose requirements together with headache frequency and severity.
These include simple things such as exercise, stopping caffeine (and cocoa for that matter!), smoking cessation, avoidance of passive smoke, getting enough sleep and eating small healthy frequent meals. Heard this before? Off course! When it comes to migraines, start with the basics.
One should also identify and avoid their trigger factors for one’s headaches. These can differ between individuals. A simple way to identify these trigger factors would be to do something as simple as keeping a headache diary that one can look at over time as trigger factors become clearer in retrospect. Like they say, hindsight is 20/20 vision!
Yours in brain & nerve health,
Dr V Mandita
