Written by Amal Allam
Monday, 03 April 2023 04:05 PM
Doctors reveal 6 factors that can trigger you to migraine, including cheese and certain perfumes. Doctors say migraine is a disorder characterized by hypersensitivity to light and sound. Britain’s Daily Mail.
Migraines can take days to clear up and affect over 39 million Americans, a migraine is more than just a headache, as anyone who suffers from it on a regular basis will attest..
The throbbing, throbbing pain begins deep in the brain and usually stays localized to one part of the head for a long time, usually getting worse over time. It is estimated that 40 million people in the United States and about six million in the United Kingdom suffer from migraine, most of whom have one to two attacks. Twice a month.
Neurologists are still trying to pinpoint the causes of migraines – which have been associated with vasoconstriction and widening, as well as nervous system dysfunction..
Scientists provide the most important factors that cause headaches:
perfumes
Many people associate the fruity or floral notes of a perfume with fun nights out with friends or romantic dates, and migraines but for migraine sufferers, this is a major culprit, as fragrances are by far the main culprit. Headache For migraine sufferers, according to 2016 research from the American Headache Association, chemicals in perfumes, cleaning supplies, and cigarette smoke that activate olfactory signals in our brain known as aromas can sometimes irritate our sinuses, leading to severe headaches..
Odor intolerance is called osmophobia, which not only exacerbates existing migraine attacks, but may also trigger new ones.
Increased sensitivity is cited as a trigger for a large percentage of migraine sufferers, although different studies have produced varying results..
said Dr. Nioxin Chang Niushen Zhang a neurologist and chief of headache division at Stanford Medicine, I think most people have some degree of sensitivity to smell, explaining, it all has to do with hypersensitivity to smell, light, and sound. The American Headache Association estimates that 95 percent of migraine sufferers report intolerance. Strong smells.
Meanwhile, a 2014 study of 200 migraine patients and 200 patients with tension headaches found that 70 percent of migraine sufferers also had symptoms of osmophobia, compared with anyone in the tension headache group, among the 70 percent who They caused odors, more than three-quarters blamed perfume.
It’s not entirely clear why some people are more sensitive to harmful odors, but research suggests that it could be linked to the size of a receptor in the brain that processes odor inputs called the olfactory bulb..
Of the 70 percent of migraine sufferers in the 2014 study who triggered the odors, paint fumes were the cause in about 42 percent.
Very relaxing
Although it may seem counterintuitive, migraine attacks at the end of a long day or week when stress has subsided are common..
Neurologists hypothesize that migraine attacks are the result of fluctuating levels of the hormone cortisol, which rises during times of stress and decreases during periods of relaxation, contributing to the onset of an attack..
Researchers at the Montefiore Headache Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University investigated the relationship between relaxation after stress and the onset of migraines in a 2014 study, and within 12 to 24 hours after a change in mood from “sad” or “nervous” to “happy” or “Relaxed”, the likelihood of a migraine attack increases by 20%.
“The really classic thing is people go to bed on a Saturday and then wake up right away with a migraine,” said Dr. Ann Jacob, a headache neurologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “So we know that regular bedtime and wake times are important for migraines.”.
the weather
Human sinuses fill with air and when barometric pressure drops as a storm approaches, about a third of migraine sufferers say that when storm clouds roll in, the skies darken, the winds intensify, and their symptoms get worse. This is thought to be caused by changes in barometric pressure, which indicates The pressure in the air or the amount of force that is applied to your body from the air.
An international team of scientists from Canada, New Zealand and Italy came to a similar conclusion in a 2017 study published in the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation. Patients with masticatory pain and patients with migraine present typical patterns of temporal pain that are affected differently, by weather changes, even by The slight dips in barometric pressure that inevitably come with the weather can trigger debilitating headaches.
A group of 34 migraine patients in Japan were asked to keep a diary to record their barometric pressure when they felt a migraine coming on.
anger
High levels of anger have been linked to increased muscle tension and exposure to more intense physical pain. Muscle tension is a reaction to external stressors such as events that make one angry. It is the body’s way of protecting against pain. This visceral response to anger and frustration can lead to a migraine attack..
MRI scans of people with migraines show physical changes in their brains
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed 25 brain scans and found that migraine sufferers had markedly enlarged perivascular spaces, fluid-filled pockets surrounding certain blood vessels in many organs including the brain..
She added, “We definitely know that tension in the neck and shoulders can be a trigger for migraine, and we know that there are conditions like cervical migraine where neck diseases seem to be really important in triggering migraine, so there is really an intimate relationship between migraine and the neck.”.
The relationship between anger and physical muscle tension is still being studied, but some studies have shown that most people who deal with chronic pain also have problems processing and controlling their anger..
The physical symptoms of anger are wide-ranging, from muscle tightness and insomnia to high blood pressure, all of which have been shown to be associated with migraine attacks..
Sometimes it’s hard to know if the tightness and tension in your muscles is a cause of a migraine or a manifestation of it, it could be a cause but it could also be a symptom and neurologists say it varies from person to person.
Migraine triggers are subjective and, according to Dr. Yacoub, “can be a very different experience for different individuals.”“.
Grinding or grinding on the teeth
Approximately 10% of people grind their teeth, a condition called bruxism, while sleeping. Bruxism is an unconscious habit that millions of Americans do without realizing – is it a major cause of migraines?
Many people who do this don’t realize it because it often happens during sleeping hours, but they wake up with intense pain that radiates from their jaw to other areas of the skull. The muscles that surround the temporomandibular joint are also attached to the cheeks and under the chin, so when someone clench their teeth and wear that The joint, painful impacts reverberate around the mouth and all over the head.
Dr Yacoub said: “This jaw pain can certainly be a migraine trigger or an independent source of the headache. Like jaw or temporomandibular joint pain, teeth grinding independently causes all types of TMJ-related headaches.
cheeses
Many types of cheese, such as aged cheddar, Swiss, and Parmesan among others, contain a compound called tyramine. Tyramine is a substance that forms when different proteins inside the cheese gradually break down. Also an amino acid found naturally in the body that helps regulate blood pressure, the exact mechanism linking tyramine and migraines is still under investigation.
Tyramine also causes blood vessels in the brain to constrict and then widen, processes known as vasoconstriction and vasodilation. Scientists used to unite around the theory that migraine is a disorder of the blood vessels, meaning that mechanical changes in the blood vessels were driving the quality of the palpitations. The pulsating headache.