I’ve had migraines for almost 20 years and just wanted a few peoples thoughts. I’ve always thought mine were triggered by a combination of factors, mainly stress and tiredness for me but also a change of routine. Last year I started to think chocolate was a trigger. This was reinforced when after a fairly long period without chocolate or migraines I slipped off the wagon. There was a box of chocolates in the kitchen and I’d have one or two every evening for about a week, I then got a migraine. I then had a similar experience with beer. I’m not much of a drinker but I had a week where I was enjoying a beer with dinner every night (damned Aldi and their Scottish ales) and we then went away for a weekend with friends and I had a migraine on the Saturday. I seem to be able to have the occasional chocolate or drink without a problem but on the evidence above I’m wondering if a sort of trickle effect can bring them on. So what are others experiences.

For me:

Blue cheese.
Reading without my cheapo +1 reading glasses
*some* beers, will knock me out for a couple of days, even after only a small glass.

Does it just take a small amount of cheese?

I’m going through the same thing at the moment, getting much worse lately, seems to take barely anything to give me early symptoms although I can usually stop it going full blown with ibuprofen and water. Strenuous exercise also seems to be a trigger. Pain in the arse to be honest, ruining (nearly) all the things I enjoy most! Trying to cut down on refined sugar and booze which seems to be helping.

To much dark chocolate

I get it with a wiff of coffee but not all the time. Very dark chocolate can boot me in the head like no other but not every time mostly if combined with missing a meal or stressed.

Horrid things

For me red wine coke (the drink) and flashing light or low winter sun . I have been migraine free since concussing my self at Glentress 7 years ago after about 25 years of them they started after getting concussion sledging.

Never worked out my triggers but I now know how to
Stop them

As soon as I feel one starting , double espresso and a couple of ibuprofen
Stops the headache developing

Caffeine brings them on with the missus.

I think i get them from tiredness mostly. I used to get them from cheese, but don’t seem to anymore. Some beers will get me, but I hardly drink. I’ve had one from what I think was hot fresh bread before (something to do with the yeast i think??).

Caffeine (loads of coffee) with aspirin and paracetamol seems to help stop them or at least make them less severe if caught early enough. If it goes ‘full on’; nothing with cure it except climbing into bed with the lights off.

Can of full fat coke and a couple of pain killers can help head mine off. Not sure if it’s that caffeine or sugar hit.

Triggers are usually stress/work/screen/lack of sleep/alcohol related, although I’m thinking too much good chocolate could also trigger, but I’d often have a drink too so not sure.

Cheese, chocolate, citrus: one Smartie from a small child (I didn’t like to refuse) set off a migraine once. Sudden bright lights, such as walking outdoors into tropical sunlight; stress, like the M25 on a Friday night have all done it.

I came to believe that if you’re heading for one, something will set it off.

With the cheese, the hard stuff is the worst, especially when cooked to that stringy consistency, I believe

Some beer hits me almost immediately right behind the eyes.

As above. There are certain beers that I can just tell are gonna hit me after a few mouthfuls. No other food or drink triggers though.

For me, it’s stress, low blood sugar and alcohol, especially beer.
I cut out cheese completely for 5 weeks but that made no difference either when I stopped it or when I restarted eating it.
I’m a bit suspicious of caffeinated tea though not coffee, which doesn’t make sense. We switched to decaff tea.

san miguel beer. In less than twenty mins i was dieing 🙁 I have never experienced such pain in my life! I blooming cried (and i don’t cry)

How the heck do people live with migraines everyday they wake

Whatever it is they do to mint when they put it in Polos, Strong Mints and the likes! On it’s own in natural form it’s fine.
The looks you get when you refuse a bit of chewing gum after asking what flavour it is.

I’ve yet to find any trigger to my migraines, other than getting stressed. I’ve woken in the morning to find the flashing zigzag ‘C’-shape there before I’ve even got my eyes open, with no common food or drink the night before, or during the day.
Mine are aural, so I only get a vile headache, unless I can nuke it with Ibuprofen as soon as I get the blurred patch in my vision, but as to triggers? Nada, other than when things get stressful.

Stress, low blood sugar, not wearing my glasses or low/flashing light are my triggers.
The biggest difference to me has been getting glasses, prior to that I was suffering g up to 3 migraines a week. Almost continuous sometimes for days on end. Now get the odd one here or there.
I find caffeine helps massively, I tried it after reading about it in here last year. Either a double espresso with loads of sugar and some paracetamol & codeine or if I’m at home I’ve got a couple of caffeinated energy gels to use instead of the espresso.
I found ‘brufen or other NSAIDs made things worse.
I think Im lucky that food and drink don’t seem to be triggers for me.

Pretty much everything everyone above says! I think that sometimes it’s a combination of things – maybe hormones or blood sugar are a bit out, then you sniff a beer and then realise that was a huge mistake. Other times the same beer will be fine. I’ve also come to think that denial that it’s happening is part of the aura. So I’ll tell myself it’ll all be ok when I should be necking pills (ibuprofen, paracetamol and sweet tea for me, plus a shower if it’s bad).

About a year ago I realised I was drinking too much coffee (7-8 cups a day) so I cut back to two. Migraines went from about 1 a week to 1 every 6 weeks. I keep a spreadsheet so confident of the figures. (That’s the early signs of a migraine, I know how to stop them developing into a full on migraine.)
I still eat very dark choc and cheese, and drink beer and port.
So I’m sure it’s a combination of things, and not just diet.

Used to suffer completely debilitating migraines until one day I got one after drinking Pepsi max. It was so bad I had to lie on the floor ( at work). Stopped drinking any diet coke or other diet drinks and went from 10 years of migraines to not a single migraine in 15 years…. Don’t know why it took me so long to make the link.

Tiredness here, although as I usually combat tiredness with caffeine that could also be a factor. I’m pretty sure diet isn’t a cause: I keep a diary of attacks and they can come at any time of day and with no obvious food (or drink) trigger.

too much of diet fizzy drinks (particularly lemonade) appeared to be what did for me. diet coke I am now ok with and drink regularly. maybe it was the lemon flavouring. I’ve not had migraines for years now.

I was always partially lucky with migraines. Lots of flashy visual zigzags, followed by being completely knackered for a day, but no head pain. Just the aura and then wiped out tired.

Release of stress was one of mine and is apparently quote common. For example, I had many Bank Holiday Mondays or the starts of longer holidays spoilt. It seemed that constant stress (work related on this case) was fine but switching that off would bring on the migraine.

In my case that’s 60 hours of pain and wooziness with a day of nausea in the middle. It affects my speech too – like my mouth can’t keep up with my brain.

I’ve found exercise to be a good pain relief so will walk up a hill, run or cycle. That suspends it for a while but it’ll return soon after I stop

My Mother suffered from Migraines her whole working life. She was the headteacher of a large school, worked long hours, and it was a stressful job.

She used to say that red wine, cheese and chocolate gave her migraines.

She retired a few years back, and hasn’t had one since, and will now eat chocolate, and drink red wine without a thought.

As has been said above, I think if you’re going to have one, something will trigger it. I strongly believe hers were stress/tiredness related.

Mine are definitely tiredness related.
Luckily I get the early warning watery vision thing, so can get ibuprofen down me in time. Still feel bloody tired afterwards though.

Also when I was younger I had a different level of long sightedness between my eyes, and reading would set one off. As I grew this corrected itself.

Red wine sets the MIL off, but hers include vomiting too so I count myself relatively lucky.

It certainly varies by person. For my wife, who was a late starter and has only had two: stress/fatigue/dehydration has been the obvious link.

I’ve suffered with them for a good 15 years now (god I’m old!).

Stress and tiredness seem to increase the risk of getting them. I’ve cut sugar out of my tea (used to have 2 spoons in each cup) and have only had sugar free fizzy drinks for the last few years and they’ve reduced a lot, in terms of both the amount and severity.

Any orange cheese is also avoided like the plague!

Horrible things to have, and unfortunately, massively misunderstood by anyone who’s never had one.

Dehydration and low blood sugar for me.

I occasionally have migraines but have never determined any cause – food, tiredness or otherwise.

I suspect there’s a lot of confirmation bias going on here – you get a migraine and then look for a cause – coffee, cheese, fatigue, etc. What you forget is all other times you ate that food or where tired and didn’t suffer any ill consequences. I don’t think anyone knows what starts a migraine but I’m rather skeptical about these trigger events.

I havent actually been able to link food really to mine.

I do know for sure now (tried it for the 2nd time last night) that a film in 3d will do it. Apparently known for migraine sufferers.

Mine seem to be related to stress and changing routine.

I take relpax, the only thing to get them so far.. but its expensive and if i dont take it immediately at the 1st sign then its next to useless.

When I was a kid cheese used to trigger them. And strong sunlight – so much so I had prescription sunglasses made up for me as none of the kids ones fitted me well enough.

Thankfully I outgrew them when I reached puberty.