8 foods that can trigger migraines – and what you can do about it

When you have a migraine, your day stops. If you are prone to these debilitating episodes of head pain, you may have to stop what you’re doing and lie down in a dark room.

Migraine is a neurological disease that has a number of symptoms, including moderate to severe, throbbing head pain that can stick around for anywhere from four hours to several days. While migraines can occur partly due to genetic factors, attacks may happen seemingly at random, set off by a trigger in the environment.

“Everyone’s brain works slightly differently, but we know in general triggers can cause a hyperexcitability to the cortex of the brain,” says Dr Danielle Wilhour, assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

In other words, environmental triggers can affect your grey matter – the part of your brain responsible for sensory and motor function, vision, taste, hearing and memory. As a result, a variety of factors – including what you eat – can increase the risk that you’ll have a migraine.

Although everyone’s food triggers are different, some foods are more likely to cause trouble than others.

Read on for the top headache foods and ways to reduce the triggers.

Although alcohol in general is a common trigger for people with chronic migraines, red wine is notorious for giving people a headache. There are a variety of compounds in alcohol that may provoke an attack, including tyramine, histamine and sulphites. That said, rather than these chemicals, it’s likely the alcohol itself triggers a migraine, according to the American Migraine Foundation (AMF). That’s because alcohol leads to vasodilation – the widening of blood vessels – and that can cause headaches.

And don’t forget that too much alcohol can lead to a hangover the next day. Research suggests people with chronic migraines are more likely to experience these hangovers –even when they drink less alcohol than people who don’t suffer from migraines.

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The caffeine in coffee can alleviate migraine pain – it’s added to some over-the-counter migraine medications for that reason. But drink too much coffee, or drink it at the wrong time of day, and you might trigger an attack, Dr Wilhour says.

Caffeine withdrawal (say, if you skip your regular cup) is a frequent trigger, according to a 2020 research review published in the journal Nutrients. Try to be consistent with caffeine, consuming the same type of coffee in the same amount at the same time each day. (Notice a pattern? Consistency is key.)

Chocolate is another source of caffeine, and it also may cause the release of neurotransmitters involved in migraine. Chocoholics will be happy to know that while some studies show a relationship between the sweet and head pain, there isn’t enough evidence to implicate chocolate as a food you must avoid, according to a separate review also published in Nutrients. One good way to find out if chocolate is a trigger for you is by keep a food journal (more on that later) and paying attention to whether you get a migraine after eating it.

Certain aged cheeses, including blue cheese, brie, cheddar and feta, contain an amino acid called tyramine that may bring on a migraine in some people, according to the US National Headache Foundation. While processed meat, like hot dogs and sausages, can contain nitrates, compounds that act as vasodilators by widening blood vessels to spark the migraine pathway, Dr Wilhour says. They are also inflammatory foods, another reason they may pose a risk, she says.

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You may love cheese, but dairy can be pro-inflammatory. “I don’t tell everyone to go dairy-free, but if you have issues with inflammation, you might want to eliminate dairy to see if it’s helpful,” says Dr Merle Diamond.

And if you reach for an energy drink when you need a pick-me-up, read the label before you imbibe. Does it contain niacin? The B vitamin is a vasodilator, making it a migraine trigger in some people, Dr Diamond says.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the artificial sweetener aspartame are two food additives known to be potential triggers for migraines. This may be because of their inflammatory nature, Dr Wilhour says.

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You probably won’t have an issue with all of the possible triggers above. And there’s no need to eliminate all of them from your diet when you’re diagnosed with migraines, Dr Diamond says. Instead, use a headache diary to record the food you eat and the migraines symptoms you get. Doing this will help you spot patterns and learn the foods that present a personal problem.

Notice if you tend to get a migraine on days you’ve visited your favourite café. It may mean caffeine is a trigger. Have no problems after eating aged cheese? Go ahead and snack on that baked brie.

You can keep a headache diary in a journal or with an app. Dr. Wilhour likes the migraine- and headache-tracking app Migraine Buddy.

If you’re suspicious that certain foods are triggers, eliminate one food at a time, says Dr Wilhour. Avoid the food for four weeks and see if you notice a difference. Having fewer migraines? Continue to avoid that food if it’s not too difficult to do so. Notice no difference? Reintroduce that food and move on to another.

Keep in mind that you may not be dealing with a single trigger. Instead, several triggers may be working together.

“I know that if I go to a playing field on a hot day and eat a hot dog and drink a beer, that would be a headache day for me,” Dr Diamond says.

Unfortunately, there is no single ‘migraine diet’, or list of foods you can eat that will treat or reduce a headache. There isn’t much research on the benefit of dietary restrictions and migraine triggers, Dr Wilhour says. One review of 43 studies, published in the journal Headache in 2020, looked at a variety of diets (such as keto and low-fat) in relation to migraine attacks. It found that most of the diets lowered the frequency of headaches.

But the researchers wrote that the research on a whole was not high quality and there wasn’t enough strong evidence to suggest any of the eating patterns were effective.

“What I find more important is eating regular meals, maintaining good hydration, and consuming caffeine in moderation,” Dr Diamond says.

It’s natural to want to find the one thing that triggers your headaches, but she notes migraines are more complicated than that.

Finally, if you have chronic migraine, which is a migraine more than half of the days in the month, you should talk to your doctor about going on a preventative medication to control migraines.

“One goal is to be around some of your triggers so that you can tolerate them without inciting a migraine,” Dr Wilhour says. For instance, maybe you can have a glass of red wine with your friends one night a month. Being able to enjoy yourself (on occasion and definitely in moderation) is one of the main goals of treatment.

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Source: RD.com