Almost everyone in the world has experienced a headache. People get them for a lot of reasons: illness or a head injury are common causes (1). But for people with headache disorders and migraines, headaches are a chronic illness that interferes with day-to-day life.
There are quite a few types of headache disorders, but one of the most common is a migraine. But what is a migraine? Migraines are episodic headaches that present with other symptoms like nausea or sensitivity to light or sound. They can also present with or without an aura. Migraines also usually come in phases: the premonitory phase, the headache phase, and the postdrome phase (2).
But what causes migraines? We don’t exactly know the exact cause, but many migraine sufferers, myself included, tend to notice common patterns to their headaches, which are called triggers. For example, cigarette smoke is one of my worst migraine triggers, and if I can’t get away from the smoke fast, I know I’m due for a head full of pain. Migraine triggers are varied and include smells, different types of food, hormonal shifts, and even changes in barometric pressure (2).
Headache disorders like migraines can present huge problems to patients. In fact, migraines are a common cause of disability; the condition affects 15% of women and 6% of men each year (2). These disorders are also undertreated, which increases the burden on those living with these conditions (3).
I have plenty of personal experience with migraines; I’ve suffered from them since I was a kid. When a thunderstorm is coming in, a headache comes with it. Like many of my fellow migraine sufferers, I have learned to live with my attacks: I’m rarely without emergency pain medication, and I’ve worked to identify and avoid triggers as much as possible. Since it’s National Headache and Migraine Awareness month, I thought I’d share some of those tips with everyone.
- Identify Triggers: It’s good to look for patterns when it comes to migraines. While there is a risk of inflating correlation with causation, if you notice you get a migraine every time you eat a certain food, it might be worthwhile to cut it out of your diet and see if the frequency of migraines continues.
- Keep a log: Some sufferers recommend keeping a “headache journal” where one tracks their headaches, what happened before it, the level of pain of the attack, how long it lasted, and what helped make the pain better. You can do this with an old-fashioned pen and paper journal but there are also plenty of apps you can download that do the same thing.
- Be prepared: You can’t control your headaches, but you can better prepare for them. Keep any medication you might need in an attack on you if possible. Have a plan to get home if they are debilitating enough to interfere with driving.
- Talk to your doctor: Your doctor might be able to help you identify the cause of your headaches, and if not, prescribe preventive medication that might reduce the frequency of your attacks. They can also talk about potential lifestyle changes that might help.
Works Cited:
- Goadsby PJ. Migraine and Other Primary Headache Disorders. In: Loscalzo J, Fauci A, Kasper D, Hauser S, Longo D, Jameson J. eds. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 21e. McGraw-Hill Education; 2022. Accessed June 10, 2025. https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3095§ionid=265448265
- Goadsby PJ. Headache. In: Loscalzo J, Fauci A, Kasper D, Hauser S, Longo D, Jameson J. eds. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 21e. McGraw-Hill Education; 2022. Accessed June 10, 2025. https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3095§ionid=262789353
- Raffaelli B, Rubio-Beltrán E, Cho SJ, et al. Health equity, care access and quality in headache - part 2. J Headache Pain. 2023;24(1):167. Published 2023 Dec 13. doi:10.1186/s10194-023-01699-7
