Migraine headaches are common and can be some of the most severe, debilitating headaches you can experience. The hardest part might be that you don’t know what causes them. There are many things that have been known to cause them, but that varies from person to person. For instance, it has been known that first neck pain or discomfort can lead to a migraine headache, it has also been known that many different foods can trigger these headaches. Foods like vasoactive amines such as, chocolate, aged cheese, sour cream, tyramine; food additives like salt, nitrite (in bacon, ham, pork or cured meats), tartrazine, aspartame, benzoate. Alcohol has also been known to trigger migraine headaches, beer and red wines. This is just to name a few. If you are experiencing migraine headaches and don’t know the cause of it, here is what I would suggest you do first.

Start and record a daily food and headache diary. Starting today, pull out a piece of paper or your phone and start recording what you eat and the time that you ate it. Also record the time that you start to feel a migraine headache come on. If something you are eating is triggering the migraine it could take up to 12-24 hours to trigger the migraine. Depending on how often you get these headaches, you may have to do this for severe weeks. If you did a good job recording in your diary, you could find a pattern between a food you ate and when the headache started. If you find the food trigger for your headaches, the best thing is to cut the food out of your diet.

There are some treatments that have been known to also help relieve the migraine headaches. Some of these treatment are: Cervical spinal manipulation or chiropractic adjustments. Some migraine headaches are triggered from the cervical spine (neck) and if treated correctly and early it can prevent the headache from reaching its maximum severity. So it’s best to have this done the moment you start to feel the headache come, or even before that.

Some natural supplements have been known to relieve that migraine headache symptoms, such as:

Magnesium: (adult)600mg/day, (child)9mg/kg body weight/day
Butterbur: (adult)150mg/day, (child)50mg/day
Feverfew: 50-100mg/day
Riboflavin: 25-400mg/day
Coenzyme Q10: 150-300mg/day

If these treatment don’t help you, it is then best to see a professional specialist to help guide you to find relive of the headaches.

Bryants R, Descarreaux M, Duranleau M, Marcoux H, Potter B, Ruegg R, Shaw L, Canadian Federation of Chiropractic Regulation and Educational Accrediting Boards (Federation) Clinical Practice Guidelines Projects, Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2011 Jun;34(5):274-289