If we know our triggers and avoid them why do we still have migraines.

I dont seem to have any triggers and am envious of those that can at least identify them (or some of them).
How well I would do at avoiding them if I knew them, I cant say, but I would try my best.

I know many of us do know at least some of their triggers, but still seem to suffer.
Is this because avoiding them is so hard, or is it, do we think because there are yet more triggers.

P

I think it's because we don't know the whole story of this complicated, miserable disease.

Chris

Yes, it probably is Chris.

But I wonder what difference there is in actual suffering between those of us that know our triggers and manage to avoid them most of the time, and those that, like myself, have no idea, and therefore cannot avoid them...

Triggers are a plot devised by evil docs to make our lives even more miserable …

No, jokes aside. I think migraine sufferers are so sensitive to any kind of stimulus that the smallest thing can set of a migraine. Some of the triggers are very obvious and easy to identify, but very often I haven’t got a clue what might have set off yet another migraine.

I think it is important to avoid obvious trigger (like alcohol), but please don’t go mad agonizing over 50 different possible triggers and trying to avoid them. It will just add stress to your life and stress is the last thing a migraine sufferer needs.

Love

P.

Wise words Petzi.

As I say apart from hormones, I havent a clue.
Not a clue.....

But the migraines come and there is no rhyme or reason...

P

What complicates matters is that certain "triggers" are not always triggers. For example, alcohol. I can drink most of the time (not a lot, but a couple of drinks). If I wake up with a migraine, is it really the alcohol? I have a co-worker that gets migraines and drinks. She goes sometimes a month without a migraine. All I know is that it isn't worth thinking about. Live and deal with whatever happens when it happens. Less stressful.

If you get right down to it, my trigger is sleep, period. Never have had a migraine develop in the day time. I wake up with them. I can't stay awake all the time.

I think there are certain things that can trigger migraines but it varies across people. If you're hormone driven, probably not even a factor.

I can't say I know of any, except one. They changed the light bulbs at work to the energy efficient flourescents and those dratted things have triggered them on more than one occasion. So now I sit at work looking like a dork with a baseball cap on to avoid the darn things.

Hate those lights and refuse them in my office. I have old fashion lamps lighting up only what I need to see and indirect sunlight. I am lucky I can have this.

Whereas I cant actually claim them as a trigger, given its not a given....lights are bad for me. We have these energy bulbs, not tubes. They have an almost imperceivable flicker. I am so glad they have started to bring back regular light bulbs....My head is more important than the environment con.

Our supermarkets always seem to have some of their light tubes flickering.
That can get me. Grocery shopping is bad enough without that adding to it, not to mention the horrible too loud store radio...

What old grouch I am becoming...

Because in my case, some triggers cannot be controlled.
Strong wind, sudden raise in temperatures, strong and sudden emotional stresses are not under my control.

I don't know if there's a similar expression in English: in Italian we say "living under a glass bell". It means living isolated from any minor disturbance, change, variation, stress.
Well, I should live under a glass bell where the weather is always the same, the temperature steady and not too warm, where there are no emotions, no bright lights, no noises..........

I dont think we have that expression Anto. But we do say "wrap yourself in cotton wool". Meaning to protect yourself from bad/nasty things.

Not quite the same ,maybe someone else can parallel the glass bell?

Yes Pen, it's exactly what I mean.
I like the English expression better, I'll add it to my vocabulary.
Wow, I've learned something new to show up to our big bosses (I work for a British company....)
Thank you

Ha!! You are so welcome my friend.
Perhaps we can share some other colloquialisms...
Let's aim to impress.....

Bump

Because the triggers are not causing them. They might aggravate them though.

Ha Linda, I knew that would draw you in....

It is crazy. Risa has done a huge list on another forum of triggers. It must have taken her ages, and as I said to her. "Everything" is a trigger.

I dont buy it either. Not saying people dont have sensitivities, but the Migraine Action say that the migraine is coming anyway and it makes us think it was the cheese or whatever because we had some.
ie it is an effect rather than a cause...

People fix some triggers, and then they seem to get more....Except you and me of course...

There are way too many "triggers" to call them triggers. They are everyday stuff that we all have or eat or whatever so of course they are going to be present when we have a migraine. I agree that there may be things we are more sensitive to though that may aggravate them but not cause them.

Just sitting here thinking about the whole trigger concept. Maybe it's just where I'm at today (at home for a second day with a respiratory infection) but just how would food cause a migraine? If you are eating food as it was intended (not processed) then what's in it that would cause it? And just how would a glass of milk (for example) cause one? There's no foreign chemicals in it.

Other environmental factors, I can see them being a problem - the way the brain perceives them can aggravate at least. Thinking of epilepsy and strobe lights, or us and certain fluorescent lights. And physical triggers - I carry a lot of tension in my shoulders and if I am more than normal stressors, my shoulders can get tighter and then I can get a M - not guaranteed though.

There isn't a "trigger" out there that causes a migraine for me every time. Some say you have to have several "triggers" going to cause the migraine. And even then, it doesn't guarantee a migraine. I think the work put into trying to figure these triggers out is causing the migraine. I just go about my life.

HI Becky, sorry you are still ailing

My take is that, if food is a trigger it is because of the gut brain connection. ie: Food can cause me to have an IBS upset, (doesnt always), and it does seem to be able to effect my FMS, sap energy (but only sometimes).

I truly do believe that these so called triggers are not exactly triggers, they are sensitivities we incur from migraines.

Our metabolisms seem to become sensitive.
I am sensitive to smells and drugs, and noise.
Many say weather changes. But, there is no real reason any of these things should trigger migraine. After all, they cannot tell us what ACTUALLY causes migraines, so how can they know these things are triggers...?

They may however trigger bodily reactions because of our sensitivities. If you check how many miggies have IBS or FMS or something akin. It is too many to be a sheer coincidence.

I think this is why (like symptom substitution in psychology) we sort out one trigger and another one appears....There is an underlying problem. They are not triggers, they are sensitivities that break out where they can and more often than not they are things we like to eat, do etc.

Im done for now. I shall think on...

Pen,

I can see how someone with IBS would have food issues. If you are sensitive to something, you eat it, you get an attack and a symptom of IBS is M...that makes sense.

But think about someone like me. No known co-morbids...I don't see myself having food "triggers". I do have a dairy "allergy" but I don't eat lots of it and I don't get a M from eating it when I do.

I know Becky, I am not saying this is an absolute, and not everyone has other issues. But there are not many people with "just" migraines. With a lot of women there are hormonal issues and they can upset the gut too.

What I am trying to say, probably not very clearly is, triggers are not triggers, they are sensitivities within the body and allow something in the, probably HPA axis to break down in some way.

I havent worked it out yet, and perhaps I wont, and even then I am not saying I am right.

Even your dairy thing could have come from the migraine set up.

I dont know, but I just dont see how we can have all these diverse triggers giving us something that no one can tell us the actual cause of. It is madness to me.
Something just doesnt add up, but I am not clever enough to suss it out.

For now I just know I have none of these so called triggers except the hormones that started them.
The only thing I have are "exacerbaters".
Things like flashing lights which can worsen my head.
But nothing I eat. No mater how much water I drink.
How long I sleep, what the weather is....
Nothing makes any difference. They come when they want to. I am powerless to stop them....

No problem. Just don't feel like re-writing at this moment. The whole trigger thing gets me going though. Maybe some people do have them but I for one and I'm sure a lot of others DO NOT. I get sick of reading about them (not on this site) but in articles, etc. especially ones written by doctors. There is something going on in my body (probably the hormones) causing these migraines but they certainly aren't triggered by anything I did or did not do or can do. They will come regardless. I think this is true for a lot of us if not all. Otherwise we would not be getting them. We would eliminate these "trigger" and that would be that.

As we are deliberating triggers.

Perhaps this might "trigger" a reaction.

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PS: Linda our little exchange about your posts didnt disappear, just tidied up the thread..

Articles like that re a trigger.