FOODS THAT TRIGGER MIGRAINES
What you eat — and when you eat it — can trigger head pain. Certain foods can
help heal chronic conditions like migraines, while others aggravate them. There’s
no cure for migraines, the debilitating type of pain that’s sometimes accompanied
by nausea, dizziness, and sensitivity to light and sound. But by avoiding some of
your triggers, it might be possible to cut back on the frequency of the attacks.
One such trigger is food — and not just what you eat but also when you eat it.
There is no such thing as a universal migraine trigger. But there are some
common triggers that can cause or contribute to migraines in some people. Your
direct trigger — or class of foods — may be difficult to pinpoint, but here are
some usual suspects.
CHOCOLATE
Chocolate is a personal love of almost everyone but its a double-edged sword. It
contains both tyramine and phenylethylamine, which are big biogenic amines and
can mess with our brains. Chocolate also contains other trigger ingredients like
milk, soy, and wheat products. Make sure to read labels and aim for pure
chocolate.
CAFFEINE
Caffeine is a classic troublemaker. It should come as no surprise that because of
caffeine’s addictive properties, we can develop a dependence on its mentally,
emotionally, and physically. Caffeine can cause our body to rebound with
vasodilation and create a cycle of headaches to go along with it.
SPICY FOODS
Chili peppers are probably more likely than any other kind of spicy food to trigger
migraines. It’s likely that they react to certain pain receptors.
AGED CHEESES
Aged cheeses contain a substance called tyramine. It forms when a food’s aging
causes the breakdown of proteins. The longer the cheese has aged, the higher the
tyramine content will be. Tyramine is linked to migraines.
CITRUS FRUITS
Along with other high-acid foods, these are also sometimes thought to cause
gastric irritation and trigger migraines.
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