A certain percentage of migraine headaches are caused by dietary, environmental, or chemical factors.
When a migraine headache is caused by one of these factors it is called a migraine trigger.
There are many triggers that can bring on a migraine attack, but a couple of the more common ones are dehydration and alcohol.
When a person fasts, or goes without food or water, it can lead to decreased blood sugar levels, also known as hypoglycemia.
In addition to lowered levels of sugar it can also cause dehydration.
Low blood sugar or dehydration are two known triggers of migraines.
For this reason, a migraine headache sufferer should avoid fasting for extended periods of time.
Research has suggested that about half of all migraine sufferers will experience an attack after fasting for 16 hours.
However, some migraineurs will experience headaches after going just three or four hours without food and water.
In these cases it is best for a migraine sufferer to eat more small meals each day instead of eating larger meals less often.
This can reduce the chance of dehydration and help prevent migraine attacks.
Alcohol is another trigger and will cause migraine attacks even if consumed in small amounts by some people.
Research has suggested that it may not be the alcohol itself, but a chemical contained in many beers and red wines that is the culprit.
The chemical is called tyramine and it appears to be more of a problem in cheaper wines than expensive ones.
Aged expensive wines appear to be less of a trigger than cheaper wines.
Also, white wines do not appear to be as trigger happy as red wines.
It is often difficult to pinpoint alcohol as a trigger because it may not always cause a headache.
A person may not always develop a migraine when drinking the same type and amount of alcohol.
For example, an individual may drink alcohol while on vacation with no negative consequences, but then drink the same amount and type of alcohol after a stressful day at work and be rewarded with a migraine attack.
Sometimes alcohol alone will not cause an attack, but will require a secondary trigger to produce the pain.
This can make it extremely difficult to determine whether or not alcohol is a trigger.
The most efficient way to find triggers is to keep a detailed migraine headache diary.
However, sometimes it may take many months to pinpoint a trigger.
With the complex nature of triggers it becomes very important to maintain a proper diary.
Keeping all vital and pertinent information in a diary is the only way to discover hard-to-find triggers.