Foods and food ingredients that are migraine triggers
Migraine headaches bring crushing pain to many people. For some what they eat may play a role. If your migrains are triggered by certain foods, it’s possible that avoiding those may help you avoid headache.
Foods and food ingredients that are sometimes associated with migraines include:
1. Alcohol, especially red wine and beer. The phytochemicals called phenols, which are found in red wine, may be a migraine trigger. Beer and other alcohol drinks depletes the “happy hormone” called serotonin which may trigger headache.
2. Aged Cheese. It contains the amino acid tyramine, which depletes the level of serotonin and affects the dilation of blood vessels, triggering migraine headaches.
3. Caffeine, especially cutting back. Caffeine is said to be beneficial and harmful to migraine sufferers. Some over-the-counter pain relievers contain caffeine to make them 40% effective in treating headaches. Caffeine also results to quicker absorption of headache medications, providing faster relief. However, in some patients it can cause withdrawal or rebound headaches.
4. Chocolate contains both caffeine and tyramine, which are headache triggers.
