Migraine Triggers

While the causes of migraine headaches aren’t yet known, it’s becoming clearer what triggers them. Migraine triggers are the external stimuli that set your migraine into motion. They can be as innocuous as a flashing light or as obvious as a stressful situation. Learning what triggers your migraines not only helps you avoid them it also gives your pain management doctor insight into the type of migraine you’re suffering from. Dr. Amr Hosny is an expert headache specialist with the training and experience to ease your headache pain and teach you how to manage your symptoms. There’s an office near you with eight Advanced Headache Center offices in Manhattan and across Bergen County, NJ. Call today for a consultation.

How Do Migraines Affect Your Life?

A migraine is a neurological disease accompanied by painful symptoms that can incapacitate you, destroying your quality of life. This type of headache usually affects one side of your head and causes severe, throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation. These debilitating headaches can last hours or even days.

Migraine headaches are among the most common diseases in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that this neurological condition is also among the ten most disabling diseases. Because of their debilitating effects, including severe pain, migraines require medical attention. Early diagnosis helps you manage the illness by identifying migraine triggers, so you’re able to avoid them.

If you suffer painful headaches that affect your life, visit Dr. Amr Hosny at the Advanced Headache Center for a diagnosis. The state-of-the-art facility has eight convenient locations in NYC and northern New Jersey. Your migraine specialist offers advanced migraine treatment after a thorough diagnosis.

What Triggers a Migraine?

Migraine causes aren’t clear, but doctors have identified various migraine triggers. The trigger precipitates a chain of processes in your brain that ends in pain around your head, as well as other migraine symptoms. Understanding these causes of migraine attacks enables you to successfully manage your migraines while Dr. Hosny treats you for the pain. The most common migraine triggers include:

• Nerve triggers in the brain
• Stress
• Sleeping disruptions or sleeping disorders
• Hormonal changes in women
• Consumption of caffeine or alcohol
• Weather changes
• Sound and light sensitivity
• Hunger and dehydration
• Computer and phone screens
• Food-related triggers, such as chocolate, cured meats, dairy products, artificial sweeteners, and caffeine
• Certain strong smells
• Overuseof medications

If you’ve suffered excruciating headaches after one of the situations above, you’ve likely suffered a migraine attack. Dr. Hosny and his team at the Advanced Headache Center use the latest technology to reach an accurate diagnosis. They use a multimodal approach to deliver effective migraines, other primary headaches, and secondary headaches.

How Does a Migraine Attack Develop?

Migraine triggers happen external to your brain, but the attack itself happens inside the brain. Environmental factors, such as stress or rapid light changes, trigger a faulty signal to the brain. The faulty signal results in pain inside the brain at different trigger points. There are different forms of migraines, depending on where you feel the pain, such as:

• Forehead migraine. A forehead migraine occurs because of the irritation of supratrochlear or supraorbital nerves. The pain starts above your eyes and on both sides of the forehead.
• Neck migraine. If you feel a sharp pain at the back of your neck, which affects one or both sides of your neck, you have a neck migraine. The pain results from blood vessels, muscle, or fascia irritating the occipital nerves.
• Temporal migraine. This type of migraine happens because blood vessels, muscles, or fascia irritate the zygomaticotemporal or auriculotemporal nerves.
• Nose migraine. A nose migraine causes pain from behind the eye and on one or both sides of your nose. You can also experience cold symptoms, such as a runny nose or congestion.

If you’ve experienced any of these types of pain around your head or neck, consult a pain management or headache specialist. Dr. Hosny is board-certified and Harvard-trained as an interventional spine specialist. He uses the latest medical technology to diagnose and treat your migraines while teaching you how to avoid future recurrences.

Can a Migraine Trigger Be Treated?

Migraine headaches affect people differently in terms of severity and associated symptoms. Dr. Hosny only starts treatment after an accurate diagnosis by verifying the anatomical migraine trigger site. If necessary, he carries out tests to confirm the diagnosis. Once your diagnosis is confirmed, your headache specialist identifies your trigger points before recommending the most effective treatment. Your migraine treatments may include:

• Migraine medications delivered in rational polypharmacy approach
• Physical therapy
• Acupuncture sessions
• Chiropractic care
• Intravenous infusions
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
• Trigger point injections
• Occipital nerve blocks
• Stellate ganglion blocks
• Sphenopalatine ganglion blocks

You must learn what triggers your migraines. If you don’t know, Dr. Hosny may ask you to keep a headache journal, which can help you find your migraine triggers. Once identified, you can avoid them in the future to stop further migraine attacks. If you suffer incapacitating headaches, get your life back by getting a professional diagnosis. Contact Dr. Hosny today for a consultation.

Dr. Hosny is an Ivy League Trained, UCNS-accredited, board-certified headache specialist who offers the latest preventive and abortive treatments to provide safe and effective head pain relief. As an active member of prominent organizations and professional societies that advance headache science, education, and management, such as the National Headache Foundation, Dr. Hosny specializes in diagnosing and treating a wide range of head pain disorders, including tension headaches, migraines, and cluster headaches, to name a few.

Dr. Hosny's reputation for enhancing headache care quality through the use of the most effective and technologically advanced treatment options for persistent primary and secondary chronic headaches has been acknowledged by Castle Connolly and Healthgrades, where he has received over 200 positive reviews. Dr. Hosny is also recognized as a distinguished New York City physician and headache specialist by New York Magazine.

More about Dr. Hosny