A Neurologist Explains Everything You Need to Know About Migraines—and How to Avoid Them

Then there’s the weather. Some migraine sufferers are especially sensitive to changes in barometric pressure—such as the drop that occurs right before a thunderstorm or when you’re ascending in a plane.

Warmer temperatures may be another trigger: A 2009 Harvard study found that every 9-degree increase in temperature led to a 7.5 percent increase of severe headaches, including migraine. (With global warming on the rise, some experts think that could mean more pain for some women.)

Your day-to-day habits can play a role too. Skimping on sleep or an irregular sleep schedule (waking up and dozing off at different times most days) can prompt a migraine. So can stress; though plummet - ing cortisol levels after a tense period are sometimes even more likely to trigger an attack than tension itself—hence the dreaded “weekend migraine.”

No matter what’s setting off your headaches, try to resist any urge to blame yourself, says Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, a headache specialist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “I can’t stress this enough: Migraines are a brain condition with a very strong genetic component.” She says she sees too many female patients who tell her they’re at fault for their pain, because they don’t relax enough or can’t stick to an elimination diet. It’s more complex than that—and as Dr. Wells notes, berating yourself misses the real point, which is that there are many practical approaches that can help ease your discomfort and ward off future attacks.

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By Camille Noe Pagan on February 20, 2019, "A Neurologist Explains Everything You Need to Know About Migraines—and How to Avoid Them", www.health.com