Learn about Headache Triggers

Dr. Jacqueline Eghrari-Sabet: Hi, I am Dr. Jacqueline Eghrari-Sabet, and today we are in my office talking all about headaches. Now let's look at some of the infamous triggers for a headache. Many of you know that certain foods will cause headaches. Those are usually foods like nitrate that can be found in bacon and cold cuts, chocolate unfortunately can cause headache for some, fermented foods like cheese and wine. Nobody really knows why these cause headaches, but if you find that these things trigger your headaches, best thing to do is just stay away from them. Sort of a famous one is a hangover. Alcohol causes all sorts of headaches.

The reason for this, especially with a hangover is the dehydration that will lead to headache. Hormones can certainly cause headaches, things like birth control pills, pregnancy, different times of month for women; they can all be triggers for headaches. This usually occurs because there is a relatively fast decrease in the estrogen levels. Both estrogen and progesterone can cause headaches so you need to monitor what your particular trigger is and just be aware. One of my favorite ones is the brain freeze. This occurs when something cold hits the roof of your mouth. Your tongue actually will send a signal to the brain that tells that, open the flood gates and get in here and warm up the mouth by dilating the blood flow into that area. That fast rush of blood actually hurts your head. So all you need to do is put down that ice-cream cone and pick up something warm.

I've told you about the types of headaches, I've told you about the treatment for headaches, and we've talked about the triggers for headaches, but what I must tell you is when you need to seek immediate attention. If you have the worst headache of your life, we actually call it as thunderclap headache; you need to seek help immediately. Certainly if you have what is known as focal neurological deficit, where you can't move one part of your body, you have slurred speech, you have blurred vision, please go seek help immediately. But otherwise, I hope this video has helped and you haven't had a headache watching it. I hope it's only helped you with your headaches, and that you can figure out, what type of headache you have, what you can do to decrease your symptoms and some simple treatments for your headaches. Until next time, be well.


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