5 Headache Triggers and How to Avoid Them

Headaches are no fun. They can be triggered by a wide variety of different things. And sometimes, they can be debilitatingly painful. They can interfere with your work, your relationships, and even your personal life. And sometimes, they can even render you unable to enjoy even the most simple pleasures of day-to-day existence. Well, if you ever experienced headaches, you’re not alone. They’re surprisingly common. In fact, migraines (an especially severe type of headache) are one of the most common illnesses experienced worldwide. 

Veriheal explains it like this:

“Migraines are considered to be the third most common illness globally, and in the U.S. alone, 1 in 4 households includes at least one individual that suffers from migraines.”

So in this post, we’re going to talk about five of the top headache triggers and how to avoid them. Hopefully, this list might give you some insight into how you can help to prevent headaches in your life. Let’s jump into it.

Stress

Yes, stress can absolutely cause headaches in a wide variety of different ways. Stress can tend to tense up your muscles, and this can lead to tension headaches that move up the backside of your neck and into the back of your head. It can also cause tension at the front of your face, which can give you headaches on the front side of your head. 

For best results, try to take some time to de-stress and decompress at the end of the day. Consider getting a massage once a week, or taking a nice hot bath at the end of the day.

Alcohol Consumption

It might be a lot of fun to drink alcohol in the short term. But here’s the problem. Alcohol also tends to dehydrate you—and this can lead to some pretty massive headaches. If you’ve ever woken up with a serious hangover the day after drinking really hard, then you know exactly what we’re talking about. 

The best way to avoid this is to make sure that you stay hydrated if you plan to drink. Also, make sure not to drink too much. One or two drinks usually aren’t a problem. It’s when you drink excessively that you’ll be at the risk of dehydrating your body and developing a pretty massive hangover headache in the process.

Food Allergies

There are a surprising number of food allergies out there that can affect different parts of your body. And not surprisingly, headaches are a really common food allergy symptom. There are many different types of foods that can lead to allergy headaches. Some of these include peanuts, red meat, gluten, and even some types of fruit. 

One of the best ways to figure out if a particular food may be causing your headaches is to perform a simple elimination diet. Eliminate different types of foods from your diet for a period of several weeks to see if those changes make any difference. If you rule out a specific type of food and you end up experiencing zero headaches during that time period, then you’ve likely found your culprit. 

Hormones

Sometimes, hormone fluctuations can trigger headaches. This is especially common in women in and around the period of time when they experience their normal menstrual cycle. Changes in estrogen levels can have a pretty profound effect on the entire body—and sometimes, this can lead to headaches. 

So if you’re a woman and you tend to experience headaches around the time of your normal menstrual cycle, well this isn’t that uncommon. 

A Lack Of Sleep

Sleep is vitally important for every part of the body. However, it’s especially important for the brain. If you don’t get enough sleep, you can definitely put yourself at risk for a wide range of dangers that could eventually lead to stress headaches, fatigue headaches, migraines… the list goes on and on. 

For best results, make sure that you get plenty of sleep every single night. The typical human really needs six to eight hours of sleep to function normally. Any less than that and you’ll be at serious risk of being sleep deprived.

Conclusion

There you have it. 

Five top headache triggers and how to avoid them. 

Hopefully, this post has helped you to understand how to avoid some of these common headache causal factors. 

Take care of yourself out there, and stay safe. 

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