The key to managing migraine headaches is to learn to identify the triggers that cause your migraines and learn how to avoid them. You can also learn how to increase the level or trigger intensity that is required to cause your migraines. Most of us lead very busy day to day lives and it's sometime difficult to remember exactly what triggered a migraine, exactly how many migraines we had last month, and how severe they were.
The five keys to a headache diary that you can use to help manage your head aches:
(1) Make sure you record every headache - not just the severe ones.
(2) Record how severe each headache was- learn to categorize the severity but don't get too fancy, maybe just a scale of 1-3. A one = mild; a 2 = moderate and a 3 =severe.
(3) Record how long the headache lasted, in hours, and approximately when the headache began. Was it as soon as you woke up, later in the day, was there a trigger that you can identify.
(4) What did you do to deal with the headache? Was it so severe that you had to stay home, were you able to use relaxation techniques to mange or did it require medication?
(5) What trigger points can you identify? Did you have a particularly stressful day? Did you not sleep well? Were you forced to skip a meal? There may be more than one trigger that you can identify.
A headache diary can be very helpful in identifying your particular trigger patterns. Some of the more common that you may recognize are week-end headaches, headaches that occur at particularly stressful times or headaches that occur when you first wake up each morning.
In summary, the key to preventing migraines is to pay attention to your lifestyle, learn to identify your trigger points, and learn to use techniques that help you to relax both your mind and your body. Once you learn identify the patterns that cause you problems you can take action to deal with whatever the underlying is
