Puget Sound Neurology

It’s no secret we live in stressful times. There is never enough time to accomplish everything we want to do, world news is frightening, technology is becoming more complicated, and we are finding it harder to communicate with one another even though we constantly are digitally connected. For a young person in college, these situations can lead to a physical reaction and many times a migraine. Here is a headache disorder guide for college students.

For many women who don’t pay attention to the calendar for predicting when their menstrual cycle will start, they get an obvious reminder. Two days before their period they are hit with a throbbing migraine. This is the relationship between migraines and hormones. We will explain.

Have you ever turned to a family member or co-worker to remark, “you are in a real brain fog today.” It means they are not concentrating on what they are doing, they’re losing focus, or not paying attention to what needs to be done. Now, what if that person is you? You may not realize what is happening, but others are. Let’s dive into what you should know about migraines and brain fog.

If you suffer with migraines or other headache disorders you typically already know that light can affect your condition. It’s almost impossible to avoid light unless you stay in bed with the covers over your head every single day. That’s not happening, so let’s understand how light triggers affect headache disorders.

Many people have scents that remind them of good times, and there are others who want to puke at certain smells. Osmophobia is defined as a heightened sensitivity or aversion to smells. This may be how odors can trigger a migraine. Since it is a common symptom with migraine sufferers, let’s look deeper.

We know what you’re thinking—being forced to think about migraine headaches all the time would be your least favorite pastime. Looked at another way, the quote, “What gets measured gets managed,” can be applied to our healthcare. If you want to manage your migraine attacks, you should look at the benefits of tracking your migraines.

If you have headaches everyday, you may be wondering, should I be worried? Absolutely. You may be suffering from chronic daily headaches if they happen 15 days or more in a month, and we repeat, it is not normal. What should you do next?

Most of us know what a headache feels like. We usually will pop some Tylenol to reduce the symptoms and go about our day. A migraine is different, and if you’ve had one, you know what we mean. It can be downright debilitating and cause you to miss work or fun activities, but why do we get them? Can weather trigger migraines?

According to the Migraine Research Foundation, 25% of US households include a person who regularly gets migraines. A good majority of those individuals are women. In fact, migraines are three times more common in women than men, and migraines affect over 30% of women over a lifetime.

If you get frequent migraines, you will more than likely experience symptoms at work from time-to-time. Fortunately, there are ways to help, including our 5 ways to manage a migraine at work.