Does anyone else NOT have triggers??

Teri,

Thanks for giving us some of the background as to what's happening in our heads. And in English. Really appreciate that - I knew some of it but don't have a full grasp on the whole situation.

And for what it's worth - me and anti-convulsants do not get along. Have tried a couple and the psychological effects were rather nasty. I made it 2 weeks at 500 mg Depakote, the s/e were awful and after a total of 5 weeks on it - doctor gave up, no reduction of the M. That and my familial tremors were getting worse.

One question - what starts the first wave neuronal firing anyway? It seems to me that if that could be stopped the whole chain reaction could be. Maybe just wishful thinking on my part.

Becky

Teri, I understand what you are saying about migraines.

I'm in a world with so many people I know who have constant and severe head pain. I suppose some of it could be actual migraine. But it probably is so much more--certainly nothing doctors can understand. Alas! And here I am on Migrainepage, because in Anna's case it was called "migraine disease" for five years.

Thanks so much for all you do

Cheryl

I was convinced for about 27 yrs that I didn't have any food triggers. I said this in a recent post but I remember feeling like either almost all foods were a trigger or nothing was and they were actually from something other than food because they were so consistently present and like someone else said something seemed ok to eat once but not the next time which I guess would be from a cumulative effect.

Well after about 5 or 6 yrs of very slowly adding foods in from just starting with rice and chicken I am now at a level of 1 -2 migraines per month. I am now seeing that it really was that almost everything I was eating was a trigger. I'm am so surprised at this because it just didn't seem possible. But I have soooo many other food sensitivities that it somewhat goes along with that.

Anyway for me it literally took 27 yrs to figure out my triggers.

I forgot to put this in my other recent post and I thought it was somewhat funny / interesting but the last time I went to my neuro. I told him how much better things were and that I would only get 1 -2 per month (1 being from my period) and how amazing it was. Even though mine almost always last about 3+ days so that is really 3-6+ days per month with a migraine. He said that's great for you and I'm glad you are happy but for lots of my other patients that is what they come in for initially and are devastated by that amount. Just goes to show you how grateful one person can be with the amount of pain that someone else is devastated by.

Take care, Beth

Hi Beth,
See I have been the total opposite. I searched and tested every food I could think of, starting with the obvious chococlate cheese, citrus etc. I didnt have anything from the hit list for months and months. Didnt make any difference.
So I saw a homeopath and a dietician and a naturpath and had food testing....nothing.
No matter what I ate or didnt....even tried not combining certain foods, still they came.

Then we started looking back to the....only come with period thing and 20years later that still seems to be the only clue.
I consulted with the drs and was told that even if I had sensitivities/triggers 20 yeas ago, it is likely especially having gone through menopause that these things have changed....our bodies change every 7 years or so. Or I could have some now that I didnt have 20 yeaers ago. Despite everything though...including my own doubts sometimes, non of us kind locate anything dietary at all.

I am always open minded though and do avoid nitrates and MSG...well they can give anyone a headache right...

Thanks for sharing, glad you found something...what were they??

For 20 years I took a daily pill to "prevent" migraines. It just "reduced" them and had side effects.

Now I have found a weather site that provides accurate historical barometric pressure data and I can see where my logs match up almost 95% with periods where the barometric pressure increased, or increased again, or remained unusually high for a few days.

If you cant figure out any triggers, give it a shot. Record your pain for a while, then look at a weather site (the one I like is the http://www.wunderground.com under history data). From what I've read most people have problems when barometric pressure falls, not me.

(I just had to gloat! Hope that helps someone else too!)

Very interesting point, Pen.
I am sure that some situations/substances have the capability to trigger me a migraine attack BUT I have also noticed that the same triggering situation/substance can be totally harmless during certain periods.

For example:
In springtime, my entire body is weaker and more prone to illness. In this occasion, any minor food/weather/odour trigger can hit at any time. In winter I can have chocolate without necessarly getting a migraine. In springtime, even the odour of cocoa can trigger a bad attack.
After a particularly stressing and busy week at work, I easily get migraine from triggers. If I have a glass of wine I spend the week-end in bed. During "normal" working weeks, my week-ends are less prone to triggers and I can have small quantities of wine while I eat.

So, I agree with Estre004's theory. The body chemistry can change and become a very fertile ground for triggers in certain periods while it can be more tollerant in others.

This theory is well supported by pregnant women. Most of them have less migraines and this is clearly due to chemistry changes that make the body more resistant to triggers.

Have a nice day

estre004 wrote:Where do you live where you are still getting snow?

Not-so-sunny Scotland. It's a really nice day today though, I think we're getting all 4 seasons this week.

Me too. mine come on so slow I'm not always sure when to take meds. No known event ever triggers a migraine for me. Sometimes they begin in my sleep.

The important thing to point out with me finding my triggers is that I took a VERY drastic step of starting out by eating only plain chicken and plain rice (no butter, no seasoning - totally plain) and water. The three things I most believed were ok for me. That means that was absolutely all I ate for about a week before I added in one (and only one) item at a time each week. I actually started with broccoli too but cut that out after a couple of days because it was on my "iffy" list.

It would be interesting to see if anyone else did this to the same extent of beginning with literally one or two foods and building up that slowly and if it helped at all.

I DO NOT condone this approach for others. You are depriving yourself of essential nutrients, vitamins, sodium, etc. This can be dangerous but the alternative for me was "checking out" as I was so desperate that I had no other choice and after 30 yrs. I was just about defeated when the migraines were also combined with a whole batch of other medical problems.

As I said in an earlier post this entire process took several years to complete. It was long, exhausting and hard to stick with but in the end to go from 28 migraine days a month to 3-6 per month it was absolutely worth it.

To answer you question Pen, see my very long post from a few days ago called "Down from 8 per month to 1-2" it gives a partial list of what I avoid and a list of the only foods I eat now.

I also wanted to add in that in the past when I just eliminated what I thought were all the known triggers it didn't make any noticible difference. So eliminating didn't work for me. I had to build up from nothing to where I am now.

And again, I was one who never believed I had food triggers.

BC,
I did it last year. It took me 3 months to test all foods. I found out very interesting things and I wish I could follow a 100% trigger free diet. Unfortunately this is not always possible as social and family life are too affected by a strict diet. It's not polite to ask the list of ingredients of each dish when you're invited by someone....Like it's not possible to select any single food when you travel abroad.

The elimination diet is very good to find out triggers. It's not healthy; last year it gave problems with periods. The lack of some nutrition facts caused imbalance in my hormones. That often happens to me with diets. I need a balanced and well varied diet.

Bye

Riversidekid - I tried that and had the same results as you. I was more affected during nice weather. I also notice that I am prone when I am extra happy. Go figure. What am I suppose to do - pray for crappy weather and try to be miserable?

Riversidekid,

Well you and I seem to have the same problem. My only known trigger is the weather, however I'm susceptible to low pressure. Every time a low is about to come through and while it's coming through and sometimes a while after it's passed, I'm miserable. I love high pressure - had a streak of it in early March that lasted 10 glorious days. Felt almost normal, very low grade M (I have them every day but the lower the grade the better).

On the plus side you have found reducers/preventatives that have helped - so far I've completely struck out. And reducer/preventative was the topic of another discussion, if a med reduces frequency or intensity it is considered a success...there aren't any that will guarantee you'll never have another one.

Teri - thanks for clarifying that internal factors like hormones are triggers. I guess I did know that but since you can't do anything about it, didn't count that while trying to figure out other triggers. That seems to be my only one other than when I am extra happy. I'm a happy person to begin with but if I'm having an extra good day, it triggers a migraine. It is very frustrating. It would be so much simpler if it was chocolate or perfume.

I'll admit I didn't read all 3 pages of posts - no offense everyone, but finally getting tired at 3am. Still wanted to respond to the original post though, then I can read more tomorrow...

I still don't know exactly what triggers mine, but my state definitely feels very sensitive (before aura or migraine) to sunlight, sugar, and too much exertion too quickly. It's not always consistent though, if that's what you mean? If I went all day working in the sun, eating cookies, and lifting heavy boxes between commercials of a TV show I'm watching, I still wouldn't be confident that it would cause a migraine (though it might be a strange combination). That would include all my most sensitive triggers, but they're not always a trigger.

That's what continues to lead me to believe it's adrenaline/serotonin related. So many possible 'triggers' are related to adrenaline levels, but I start to see a more consistent pattern when I review how I was feeling in combination of those triggers. The problem is that doesn't really help if I don't know whether to counter my energy levels, keep them even, keep it the same extreme, or the best prevention is different every time based on other factors. Still so much we don't know...

The very nature of migraine means that we all have triggers.

The fact that we are ignorant of what they actually are, or refuse to acknowledge them even though we recognise them well (such a weather, hormones and many others, for example), does not mean that you do not have any triggers.

This can be just another aspect of denial since it is more easy to sound like a "victim" or "an interesting, unique case".

Many people here, with years of experince of migraine will tell you, that as the time goes we all realise, that we all have many more triggers then we realise.

Many events which happened during the last 48 hours can be a migraine trigger, so the fact that they start during the night means nothing.
IT can be something aso simple, as dehydration for example ( which is one of the most powerful triggers BTW).

However, if you are determined not to believe the obvious, or dismiss all science around the issues of triggers, no one here will convince you.
Asking the same questions time after time, is pointless, you will not get any new answers.
Senna

Senna wrote:
Asking the same questions time after time, is pointless, you will not get any new answers.
Senna

Although, your response is a new answer to his question I think you will always find new answers from another person's perspective, but he might get a similar answer from the same person!

In my case, I would probably change it now and then for fun if he didn't stop.

Chairish - First of all I totally disagree with the person's response about asking the same questions over and over. The more it is asked, the more you are likely to find answers. You mentioned adrenaline/serotonin levels and FINALLY that is something that pertains to me. I tend to get migraines when I am happy and excited which sucks.

That is the best explanation I have heard yet for those of us that do not appear to have triggers. I can eat anything, go without sleep, sleep too much, etc. etc. and not get a migraine but I tend to get them when I get excited about something happy. I always blamed it on hormones when I got them only during my period but continue to get them after menopause. I assume that is why they prescribe antidepressants to level you off. I have declined them so far because I want the highs and I've heard they level off. Maybe I will start my own post on anti-depressants.

I find that serotonin levels are a big trigger for me and one that is difficult to pin down. I tend to get IBS attacks with or the day after a migraine attack and since low levels of serotonin can cause IBS attacks as well as migraine, there is a definite corelation. One of the meds I take is to keep my serotonin levels up and since I have few migraines and IBS attacks when taking it, well it speaks for itself.

I just wish my body would produce enough serotinin to completely eliminate the darn things.

Asking the same question again is not denial, victimhood, or trying to be a unique case. It is an attempt to get ANWERS to a condition that is hard to pin down. You never know who can come up with a point of view that gives you a clue as to why we suffer and what can possibly done to help. It is an attempt for understanding, not ignoring the obvious, especially if your triggers are NOT obvious. Lighten up.

Alli - What do you take for your serotonin levels?

estre004 wrote:Alli - What do you take for your serotonin levels?

Yes Alli, I am interested too. Linda and I often have the same things going on.
I am sorry if two of us asked the same question, but it makes it all the more worthwhile dont you think.
Apart from 5HT and the anti depressants, I didnt know there was anything

I take Effexor XR. It works on Serotonin and Norepinephedrine. It works much better for me that straight SSRI's as I tend to have adverse allergic reactions to them. My IBS attacks have gone waaaaaaay down and migraines by about half. They don't last as long and the intensity is less in most of them, but I still get stretches of one after the other and the occasional really nasty one.

It's an anti-depressant but it is one that I have had very few problems with other than the weight gain.

Alli