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Migraine headaches are characterized by throbbing, pulsing pain combined with sensitivity to light, sound, and motion. Three in ten people get migraines with women more susceptible than men. The condition can last from hours to days. Sufferers frequently must remain in a dark, quiet space until the headache has passed. Symptoms of migraines are throbbing, pulsing pain on one or both sides of the head, nausea and vomiting, and light, sound, motion, and smell sensitivity.
Pain messages are carried to the brain via the nervous system. This system is electrical, or it could be called the body’s wiring. Johns Hopkins medical experts tell us that abnormalities in the brain’s wiring can be responsible for migraine headaches. At the base of the electrical disturbances is inherited abnormalities in the cells. What sets off the electrical disturbances are the triggers of migraine headaches such as extreme light, sound, motion, or odors, such as the following:
1. Food odors
The electrical disturbances pass over parts of the brain responsible for different things such as the senses. That’s why some migraine sufferers hallucinate during a migraine. The sense of smell is a very strong trigger in the brain, reminding us of beloved persons associated with a certain smell or happy memories triggered by another smell. The limbic part of the brain governs the sense of smell, so the electrical disturbance magnifies it. During a migraine, the disturbance is more pronounced over the limbic system than when the patient has no migraine. Food odors that trigger migraines include:
Avoidance of these odors and preventing their presence added to OTC or prescription pain medications is generally the advised treatment.
2. Cleaning products odors
Cleaning products contain volatile organic compounds or VOCs that have their own nasty smell. Compound that with the citrus they use to mask the odors, and you have a migraine in the making. Using natural ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, and peroxide in well ventilated areas will help patients avoid a migraine.
3. Cigarette smoke
Spanish researchers have found through studies that the excitability of the cells in migraine-prone brains react to cigarette smoke. Their study found that those who smoke less than five cigarettes per day had fewer migraines than those who put no limit on their number of cigarettes smoked per day. Those who didn’t smoke but were exposed to cigarette smoke had fewer migraines as well.
4. Alcohol odor
Various countries like Scandinavia, Italy, France, Japan, and others have done studies to find why alcohol sets off migraines. The result is that a component in the drink is the culprit rather than an odor. Most think red wine is the enemy, but others have found offending components in beer and mixed drinks as well. However, red wine and the quality thereof have been found to stimulate migraines more than any other alcoholic drink including white wine. Harvard Medicine thinks that low quality red wines contain phenolic flavonoid radicals. These prevent serotonin from properly interacting with the electrical impulses in the brain, thus triggering a migraine.
5. Perfumes
If it weren’t for the nose and its proximity to the brain, we’d not escape a burning building. The snag to that capability is the area of the brain processing odors is also the area of the brain processing headaches and migraines. An additional snag is that commercially prepared perfumes contain over 4,000 chemical and petroleum components that could trigger a migraine.
