Weather: Your worst migraine trigger

As part of our “in a word series” we recently asked the Migraine.com community to let us know: “In a word, what is your worst migraine trigger: ________"

As Migraine.com’s expert Dr Whyte mentioned in his article about migraine and weather, while studies on the relationship between migraine and weather have never shown consistency, he also noted that the fact is that, migraine attacks triggered by weather changes have been reported in up to 75% of sufferers (some of the latest study results can be found here: Should the weather forecast include a migraine alert?). The Migraine.com community echos these findings, reporting that weather changes, barometric pressure, heat and rain are their worst triggers.

Worst migraine trigger word cloud

After weather-related triggers, stress was reported as the second worst migraine trigger. While Teri Robert recently discussed the current controversy surrounding stress being recognized or not as a migraine trigger, it is clear based on your answer that stress is perceived to be a common migraine trigger for you. Stay tuned for more from Teri on stress and migraines!

Most of you will not be surprised to see bright lights, sensitivity to smells, sleep, certain types of food such as MSG, chocolate and aged cheeses as some other worst migraine triggers for our community members.

Regardless of if the weather, barometric pressure, stress, food, wine is your worst migraine trigger, it is important for migraine sufferers to keep track of their attacks in a migraine journal and share the information with their migraine specialist. The Migraine Girl recently discussed her personal experience with keeping a journal here: Using a migraine diary can be a real wake-up call.

You can find more information on migraine triggers in the Migraine triggers special report, and we will continue to bring you more articles on specific migraine triggers, and how to cope and manage them.

Thanks again for being part of the Migraine.com community, and for allowing us to learn from your experiences!