Tyramine and Caffeine
I've done a deep dive into migraine triggers today. Started with research on soy, which led to tyramine. I new nitrates as triggers in aged foods, but didn't know tyramine.
My question is around caffeine. Because it seems like it has a lot of tyramine. But even though other things high in tyramine do seem to be migraine triggers for me, I think caffeine helps? And I haven't noticed it triggering any?
I'm just confused. And as someone fairly addicted to caffeine, dont' really want to give it up.
caffeine can be a trigger for some. But...there are also some who can handle caffeine. There are medications for migraine, that have caffeine in them also. I wanted to share this article as it discusses why caffeine may work: https://migraine.com/migraine-treatment/natural-remedies/caffeine.
Like you, I can drink caffeine with no issues.
I hope this helps you. (Tonya, team member).
Hi
This is a great topic, thank you for starting it. Caffeine (a stimulant) can be both problematic and beneficial for those of us with migraine disease. Let me share my experience with you. I found myself in a medication overuse headache (MOH) cycle a number of years ago from too much coffee, I'm sorry to say. Which totaled about four cups of coffee a day. It seems there is a small subset of us with migraine who are very susceptible to MOH from caffeine. I tapered off coffee too fast, and was very unhappy for a while. Started drinking herbal tea, my head was a bit better and got myself out of MOH. I then read a few things that made me think I could drink a small amount of coffee each day and viola - I can! I'm find with one cup of coffee each morning, which I prefer over herbal tea, without increased head pain. However, if I stray too far from this my head pain will slowly increase. I did find this from Dr. Cowan in CA I found fascinating; https://stanfordhealthcare.org/content/dam/SHC/clinics/headache-clinic/docs/caffeine.pdfWhile this article discusses depression and MAOI's it does list food high in tyramine; https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/expert-answers/maois/faq-20058035.
I sure hope this helps. Living with migraine is so complicated and we are impacted by many things it's difficult to give up foods we love.
Will you let me know what you think? Pain free wishes on the way, Nancy Harris Bonk, Patient Leader/Moderator (team member)
