Doctor Reveals Common Migraine Triggers—One Scores 9/10 for Severity

Anyone who has experienced a migraine knows how disabling it can be. Once the pain begins, relief may feel out of reach, leaving many people with little choice but to wait for the attack to subside.

People living with migraines are often told to avoid a long list of potential triggers. Now, Dr Eli Sader has shared his assessment of how likely some of the most commonly cited triggers are to cause an attack. Trained in neurology and interventional pain management, Dr Sader specialises in headaches and migraine disorders. He is a fully licensed physician who also uses social media to educate people about migraine symptoms, triggers and pain-management options.

In a recent video, Dr Sader scored different migraine triggers on a scale from zero to 10. A rating of 10 meant a factor was very likely to trigger a migraine, while zero indicated that it was unlikely to do so.

Weather changes ranked among the more likely triggers. Dr Sader said: “There’s a lot of evidence that low barometric pressure can trigger a migraine.” He gave changes in weather a score of 8 out of 10.

Other high-risk migraine triggers identified by Dr Sader included bright lights, stress, changes to sleep, missed meals and perfumes. Hormonal changes received one of the highest scores, at 9 out of 10.

However, not every commonly blamed factor appeared to carry the same level of risk. Dr Sader rated caffeine and cheese as relatively low-risk migraine triggers.

He also suggested that chocolate may be “overblamed”, giving it a score of just 2 out of 10. “We used to think of it as a trigger; now we think it’s part of the prodrome cravings,” he explained.

The prodrome phase is the early stage of a migraine, occurring before the main pain begins. During this period, activity in the brainstem and hypothalamus can lead to subtle physical and emotional changes.

For some people, these symptoms act as an early warning that a migraine is approaching. The prodrome phase varies between individuals and may start several hours—or even days—before the headache.