Unfortunately, migraine cannot be cured. There can eventually be a solution which arrives in the decades to come, but at this point in time there is no treatment yet. The treatment of migraine currently therefore consists of the prevention of attacks. This way, migraine can have less of an influence on your psychological and physical wellbeing. Migraine prevention thus is an important key in the treatment.
Migraine prevention is something you can also do by yourself. It is useful to, together with doctors, learn more about how migraine expresses itself in your personally. But in migraine prevention you do not always need a doctor. There also are different things which you can do yourself.
Personal migraine prevention: the first step?
Before you consider migraine prevention, it of course is useful to have a diagnosis. You can namely sometimes get a migraine because you suffer from a certain illness. In that case, your migraine will not reduce before you treat the illness. Migraine thus is an indirect symptom of the illness. Migraine prevention cannot happen here by purely focusing on the migraine.
Once you have your diagnosis, you can prevent migraine by learning more about migraine. Knowledge is power. You can, for example, ask your doctor about more information about migraine, or look up information on scientific websites. While the causes of migraine are not yet fully agreed upon, you might be able to find some tips here anyway.
Personal migraine prevention: the migraine diary?
It also is useful to keep some sort of diary. Migraine prevention can namely lie in knowing the causes. This way, you can work to remove the causes and thereby prevent migraine. Triggering factors are different for everyone. That is why it is useful to keep a diary. After a while you can namely recognize structures and you can then make a list of your personal triggering factors. In your diary, it is best to take up the following factors:
- Wat you have eaten that day
- What you have done that day
- The hour at which the migraine attack started
- What type of pain you experience during the migraine attack
- How long the migraine attack lasts
- What medication you use
- Which risk factors were applicable during that day
If you do this for one month or several months, this can be your weapon in migraine prevention. If your migraine is triggered by certain types of food, you can recognize this pattern by considering what you have eaten when you got the migraine. In that case it is useful to make up some sort of dietary list with things which are best if you avoid. If your migraine was present every month when your menstruation started, this is something you can anticipate. In the future you can, for example, try to plan as little as possible on those days so that you can relax instead of doing things with friends. For example, some people get migraine by playing sports too much. This means you can prevent your migraine by not having workouts exceeding one hour, if this is your problem.
Being in charge of the risk factors here therefore is power. Migraine prevention lies in knowing your personal risk factors and taking good care of yourself. If you work on migraine prevention this way, you will notice that both your psychological and your physical health will improve. However, this will take time.