Diets and Other Factors That Affect The Frequency And Level of Headaches

Headaches can bother you all day long and diet plays a bigger role than you might think.

A severe headache, like the one that is characteristic of migraine, can lead to problems in the workplace. From stabbing pain to dizziness or tenderness to light pain, soothing your headache asap is invaluable. Some headaches - which are not caused by other diseases such as tumors or brain damage - are common and are diagnosed based on certain criteria.

Types of these pains are migraines, tension headaches or cluster-type pain. Migraine is persistent pain, usually affecting one side of the head, and may be accompanied by nausea or changes in vision. Cluster-type pains are severe and continue for weeks, marked by pain occurring on one side of the time. Tension headaches are among the most common and often come due to stress.

The chance of getting migraines increases after the first menstrual cycle, during the menstrual period, in the postpartum period, and during the perimenopausal period. Throughout pregnancy, the frequency of headaches decreases in the second and third trimesters. Also, headaches are generally lower after menopause. Children and adolescents, too, have high levels of headaches. In children, headaches can affect their social life, as well as their attention at school and their ability to engage in extracurricular activities.

A global study has estimated that are headaches from tension and migraines makeup 37.5% of the types of headaches among children and adolescents. As in adults, headaches are more common in other girls.

Some of the most known diet-related factors that cause headaches are:

• Dehydration: Nerve cells depend on fluid intake to function, and a lack of fluid in the muscles, nerves and blood vessels in the brain can cause pain. Furthermore, dehydration can cause the brain to shrink or retract from the skull, causing headaches from dehydration.
• Chronic lifestyle-induced conditions: Obesity and hypertension are risk factors for migraines.
• Drinking coffee, but also stopping drinking coffee is known to cause headaches. A 2020 study showed that stopping having coffee was the main cause of migraine for 23% of people. 
• Food supplements: Sulphites and artificial sweeteners are examples of ingredients that can cause headaches. Also, tyramine, found in seasoned cheese, smoked fish, cooked meat, liver, and some types of beer, can cause headaches. Pain can be exacerbated when tyramine comes in contact with certain medicines containing monoamine oxidase, found in antidepressants.