Summertime is right here (allegedly!), and with it comes ice cream, journeys to the seaside and, sadly for many people, migraine assaults.
Let’s check out a few of the frequent triggers and suggestions fitted to this time of 12 months.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows!
Sturdy, vivid sunshine may be tough for folks dwelling with migraine, significantly anybody who experiences gentle sensitivity. Round 80% of individuals report gentle sensitivity throughout an assault, and plenty of others really feel that gentle triggers their assaults (although it might be the case that gentle sensitivity is extra noticeable to folks within the run-up to an assault).
When you wrestle with gentle sensitivity in the course of the summer season months, you may profit from looking for out shaded areas, carrying good high quality sun shades and investing in an acceptable solar hat to guard your eyes from the solar.
Migraine glasses?
There are numerous forms of glasses marketed to assist with migraine and defend your eyes from sure forms of gentle. In the mean time, there’s not sufficient high-quality scientific proof for us to know whether or not these glasses assist folks with migraine or not, so we can’t advocate them routinely. Nevertheless, like many different approaches to migraine care, some folks report discovering migraine glasses useful whereas others don’t report any profit.
Allergy symptoms & histamine
Summertime additionally usually brings a rise in seasonal allergic reactions, for individuals who expertise them. Greater pollen counts can wreak havoc for anybody who experiences hay fever. Whereas allergic reactions don’t trigger migraine assaults, a few of the signs, significantly sinus ache and congestion, can happen in each migraine and allergic reactions. Actually, folks usually mistake the facial and head ache skilled in migraine as a sinus an infection. It might be the case that worsening of allergy signs within the spring and summer season months could have a knock-on impact on migraine signs, making them extra noticeable.
Jetting off
As a lot as we’d stay up for a summer season vacation, many individuals wrestle with the potential triggers they encounter when travelling, significantly with lengthy journeys. Take a look at our weblog on migraine and journey for extra tips about managing throughout any upcoming journeys.
You can too try our upcoming Instagram Stay at 12 midday on 19th June 2024 the place we’ll be speaking all issues migraine and journey and answering your questions! Comply with us @migrainetrust for extra particulars.
College’s out for summer season!
In case you are a mum or dad with migraine, it’s possible you’ll really feel apprehensive in regards to the upcoming summer season season, and the college holidays. Navigating life with migraine is tough, and the added challenges of parenting with migraine can really feel overwhelming.
Youngsters being off faculty can imply a disruption to your traditional routines, which is usually a migraine set off for a lot of. To not point out the problem of dealing with childcare whereas experiencing a migraine assault.
Helpline Advisor Oscar suggests,
“attempting to take care of the features of your routine that you simply’re capable of in the course of the faculty holidays, similar to sleep and mealtimes, may be useful. Contemplate making up an emergency migraine package together with your acute therapies and the rest that may carry reduction ought to an assault begin when out and about. Constructing in time for self-care the place you’ll be able to can be vital, as is reaching out for help once you want it. Our helpline is accessible weekdays 10 am to 4pm on 0808 802 0066, or you’ll be able to contact us on-line.”
Climate modifications
A number of folks report climate modifications as a migraine set off and, in the summertime, this will show significantly difficult with the temperamental nature of UK climate!
Temperature modifications (significantly elevated temperatures) can result in gentle dehydration and even issue sleeping throughout heat nights. This may in flip set off an assault in some folks.
Equally, modifications to barometric stress (modifications to the air stress within the ambiance) are sometimes felt by folks with migraine. It’s understood that decreases in barometric stress, as usually happen earlier than a storm for instance, triggers a strategy of dilation and constriction of blood vessels, and so triggering a migraine assault. Analysis signifies that the sympathetic nervous system of sufferers with migraine is extra delicate to barometric modifications.
Managing triggers in the course of the summer season
In fact, we sadly can’t management the climate however there are particular issues we will do in the course of the summer season months to organize:
- Keeping track of the forecast: this may occasionally assist with planning forward, significantly for outside actions.
- Having acute migraine therapies obtainable when wanted: When you discover weather-related triggers or signs, carrying acute treatment with you’ll be able to allow you to deal with an oncoming assault earlier than signs progress.
- Staying hydrated: ensuring to maintain effectively hydrated and compensate for fluid misplaced on hotter days is vital. Carrying a water bottle with you is usually a useful reminder when out and about.
- There are numerous forms of pressure-filtering earplugs which declare to assist migraine assaults triggered by modifications in barometric stress: As with migraine glasses, we don’t have sufficient scientific proof as but to know if these work, and so can’t advocate them however some individuals who have tried them have reported advantages.
- Keep cool: the place potential, follow extra shaded, cooler areas if warmth specifically is a set off for you. Avoiding the window of time when the solar is strongest (often between 11am and 3pm within the UK) may be useful.
- If robust smells are a set off, you can contemplate choosing fragrance-free suncreams.
Take a look at our weblog on migraine and climate for extra on methods to handle weather-related migraine triggers.
Being conscious of, and recording, triggers is usually a useful manner to assist plan forward in the course of the summer season months. Not all triggers may be prevented, however minimising publicity to those you’ll be able to keep away from will cut back the probability of a migraine assault, significantly if mixtures of triggers usually result in an assault. You should utilize our headache diary template to assist with preserving a word of triggers.
Placing collectively a migraine emergency package, together with your therapies and the rest that may carry reduction ought to an assault begin when out and about, may be useful.
If you want extra info on managing migraine triggers in the summertime, or want help, our helpline is right here for you.