Non-drug therapies F or the majority of migraine sufferers, headaches are triggered by outside factors. By identifying these trigger factors and avoiding them, migraine sufferers can reduce the number and severity of the headaches they develop. The best way to identify trigger factors is for patients to keep diaries of their activities, which physicians can then review. Among the activities that patients should document in their diaries are their eating habits. Patients also should document their work patterns.
Migraine sufferers tend to be perfectionists, so they often are very busy people.
Consequently, they don't get adequate rest, they don't get adequate exercise, and they don't eat properly. By leading more regulated lives, migraine sufferers can avert headaches. That means, for example, that migraine sufferers should get up on their days off at the same time they get up on workdays. It also means that migraine sufferers should participate regularly in aerobic exercise. Because of the busy lives they lead, migraine sufferers often look bent over and broken.