The causes and onset of headaches involve many different factors. It is generally believed that migraines are related to genetic, endocrine, and psychological factors. Sensory stimuli such as sound and light can often aggravate headaches, so patients often prefer to lie quietly in a dark room.
Recent research has found that poor dietary habits and eating patterns are also triggers for migraines. Certain foods, such as cheese, smoked fish, alcohol, and chocolate, can easily cause headaches.
This is due to a decrease in monoamine oxidase activity in the patient's platelets. The amino acids in the aforementioned diets cannot be broken down, promoting prostaglandin synthesis, which leads to intense dilation of extracranial blood vessels and an inflammatory response, causing headaches.
The goal of nutritional dietary therapy is to prevent and alleviate the onset of headaches. Dietary factors that have been confirmed to trigger headache attacks should be avoided. Research has confirmed that consuming certain foods rich in tyrosine, alcohol, and high-fat foods can easily induce migraines. Migraine patients should avoid alcohol and overeating fatty foods such as chocolate, coffee, pineapple, beef, and cola. Additionally, insufficient magnesium intake in the diet can lead to magnesium deficiency in the body, causing nerve cell dysfunction and also triggering migraines. Therefore, migraine patients should pay attention to consuming more magnesium-rich foods in their daily diet, such as brown sugar, legumes, honey, sea cucumbers, and flounder.
Salt is also a headache-inducing factor. Long-term excessive salt intake can make cerebral blood vessels highly sensitive to certain foods, triggering migraines. According to the World Health Organization's recommendation, daily salt intake should be less than 6 grams per person. However, Chinese eating habits differ greatly from those of Westerners. Most Chinese cooking requires salt, so the salt intake of Chinese people far exceeds this standard. Therefore, migraine patients should pay special attention to controlling their salt intake, especially by eating less preserved or overly salty foods to avoid triggering symptoms.
In traditional Chinese medicine food therapy, ginger and brown sugar water, and Chinese cabbage root soup are often used to treat headaches caused by wind-cold. Apricot kernel and chrysanthemum tea, and cocklebur and honeysuckle tea are used for headaches caused by wind-heat. Longan and red date soup, and tremella (black fungus) soup are used for blood-deficiency headaches. Goji berry and chicken soup is used for headaches due to kidney deficiency. Walnut kernels, rice vinegar, and peanut porridge are used to treat headaches accompanied by palpitations and insomnia.