What Is Migraine
Migraines are often accompanied by other symptoms, like light sensitivity and nausea. They can be triggered or made worse by environmental factors, hormones, and diet.
Migraine is fairly common and around 12 percent of the population gets them. While they can affect anyone of any age, they’re more common in women and after puberty (Pescador Ruschel & De Jesus, 2024).
What Causes Migraine
The cause of migraine is not fully understood. Once seen as a single neurological issue, it is now believed that genetics, environmental factors, systemic conditions, and several modifiable triggers affect blood vessels and nerves, leading to migraines.
Migraines are associated with gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, respiratory and immune conditions, as well as head injuries.
A long list of common triggers has also been identified, including stress, hormonal changes from menstruation, ovulation or pregnancy, irregular sleep, neck pain, and weather shifts.
Diet and nutrition also play a role. Food additives like aspartame and MSG are reported by some to trigger migraines. Skipping meals is another trigger reported by 57 percent of migraine sufferers (Pescador Ruschel & De Jesus, 2024). Blood sugar issues are also strongly linked to migraines (Islam & Nyholt., 2022).
A 2022 review found migraines often occur alongside blood sugar issues such as insulin resistance and diabetes, likely due to shared hormonal and genetic factors. More large-scale studies are needed to fully understand this link (Islam & Nyholt., 2022).
Who Is at Risk
Anyone can develop migraine disorder, but some factors increase a person’s risk. It affects more women than men and is more common in people with a family history of migraine. Smoking also raises your risk.
Research has linked several medical conditions to a higher risk of migraine. Some of these include:
Allergies
Anxiety
Depression
Epilepsy
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Sleep disorders
This is not an exhaustive list. Migraine is complex and researchers are learning more about the underlying factors that drive this condition.
What Are the Symptoms
Migraine headaches usually cause pounding or throbbing pain that’s dull as opposed to sharp. It’s often felt on one side and can cause pain around your eye, but the pain can also shift to the other side or both sides.
Migraine symptoms vary between stages and the symptoms you experience won’t necessarily be the same every time you have one.
Prodrome symptoms
During the prodrome stage, you may feel “off”. You may have trouble concentrating and notice your mood change and have trouble sleeping despite feeling fatigued. Nausea, increased thirst and hunger, and needing to urinate more often are also common.
Aura symptoms
The most recognized sign of the migraine aura stage is vision changes that can come on 10 minutes to an hour before the headache stage and last up to an hour. The vision changes of migraine aura can look like zigzags, flashes or light or sparkles.
Some people experience other symptoms with or without vision changes. These can include tingling or numbness, ringing in the ears, or trouble speaking.
Headache symptoms
During the headache stage, which is sometimes referred to as the headache attack, head pain tends to get more intense, affecting either one or both sides of your head.
You might also notice a sensitivity to lights, sounds, and smells, feel nauseous, or even vomit.
Postdrome symptoms
Fatigue, trouble concentrating, and sensitivity to lights and sounds may continue into this stage. You may feel nauseous and dizzy. Some people also have neck stiffness during this stage.
How Is Migraine Diagnosed
Migraine is diagnosed by a healthcare provider using a physical examination, a neurological examination, and a thorough look at your medical and family history. They will want to know about your symptoms, including where you feel pain, how long your symptoms last, and how severe they are. Taking note of anything that makes your symptoms better or worse can be helpful for diagnosis and for identifying your triggers.
Your doctor may also order tests, such as blood tests, allergy tests, or imaging, such as a CT scan or MRI of your head to rule out causes of your headache.
How Is Migraine Treated with Regenerative Therapies
Migraines are mainly treated using medications for short-term relief that manage your symptoms or help prevent future migraines. These include over-the-counter pain relievers, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, and beta blockers and calcium channel blockers. While these help some people, they don't work for everyone and can have side effects.
Regenerative therapies utilize your body’s healing abilities by going beyond symptom relief by addressing the underlying factors driving your migraines. These are often integrated with healthy lifestyle modifications to enhance your body’s ability to heal.
Food and diet
We already know that many people who get migraines are triggered by certain foods, but diet also plays a big role in migraine prevention because it affects the brain’s energy, inflammation, and overall health. Then there’s also the connection between the gut and brain, since an unhealthy gut is known to increase inflammation and lower your body's ability to handle migraines (Santangelo et al., 2026).
Avoiding common migraine triggers can help you prevent or reduce the number of migraine attacks, but research also shows that certain diets may be especially beneficial for preventing migraines. For instance, diets that are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients, like the Mediterranean Diet, can reduce migraine frequency and intensity, and the impact they have on a person’s daily life by reducing inflammation in the body (Santangelo et al., 2026).
Elimination diets that remove specific foods that can trigger migraines due to immune reactions or sensitivities can reduce migraine frequency and severity. In a 2025 sham-controlled randomized trial, patients with known food sensitivities who followed an elimination diet for 12 weeks experienced fewer migraines and better sleep and were found to have lower inflammation markers than patients in the sham group (Zhao et al., 2025).
Low-carbohydrate and low glycemic index diets help regulate blood sugar levels, lower metabolic stress, and support stable brain function. A 2018 study of 350 migraine patients found a low glycemic index diet to be an effective and reliable way to reduce migraine attacks (Evcili et al., 2018).
Lifestyle modifications
Lifestyle modification is an important part of migraine treatment and has been shown to reduce the severity and frequency of migraines and the symptoms associated with them. This includes eating regular, healthy meals and staying hydrated, getting enough quality sleep and regular exercise, and reducing stress through mindfulness, relaxation, and therapy.
Nutrients
Supplementing certain nutrients can help prevent migraines or treat them, including magnesium, riboflavin, and CoQ10.
Mitochondrial energy dysfunction impacts the ways brain cells make and use energy, and increases oxidative stress, which can make people more likely to have migraine attacks. This is because when your brain doesn’t get enough energy, it can trigger waves of activity (called cortical spreading depression) that make blood vessels unstable. Nutrients like magnesium, CoQ10, and riboflavin have been shown to be effective in helping to increase brain energy and reduce oxidative stress (Fila et al., 2021).
Magnesium has been used for 30 years in the treatment of migraines and other types of headaches. A 2025 review found that magnesium was a safe and effective treatment on its own or as add-on to other migraine treatments for acute and chronic migraine (Dominguez et al., 2025).
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is recognized as an effective integrative approach for treating migraines, as well as other chronic pain conditions, anxiety, and more. It works by teaching you to control your body’s involuntary functions, like breathing, heart rate, and muscle tension based on information a healthcare provider receives from sensors placed on your body.
In a 2010 study using different types of biofeedback on 37 patients, 26 of them experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in migraine frequency that lasted an average of 14.5 months after stopping treatment (Stokes and Lappin, 2010).
A 2025 meta-analysis confirmed that biofeedback effectively reduces migraine frequency and severity, improves quality of life, and decreases migraine-related disability when combined with medication. However, more large, high-quality studies are needed to determine the best type of biofeedback, investigate long-term results, and see if it can help prevent chronic migraines (Paudel & Sah, 2025).
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an integrative treatment that’s often used to treat migraine and other pain conditions. It’s a traditional Chinese medicine practice that uses thin needles inserted into your skin to simulate certain points of your body. It can be used to treat or prevent migraines.
Several well-designed studies and reviews over many years have found that acupuncture can help reduce the number migraine attacks a person gets, and that it works better than no treatment and sometimes better than medications (Yang et al., 2024).
What Are Possible Complications
Migraine can have a major impact on a person's quality of life. It can impact your work productivity and attendance and prevent you from being able to do the things you enjoy.
One of the most serious complications of migraine is a higher risk of stroke, also called a migrainous infarction. People who get migraine headaches are 2.5 times more likely to have an ischemic stroke, which occurs when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in the brain (Ravi et al., 2024).
Status migrainosus is another serious complication which is a debilitating migraine attack that lasts longer than 72 hours and often requires hospitalization.
Migraine with aura is also associated with an increased seizure risk, as well as lead to persistent aura without infarction, which is when migraine aura symptoms last for over a week and present like a stroke, but are not caused by stroke.
Can Migraine Be Prevented
Migraine prevention comes down to identifying and addressing the underlying driving factors. You may be able to prevent a migraine attack by avoiding known drivers and triggers, prioritizing quality sleep and nutrition, and reducing your stress. Regenerative therapies and conventional treatments can also help some people prevent migraine.
Takeaway
Migraine is a complex condition that can have a significant impact on your daily life. Ongoing research continues to reveal more about the underlying factors that contribute to migraines, many of which can be modified. With a tailored treatment plan that targets these specific factors, you can achieve lasting relief and prevention.
