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I don't care what the naysayers say about MSG ... the stuff gives me both migraines and nausea. And it bothers me that some people feel they can say I'm wrong about that. That's what I've traced it to, so deal, peeps!

[LPC steps down from the soapbox]

I agree with LPC here. MSG always makes me feel like there is a vice grip on my head.

I've had chronic migraines for most of my life, ever since I was a small kid, but I've never been able to positively link any specific foods as causes.

Do you get a warning sign before you have one?

I get an eye spasm, lose part of my vision, things becomes hazy and foggy... and that normally moves from one side to the other. When that starts, I know I'm about 30 minutes away from the pain setting in. I immediately take several Excedrin, and lay down in a dark, quiet room. That's the only thing that helps me.

Excedrin -- Dark -- Quiet.

@FFC ~ I also get a visual disturbance pre-migraine. Mine is different than yours. It starts out as a very small spec of flashing light and grows to a moving, flashing pattern that changes constantly, but consists of V shaped images. I can barely see through it - and it's like watching a TV screen. It gradually grows until it fills my vision and then starts to go away. If I take an aspirin before it disappears, I can stop the migraine. Weird, I know, but I'm so grateful to get a warning. I have not been able to figure out what triggers it, but the headaches are killers. For other headaches - sinus and stress, caffeine helps. Nothing helps the migraine once it comes and everything like light, noise, hair on my head makes it worse.

I've got a family history for migraines, but lucky me, I only get the lovely combo of cluster/tension headaches. Cluster, aka "suicide headaches" sometimes I prayed for a migraine instead of a cluster.

Lots of foods trigger them, and nothing will make them go away once I have one, when I was in college, which is when they really were coming to the surface, I had a headache for 32 days straight, which is when I decided it was time to see a neurologist.

Pretty much anything edible can trigger mine. Caffeine, Alcohol, processed/smoked meats, yellow cheese, anything with a food dye basically, MSG, other preservatives/additives, artificial sweeteners...the list goes on and on...

On the non-edible list... the top offender is perfume. You want to get kicked in the throat, accost me in a mall with a perfume sample.

Since alcohol can trigger my headaches, I find that's the best time to have some red wine, when I already have a headache, it usually doesn't make it worse, but hell I might get a buzz out of it and get some rest. :P

I've been suffering from migraines since I was 12-13, and like FFC, I haven't been able to link it to any foods. But I've noticed that very often my migraines are stress-induced rather than triggered by anything I eat. I also have warning signs - I see numerous little lightening flashes and feel as if my head is sort of liquefies, like I am able to feel every molecule it consists of.

Usually, I just want to die:-), but settle for Excedrin, an ice-cold towel on my forehead (this is when I realise that it's good to be married - there's somebody to change that cold towel for you!) and a dark room. It also makes me extremely nauseous, so I need to have something carby on hand, even though I cannot really eat. My OH knows to get me a fresh plain bagel or a bit of mashed potatoes or something like that, and I take a teeny-tiny bite at a time. They don't cure the migraine, naturally, but do help with the nausea.

"our" not "out".

I hate when I see a typo right as my finger releases from the damn post button.

@ PerkyMac and izatryt - Just thought I'd mention that I get visual disturbances too but no headaches. They're of the rainbow-zig zag-flashing type, not just blurred vision. I had one the other night, so my roommate made me a cup of warm milk with a pinch of cinnamon. Slowly sipping on that in a dark room helped immensely. It's good to know others have had the same experience, though, and I'll keep in mind the hot caffeine recommendation.

I've been getting them since I was maybe 4 years old -- could be younger, but pretty much all my life. I went through a period of about a year when I had them almost constantly. Not the severe ones all the time, but basically I was always on that edge and sometimes they got worse. There would be two or three clear days a month, and then they'd be back. Then I got rid of a major stress inducer in my life and it was a year before I got another one.

Now, I get them rarely, and if they come on during the day, I can usually head them off. Best thing I found was a heat on the back of my neck, up near where the spine goes into the skull. That, and a few advil or motrin. About an hour of that, and I'm usually good.

The bad ones are when I wake up with a full blown headache (and I know it's really bad when I have a headache in a dream). It I can choke down some painkillers and go back to sleep, sometimes they subside. Bit if it's reached the critical point, it just upsets my stomach and I'm dealing with that on top of the headache.

I've found that if my steep pattern varies too much, it's a problem, particularly if I get a lot more sleep one night than I got the previous night. So if I don't get a lot of sleep one night, I'm better off easing back into a regular schedule rather than trying to catch up.

I don't drink red wine becasue a lot of them will bring on headaches. Some are okay, but it's not worth the risk. Oddly, I can drink port. Other than that, food doesn't seem to be related.

Once I have a migraine, I'm not so interested in food, so I don't know of any food cures. When I was a kid, most of the migraines would progress to the nausea stage, but now I usally catch them coming on, and they don't get too far.

Does anyone notice that the day after a migraine, you feel particularly "clear" if that makes any sense? I don't know exactly how to describe it other than that.

The virual weirdness is just a brightness. Everything becomes painfully bright. After that, my eyes are closed, so there could be flying pigs and I wouldn't know.

Migraine sufferer here since I was 16. Bro gets them too - including the aura.

When I first started getting them, a huge trigger was a large burst of light (like what would happen if a shade suddenly, spontaneously went up). Bright sun into head = Migraine. Remember those books where you had to look at a picture and another picture would assemble itself within that picture? Migraine inducer. Remember Tetris? Instant migraine.

As a teenager, the only way for me to combat a migraine was to induce vomiting and go to sleep in a dark room - the likes of which you could develop film. Medicine has come a long way since then.

I used to use something called Esgic which breaks down to acetaminophen + caffeine. In its early incarnations, it took a while to work but at least a migraine didn't kill my whole day. Then they came up with Imitrex and in its early incarnations, it was very strong stuff administered through nose spray. Never tried that - I stuck to Esgic.

These days, I take non-prescription Exedrin Migraine which seems to work quickly and effectively for me. I take it at the VERY FIRST SIGN of the aura - usually I'm trying to read something and can't see all the letters. This early dosing plus about 15 minutes of relative calmness, will take care of just about any migraine, nipping it in the bud.

Thankfully, I haven't had a true migraine in years, but I did have both the headaches with the aura & eyesight symptoms and eyesight symptoms alone for a long time.
I didn't see many responses to the trigger foods question. For me it was nuts, chocolate, cheese. Caffeine withdrawal can bring it on, and caffeine is an ingredient in many migraine medications. My doctor recommended advil (I'm allergic to aspirin, but that works too) with a cup of coffee if I feel one coming on.
I do get headaches from wine (especially too much, but sometimes just one glass!) but not migraine headaches, with the sensitivity to light, nausea, aura & blurry vision.

argh, *shakes fist at still not having an edit button*

I should have been clearer when I said I weaned myself off of the medication, it was a doctor approved/supervised weaning, one should never wean themselves off of medication willy-nilly.

A related thread you might be interesting in- http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2008/10/red-wine-headache-sulfites-histamines-or.html
Many of the sufferers complain of wine as a migraine trigger.

I've had them for decades, they always start w/ blind spots followed by a swirling prism -like aura and numbness in my fingers. I'm lucky I don't get them very often but when I do they knock me out of commission. I've never really been able to figure out the cause. I even gave up coffee for 4 sad years - it didn't make a noticable difference in the frequency of my migaines though. The one pattern I think I've figured out is dehydration, especially first thing in the morning. So now I make sure I have a glass of water before my morning coffee and I at the suggestion of my doctor I take B vitamins.