Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Track Migraine Triggers

I had been testing the My Migraine TriggersTM app for almost a week before I went to NY for its official unveiling. The makers of Excedrin® Migraine developed this app along with one of the top Migraine neurologists (one who I’ve written a little snidbit about in the past) which is available for free on iTunes.

While I was showing some people the app, the comment was made about how big of a trigger sleep must be for me since that took up a large piece of the pie chart the app offers. The picture of my pie chart as it appeared on that day is pictured above.

I will admit that the items in the chart can be big triggers and exasperating factors for my Migraines. It was a busy week with a Migraine every day. During this trial time, I still had a few cold nights without power because of the hurricane, we had a snowstorm before the power was even restored and this was still a very stressful time.

Those triggers are easy to identify and track. For me, it’s harder to identify the not so obvious triggers such as some foods.  Did you know that food triggers can trigger a Migraine up to 48 hours after you consume the food?

The My Migraine TriggersTM app has the flexibility to add in the foods I eat so I can track them on days I don’t even have a Migraine to see if they may be a delayed trigger. It’s easy to add foods or anything I might want to track.

I can add the foods I eat and track other possible triggers by putting in a new entry every day and answering the question 'Did you have a headache?' with the answer 'No, I did not'.  I can track the foods I ate that day, barometric pressure changes, temperature changes and really anything I want because of the app’s flexibility.

By entering a comment to this post or my previous post, you will be entered into a drawing to receive one of two Excedrin® Migraine Relief Kits. Winners will be selected at random when you enter any family friendly and non-commercial comment to my blog post. This kit contains the following items that can help manage some common Migraine triggers or exasperating factors:
• Sleep mask
• Noise cancelling ear buds
• Branded stress ball
• Herbal compress
• Branded water bottle

The Excedrin® Migraine Relief Kit giveaway winners will be announced in my post the first week of December when I review the My Migraine TriggersTM Mobile App.

What’s your Migraine relief story? Everyone is different and we all find our own way of trying to deal with our Migraines. Share your story and knowledge of how you treat your Migraines and you could win $5,000. All of the prizes, details and official rules can be found on the Excedrin® Facebook page.


Did you know that less than one-quarter (22%) of women surveyed find their current tracking method effective in managing Migraines?

Besides foods, weather, stress and sleep patterns like me, what other things would you want to track to help you or someone you know try to manage their Migraines?



Disclosure: I am an Excedrin® Migraine brand ambassador. One iPod Touch to test the app was provided by Novartis Consumer Health, Inc., the makers of Excedrin® Migraine; my journey for a migraine-free experience is my own.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I currently don't track my migraines and find that I often ignore my symptoms. This app may be a convenient way of tracking my migraines because I generally have my ipod with me.

MigrainePuppet said...

Hi Pam - I have found it convenient to have this app on my iPod for the same reason. I also like the flexibility it offers. I hope you are able to use the app to help you track your Migraines and find additional triggers that can help you manage them better. Good luck!

snubs said...

I have a few friends that get migraines and some do track them for triggers while one them does not, I did send the link to her so hopefully she will check it out. I do suffer from allergies, so smells can set my nose off, perhaps that can be a trigger to track.

MigrainePuppet said...

Hi snubs - I hope the link to the app will help your friend track her Migraines. It is great when we can identify and avoid some of our Migraines triggers. I think it's very clever of you to think about using the app to track your triggers for other things!