I wish to draw the attention of the migraine sufferers that simple preventive measures adopted during the month of Ramadan can stop or reduce the chances of having an attack of migraine.
A migraine is usually a moderate or severe headache felt as a throbbing pain on one side of the head. Many people also have symptoms such as feeling sick, being sick and increased sensitivity to light or sound. Migraine is a common health condition, affecting around 1 in every 5 women and around 1 in every 15 men.
During Ramadan people must be aware of the fact that if they get a severe attack of migraine, there may be the likelihood of vomiting, which would ‘break’ the fast.
It is observed that headache-prone people tend to have odd attacks of headaches which common pain killer tablets, taken after ‘iftari’, would give them total aid.
The motive of this article is to provide information and guidelines to boost more and more people to fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
It has been established worldwide that attacks of migraine get triggered by diets which have a high tyramine content or are high in their fat content. During Ramazan, there is quite a change in the dietary pattern and there is more and more indulgence in such diets. In the local cultural context, it is common for people to take excessive quantities of milk products (milk, yoghurt, cheese etc) and high fatty diets (‘parathas’, ‘pakoras’, fat-rich curries, high-fat ‘pulao’ rice etc).
Excessive intake of tea is also known to precipitate migraine attacks. So, for the migraine-prone people it can be advised that they should continue to have as ‘normal and average’ a diet as possible and avoid undue indulgence in all the above precipitants. This rule, of course, is not absolute; smaller deviations from the normal can be handled by most migraine-prone people.
There is a common misconception among migraine sufferers that a drop in the blood glucose level during fasting may precipitate an attack. This is totally incorrect. It has been proven experimentally among migraine-prone individuals, that lowering of their blood sugar level does not precipitate migraine headaches. So migraine sufferers should not worry on this count.
Another factor which can be easily avoided and does not affect Ramazan fasting is that the migraine sufferers should avoid having excessive sleep. It is understandable that the sleep routine would change during Ramazan, but this, per se, does not affect the chances of getting migraine.