Wellness Programs

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Wellness programs, often sponsored by health clinics or hospitals, aim to teach patients healthy living habits.

• Instruction includes topics such as diet, nutrition, and exercise.
• Participants are encouraged to stop smoking and to sleep for approximately 7 to 8 hours each night.
• Programs encourage participants to identify triggers, for example, menstruation, prolonged overexertion, environmental changes, and excessive stimuli -- glare, noise, odors, and lights.
• Participants are encouraged to eliminate, when possible, other triggers: alcohol, fatty foods, and foods containing monosodium glutamate (MSG) and nitrites (hot dogs and other prepared meat).

Wellness programs educate patients as to which medications cause headaches and should be avoided. Some of the medications to be avoided include the following:

• Nitrates, or nitroglycerin, which is used for treating coronary artery disease
• Theophylline derivatives, which is used to treat asthma
• Reserpine, which is used as a treatment for high blood pressure
• Nifedipine, a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure
• Indomethacin, which is prescribed as a pain medication
• Cimetadine, which is used to relieve acid indigestion
• Birth control pills (oral contraceptives)
• Drugs used in hormone replacement therapy

For situations in which hormone replacement therapy or oral contraceptives are thought to cause migraines, medications should be discontinued for 4 to 6 months, especially if supplementation with B vitamins (in particular, vitamins B2 and B6) does not prevent headaches.