How Many Cups of Coffee Can Trigger a Migraine?

I used to love coffee. I looked forward to my morning coffee as soon as the sun came up and I knew it would be coffee time! Is it time for a Starbucks Vanilla Cappuccino? Yes!!! I would have one every day if I could! However, within the past year, coffee and I do not agree. I can have two sips and I can feel my migraine starting. I switched to decaf. But I don't think they taste the same!

According to the American Migraine Foundation, some people find it helpful to use a small amount of caffeine to stop their migraine headaches. Others may have more frequent migraine headaches with regular caffeine consumption. A new study paper which now appears in the American Journal of Medicine, looks at caffeine consumption and migraine. Elizabeth Mostofsky, from the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, M.A. set out to investigate if caffeine consumption is linked to the onset of migraine on the same day in people living with migraine.

For her study, Motofsky recruited 98 volunteers who experienced migraine with or without aura. The study participants filled in electronic diaries every morning and evening for 6 weeks. In these diaries, they recorded a variety of factors, including exercise, caffeine, and alcohol consumption, stress, sleep quality and headaches. The team then compared how likely each participant was to experience a migraine on a day when they consumed caffeine with the likelihood on a day when they didn't.

Using a statistical model, the team estimated that drinking one or two caffeinated beverages did not change the odds of experiencing a migraine headache on the same day. However, when the volunteers consumed three or more caffeinated drinks, the odds were significantly higher.

According to Motofsky, "In this study, there was a nonlinear association between caffeinated beverage intake and the odds of migraine headache on that day. This suggests that high levels of caffeinated beverage intake may be a trigger of migraine headaches on that day."

The authors concluded that more research was needed "to examine the potential effect of caffeine on symptom onset in the subsequent hours and the interplay of sleep, caffeine, anxiety, environmental factors and migraine."

More information on medicalnewstoday.com