My mother and, I think, grandmother suffered from migraines, as do I.

I also think migraines are hereditary. My mother suffered from them as do I. We don't have any children, so I didn't pass them on.

Elli

My grandmother suffered from terrible migraines and died of a brain tumour in her 30s. My dad has awful migraines (though he's had a lot of luck with a physiotherapist), and I get sinus migraines.

For some reason my brother and sister lucked out and hardly ever get headaches, even.

I had a migraine over the weekend because I didn't catch a sinus problem in time, only just starting to feel awake and no longer nauseous. sigh.

The good news: if I recall correctly, in Sacks' book, he reports a strong correlation between high intelligence and suffering from migraines. :)

I knew there had to be a good reason I had migraines. Now that I hardly ever get them, though, does that mean I'm losing my intelligence? ;)

More than a very minor amount of chocolate (cocoa products) or red wine have been triggers for me for a long time.

I also suspect that nitrates (used as preservatives in some meats like bacon) may also be a trigger if I have much.

I've have also been told that milk products may be triggers for some people.

As I recall, it took my tracking everything I ate for a while to ID chocolate as a prime culprit. For those who have not done that, it might be worth keeping a food diary for a while and then review it with your Dr. to see if there could be some food triggers (including additives and preservatives). Even if certain foods trigger only some of your headaches, once you know that you can avoid those foods (and those headaches). Believe me, I enjoy chocolate, but not enough to suffer a migraine for it.