Meet the Experts

Dr. Patricia Feito-Fernandez

Family Medicine Physician with Baptist Health Primary Care

Videos

Symptoms & Triggers Of Migraine

Dr. Patricia Feito, Family Medicine Physician at Baptist Health Primary Care, explains when you have a migraine it starts off as a headache. Some triggers and some different symptoms are multifactorial, such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, feeling uncomfortable, neck stiffness or mood changes. The doctor says there is a hereditary link between migraines and familial inheritance.

Treatments For Migraines

Dr. Patricia Feito, Family Medicine Physician at Baptist Health Primary Care, says the treatment of migraine depends on what the headache logs look like, whether it is a migraine that is chronic, or if it is an acute onset of a migraine. "We ideally look for a multifactorial approach. If we are finding a trigger or response to their migraine, we take it away. Either too much or too little caffeine, alcohol, stress, sleep deprivation, medication, supplementation, we look at that in treatment plans," she says.

Hormones & Migraine Triggers

Dr. Patricia Feito, Family Medicine Physician at Baptist Health Primary Care, explains how women are more susceptible to getting migraines than men, because of hormones: "Every single month women go through their menstrual cycle, so what we're seeing with the premenstrual patients is that when they have a drop and a sharp decline in their estrogen during four to five days prior to their menstrual cycle that's when migraines are triggered." She also says into the menopausal years women tend to see an improvement in their migraines when it is associated with hormone variant.

Who Can Get Migraines?

Women are three times more likely than men to get migraines because of hormones. Dr. Patricia Feito, Family Medicine Physician at Baptist Health Primary Care, says estrogen plays a very big role and some symptoms of migraines can get better after menopause, because hormones drop. People with family history of migraines and with other medical conditions, like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, sleep disorders and epilepsy are also more likely to get migraines.

Red Flag Symptoms: Migraine

There are triggers of migraine, such as visual changes, vision loss, neurological symptoms that you have never had before, weakness of any upper or lower extremities, difficulty with your speech and thunderclap headache; you need to go to the ER or to get an evaluation with your physician. Dr. Patricia Feito, Family Medicine Physician at Baptist Health Primary Care, recommends being aware of your external factors: what's new in your medications, foods and drinks, what you have been doing over the last 24 to 48 hours that could have possibly triggered the headache to occur.

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