Burning Tobacco Smell Is Migraine Trigger

Whether you’re a smoker or not, you can get a migraine from the scent given off by burning tobacco products, says the National Headache Foundation.

I’m not a smoker, but the scent of cigarette smoke does bother me, sometimes causing headaches. That’s one reason I get annoyed when bank or grocery store employees, etc. stand just outside the entrance to smoke on their breaks, forcing me to walk by holding my breath. It sounds like I’m whining, I know. But, I feel that smoking outside of an entrance is about the rudest thing anyone could do.

If you’re a smoker (not a rude one, of course), the National Headache Foundation says that reducing your use to less than one-half of a pack of cigarettes per day could help control cluster headaches. That advice echoes a new Spanish study that says that smoking more than five cigarettes a day provokes migraine attacks. That study (”Smoking as a precipitating factor for migraine: a survey in medical students”) appeared in the The Journal of Headache and Pain.

Does tobacco smoke trigger migraines for you?

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