Summary : Having a headache or migraine is often viewed as a personal matter. Yet the true impact of this condition goes far beyond any one affected individual. Family life is disrupted, work is missed and medical bills escalate in repeated attempts to discover causes and cures for disabling pain. Currently, there are no accurate estimates of the percentage of headaches that are diet-related. Some foods identified as possible headache triggers include alcoholic beverages, especially red wine, aged cheese, pickled, preserved or marinated foods, various types of beans and bakery goods made with brewer's yeast. It's believed such foods may trigger a migraine in susceptible people by either acting on the blood vessels or on the brain itself to initiate a headache. In most cases, however, such triggers are not the fundamental cause of a migraine itself. If an individual has a predisposition to migraines, exposures to the trigger may initiate a headache. However, if a person is not susceptible to migraines, no amount of a food consumed would cause a headache. However, not sleeping the night before, skipping lunch and then eating the same amount of cheddar cheese for dinner will tend to be followed by a headache in a susceptible child. From time to time, chocolate or cocoa also have been suggested as dietary triggers in susceptible people. Managing stress by identifying and eliminating its causes, as well as regular exercise, relaxation therapy and biofeedback training are good strategies to combat and relieve headache. Over the counter pain relievers should be taken only as needed and as directed. Overuse of aspirin and other pain relievers for too long can actually worsen pain by causing more severe and more frequent "rebound" headaches.