Mom quit smoking out of the sudden. Can this trigger her migraines?

[Anonymous]

She reduced them for a while to about half of what she was used with...
Then completely quit them about a week ago. now she has this migraine for 2 days.
Could some nicotine patches help her a bit? I'm thinking it's because her body asks for the nicotine.

[DanAG]

Stopping smoking can cause all kind of things to happen. Especially if she's been smoking a long time. Smoking changes things in your body and it gets used to it. When you stop, all those things start to change back.

It can cause a chain of events, not all of them good. I'm sure you've heard about people gaining weight. Some of that is because people eat more when they quit. But it's also about metabolism. Smoking is a fairly strong stimulant. When you stop you suddenly no longer have that stimulant and it can causes weight gain and changes in sleep patterns. Those changes can cause other changes in turn.

If she's quit for a week, I suspect most of the direct affects of nicotine are past. I don't know that for sure, but I've always heard the nicotine is mostly out of your system within a few days. After that it's the indirect affects and psychological affects.

After a week she'll be past the most intense parts. But the loooooong road ahead can seem like it lasts forever. So she won't be safely out of the woods for a long time.

[Sex_Panther]

Yeah that would cause migraines and nicotine patches can help.

[beckamazara]

Yes this could be the cause of migraines because her body is going through withdrawal. Nicotine patches would help, but not in the long run. It would be best for her to stay cold turkey and put up with the migraines for a short amount of time. When her body stops craving and needing nicotine the migraines will pass