Take a pain trigger inventory

A huge part of dealing with pain, as with any relationship, is learning what ticks it off, what soothes it, what aggravates it, and what makes it mellow. Triggers can become your best friends: by knowing that perfumed stores activate your migraines, you can skip them. Consult this list below to help find out which triggers are best avoided for whatever your condition may be, from arthritis to trigeminal neuralgia.

Ailment: arthritis.

Triggers: straining muscles with excessive exercise or poor posture (waking or sleeping), stress, and carrying or lifting heavy objects.

Ailment:  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Triggers: poor sleep, stress, and overexertion.

Ailment: dental pain.

Triggers: hot or cold foods, hard foods, chewing gum, and tension (Temporomandibular joint disorder or TMJ).

Ailment: fibromyalgia.

Triggers: stress and fatigue.

Ailment: gastrointestinal pain.

Triggers: spicy, fatty, and dairy foods; coffee, tea, and alcohol; cigarettes; late-night meals; and stress.

Ailment: gout.

Triggers: meats, high-fat or dairy foods, excess alcohol, seafood such as scallops and sardines, excess weight.

Ailment: headaches.

Triggers: stress, strong odours, fatigue, bright lights, loud noises, menstruation, excess weight, alcohol, and smoking.

Ailment: hemorrhoids.

Triggers: sitting too long, straining on the toilet, excess weight, low-fibre diet, dehydration, and delaying trips to the toilet.

Ailment: leg and foot pain.

Triggers: laying down, down, walking, smoking, over-exercising or sudden exercising, shoes that lack adequate support, and being overweight.

Ailment: lupus.

Triggers: sun exposure, smoking, stress, fatigue.

Ailment: psoriasis.

Triggers: stress, smoking, cold weather; infections and conditions that weaken the immune system such as alcoholism, HIV, and arthritis; some medicines such as those for high blood pressure and malaria.

Ailment: Trigeminal neuralgia

Triggers: drinking hot beverages, getting too little sleep, walking in frigid weather, touching your face, chewing, and brushing your teeth.