Food Triggers Not the Only Solution

A reader shared the following experience. I can attest that while identifying food triggers can help, it's not the only solution. She writes...

If you're really into identifying triggers and eliminating them from your life, the guru on that topic is Dr. David Buchholtz. He is recommended at Johns Hopkins University Hospital as the JHU expert on headaches. Those who want to see him in private practice may find he doesn't accept your insurance. Not sure if he's currently on staff at JHU. He published a book called Heal Your Headaches detailing his three point plan.

One: identify triggers through an elimination diet.
Two: go off all drugs because they all cause rebound.
Three: if you still have headaches then try a prophylactic, preventative medication.

The troubling conclusion...if it didn't work...you didn't do it right.If you're convinced that diet is everything...he's the man.I went to Dr. Buchholtz 11 years ago. I followed his program to the letter. I started with a boiled chicken diet and gradually added each food to identify if any were triggers. I was not allowed to take any medications but aspirin in order to remove all drug-rebound potential. A lot of people can have an arrogance towards doctors and pharmaceuticals. I had always felt condemned for taking medicine for my headaches. So...Buchholtz method must be "God's" way.

We refer to that year as the year we threw the calendar away. I threw up everyday with a raging migraine for months. At Christmas, we farmed out our homeschooled children to live with other families. By March, I had aspirin poisoning. When I returned to see him in August for prophylactic medication, he was no longer accepting my insurance. I went home and took an Imitrex shot and got my life back.

A lot of suffering can go into identifying triggers. As many triggers as we may identify in the environment there may a hundred times more manufactured within our own bodies or in the petroleum based chemicals of our carpeting and melamine cupboards.If you want to follow his plan, buy the book...it's available used everywhere. He has a lot of knowledge about some things that might be exceedingly helpful. At least he's a doctor that took an interest in triggers. But, some people have strong opinions about it his book. It may be helpful to learn not to pull our triggers, but we're not addressing the loaded gun pointed at our heads.Boiled chicken didn't solve my problem. Imitrex made the trigger stop firing. And in the end, Toprol XL removed the gun entirely. Three cheers to GlaxoSmithKline!

I'm curious what you think of this post. What has your experience been?

Gluten-Free Girl

I came across the blog Gluten Free Girl. The recipes look good. She's also written a book which I need to check out. Anyone have it already?

Kicking Out Dairy

A reader shared the following story:

I just "happened" upon your blog tonight, and I am really glad to read it! I started with migraines in high school, and began missing a lot of school. The Dr.'s were prescribing medications that concerned me as we got into stronger and stronger ones. I had a teacher take me aside, whom I knew to also be a migraine sufferer, and she shared with me her personal triggers (dairy- mostly) and suggested I consider looking for my own triggers. Her advice was God-sent, as my migraines were easily triggered by dairy. Over time I learned how to eliminate it from my diet. I now can measure the time between migraines in years, rather than days. I appreciate this forum that allows people to share their stories and their trust in Yahweh.

Anyone else out there that has found dairy to be a problem?

New Doctor and Good Results

Hi, I'm the guy who runs this blog. I started it on a whim and didn't expect many people to ever read it. And I was right. Very few people have read it. But I've been pleasantly surprised by the fact that anyone has found it and that some have been encouraged by it. To all who have commented and shared their stories: Thank you!

My Recent Journey
I haven't wanted to focus too much on my own experience because what I've learned is that everyone is different and the same treatments don't work for everyone. But in the past few months I went to a new doctor and I honestly feel like God is using him to make me healthier. Not only am I experiencing fewer headaches, but I'm correcting some bad diet and lifestyle habits shaped by my headaches.

I can't get into all the details in this post, but I want to share a little and then, depending on the feedback, I'll try to share more about my treatment. In a nutshell, my new doctor at Roselle Alternative Care Center did a saliva test that revealed that my adrenal glands were running on fumes (stress and other factors were contributing to this). He also discovered that I have gluten intolerance. So he's been changing my diet, doing weekly chiropractic adjustments, giving me different supplements and trying to help me limit stress in my life.

Here are some of practical things I'm doing:

1. To keep my blood sugar from fluctuating too much I'm eating every 2.5 hours. I used to go long stretches without eating because I was trying to avoid food triggers. But this was causing more problems!

2. I'm drinking a lot more water. My Doctor says to drink half my weight in ounces each day. For me that's 70 ounces. I never used to drink anywhere near this much in the past! (I'm also going to the bathroom constantly. Oh, well!)

3. I'm on a gluten-free diet. Goodbye, bread! Hello, brown rice.

4. I'm taking B-12. And some nasty tasting supplement that's supposed to boost my adrenal glands. They taste horrible but they're better than a migraine.

5. I've started branching out by eating fruits and vegetables that I used to think were triggers. When I first learned about headaches I probably read too many "trigger lists" and cut out more from my diet than I needed to. Now that a gluten-free diet is healing my intestines, I also think I'm better able to process healthy foods. So though I can't eat bread, I'm munching apples and bananas again which is great.

6. I'm going in for weekly chiropractic adjustments. I'm not sure how long this will last.

I've been on this new regimen for a couple months. I feel better than I have in a long while. I haven't had a headache for four weeks and for the first time I feel like I'm doing more than just medicating my symptoms.

I'd love to hear if anyone has tried any of this or if it matches up with anything you've learned.

Please Pray When You Visit This Site

A young lady shared the following:

hi. i just came across your blog about a month ago. i have had migraines in the past but nothing compared to what i've experienced for the past 5 weeks - one constant migraine truck parked on my head that came completely out of the blue and has not left since. I never in a million years would have asked for this - my very busy life has completely stopped. i go to work on medicine daily so that I can somewhat function, do what I can while I'm there (thankfully they are understanding) and spend the rest of the 14 - 15 hours a day in bed. but what I've learned is that God is good. no matter how I feel - nothing can change that fact. Because of the cross, I know that God is bigger than this and any other trial I will experience. What hope that gives to my weary soul. I have repeatedly been comforted by the verse "my strength is made perfect in weakness." I am very aware that I am limited, and how grateful I am that His power is not. I have not been able to read consistently over the past 5 weeks due to the pain, but that has brought about sweet meditation on verses and passages that I've memorized and has also brought sweet times of communion with my Jesus. I'm praying God heals me. But I'm grateful for this opportunity to offer to Him a sacrifice of praise. He has shown me mercy when what I deserved is hell. That's something that can't be taken away when the pain and auras come on and for that I'm grateful. I'm glad my God is bigger than my migraines. --E.S.

I'm not sure why I haven't stressed this before, but reading this letter made me realize the opportunity we have to pray for each other. I don't know E.S., personally, but I want to ask God to heal her. And I'd like to ask all who visit this site to pray for her along with all the people who have shared about their struggles in other posts.

So often when I have a migraine I'm tempted to be self-focused, to only think about my pain. I want to grow in seizing those moments to pray for others who are facing similar trials. So please make your visits here a time of intercession.

E.S., I am praying that God will relieve your migraine and continue to meet you during times of communion with him. Thank you for your example of faith.

Talking to God

We received this comment and wanted to make sure everyone got to see it:

Thanks for having this blogspot. I have suffered from clusters and now migraines for years. My uncle sent me a link to this site. The strangest thing happened the other night though. I had a horrible, and I mean horrible migraine, vomiting, etc... As I called out to the Lord to remove the pain, he didn't, but for the first time I didn't just ask for relief, I started talking to him. I was actually thankful for the migraine as it brought me to him and allowed me to have a quiet time with him when I had been allowing life too much of my time and not giving enough to him. I know that sounds strange, but maybe not to you from what I read in your last blog. Blessings!

So often my only prayers during a migraine are for relief. I'm inspired by this example of seeking God even in the midst of pain.

Learning Total Reliance on God

Here's another story from a reader. We hope it encourages you.

I am 22-years-old and have suffered from severe, chronic classic migraine headaches since I was 13. Recently, they have become increasingly worse and more frequent. About two years ago, I was hit with an intense migraine during a winter retreat that I was attending with my fellowship group at college. The study was on Ruth and specifically on God's sovereignty over her entire life. The speaker asked us to think about the areas in our lives where we have difficulty accepting God's sovereignty and immediately I thought about my migraines. Within hours, I was bedridden and in serious pain, in a cabin in the middle of the woods with no medication and no one who could possiby understand how I was feeling.

Laying there, I felt totally helpless, weak, and without any control in the situation. I knew that the only person I could call upon to take over and ease my pain was Jesus Christ himself. I called, and he answered! In his mercy he was my only source of comfort and strength in those long hours. I thought about his sovereignty and the way that he used my migraine to put me in a situation where I was solely reliant on him and I was suddenly in awe of his mercy. He drew me to himself, and despite my crying out against him, he comforted me in his love. I realized that God is sovereign. I cannot deny that. And if it is in his will to allow me to suffer from migraines for the rest of my life, then so be it. He is in control which means that the migraines are a gift from him. He is using them to do his work in me. After that, I had almost an entire year's span where I was miraculously migraine free!

Since then, I have still had terrible bouts with migraines, but I do not doubt that they are in God' control. In fact, he has been using them to teach me again and again that he really is in control and that he really is all I need. I have had the wonderful prayer support of family and friends throughout this struggle to intercede on my behalf, but I trust Jesus even more with his great intercessions. And if he continues to allow me to go through the pain and suffering of migraine headaches, then I have learned to willingly and humbly accept them as a work with a greater purpose in my life.

Please take the time to share the spiritual lessons God has taught you. We'd love to share your story here.

Review: Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

If you suffer from migraines Suffering and the Sovereignty of God is a book you should read. Here's a portion of a review by Tim Challies:

This is not a book that deals with suffering as an abstract principle. In the introduction Justin Taylor writes, “The authors do not write as mere theoreticians, waxing eloquent about abstract themes. No, this is a book of applied theology. Its theology has been forged in the furnace of affliction.” Of the contributors, two are paralyzed, two lost parents when they were only young, two have recently suffered the death of a child and two are even now battling prostate cancer. “The point of mentioning this is not to portray them as victims or to elicit your sympathy, but rather to reiterate that they are fellow soldiers in the battle, fellow pilgrims on the journey.” They are equipped to speak about suffering because they have suffered.

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God continues the tradition of fine books based on keynote addresses at the Desiring God National Conference. It is a compassionately biblical and pastoral examination of a difficult subject. Suffering is an experience common to all human beings and is an issue we all wrestle with at one time or another. This book provides encouragement that God is sovereign, that His purposes are being worked out in suffering, and that even through the darkest trials there is hope. I am confident that this book will be used by God to encourage many of His people, both those who have already suffered greatly and those who have not, but are seeking to equip themselves for the trials that are sure to come in this fallen world.

If you've read the book, please leave a comment with your thoughts. And feel free to share any other books that you've found helpful.

Migraine Free: A Story

A reader posted the following comment here on the site. We thought it was so encouraging we want to share it here so no one missed it. A woman named Ruth writes:

I come from a family of migraine sufferers. For at least four generations, the women of my mothers family have struggled against the painful condition. I got my first migraine in the 5th grade, and was terrified.

I am now 33 and, by the grace of God, I don't have migraines anymore. The last one I had was in May of 2006, and it was the first I had had in a very long time, and was brought on by a very specific set of circumstances.

For me, getting rid of migraines consisted of changing my diet (I am a vegan, and have experienced myriad health benefits from it, and don't feel the least bit deprived), managing my stress (spirituality played a large role here - learning how to turn to Christ in my struggles, instead of internalizing them), getting enough sleep, and eliminating certain "trigger foods" (particularly caffeine - none at all, ever, and chocolate only on rare occasions). These, along with a few other things, completely "cured" me of migraine headaches. I was the only member of my family to beat them, until I convinced my Mom to apply the same principles. Now, as long as we stick to the program, we are migraine free.

Thanks for sharing your story, Ruth. And for others reading, please tell us about your current experience with headaches. Your story could encourage others.

The Story of Charlotte Elliot

Mark Driscoll's church is doing a series in the book of Philippians called the Rebel's Guide to Joy. In one of the sermons they featured the following video about the famous hymn-writer Charlotte Elliot. Her serious health problems remind me of many of my friends who face chronic headaches. I hope this encourages you to put your trust in God in the midst of suffering. We can glorify God and be used by him in our weakness.

Caring for Your Soul When Your Head Hurts

We'd love to hear from you on the following questions: 

1. What scriptures comfort you in the midst of a headache? 
2. What Christian books encourage you to trust God during physical pain?

Please share a comment with your answers!

Homemade MSG

Recently I seemed to get a migraine from my wife's homemade beef soup. How could that be? Everything was made from scratch including the broth. And she left out ingredients like onions that we knew were triggers. Shannon decided to get help from her friend who is a scientist. The following is her friend's helpful explanation of how MSG can sometimes be "homemade."

"The act of preparing homemade soup is the hydrolysis of meat. That process, if carried far enough, breaks down the proteins in the meat to single amino acids. One of those amino acids found in meat is glutamate or glutamic acid (MSG). I think soup can still be on the menu, but you may want to limit how long the meat is cooked, or start with a vegitable stock and add the meat late in cooking. There are a lot of process parameters that you can try to change (salt content, heat, duration), but then you husband is going to be a Guinea Pig, and he may not appreciate that.

When making a vegetable stock, you made want to go light on the onions, they contain tyramine and are known to be a migrane trigger. Leeks or shallots are a good substitute.

Here is an excerpt from a website Truth in Labeling, that backs up my point.

The second way of producing MSG is through breakdown of protein, i.e., processed free glutamic acid (MSG) is created when protein is either partially or fully broken apart into its constituent amino acids. A protein can be broken into its constituent amino acids in a number of ways (autolysis, hydrolysis, enzymolysis, and/or fermentation). When a protein is subject to autolysis, hydrolysis, enzymolysis, and/or fermentation, the amino acid chains in the protein are broken, and the amino acids are freed. Acids, enzymes, and/or fermentation processes may be used to create MSG in this way.

I feel bad for you, because it is a lot of work preparing homemade meals every meal. I only worry about dinner. In the end, your family is going to benefit from you hard work. You and your husband will age more gracefully, and the list of benefits for your children is so long I am not going to try to list them. You are an awesome Mom! So many Mom's would rather just give their family pills, you are doing the right thing."

I can only add a big "amen" to her praise of my wife. She works so hard to cook good food for me and our family. But sadly, I have to pass on her excellent beef soup in the future.

Migraine Triggers

I first read about "migraine triggers" in a Time article seven years ago. Before that I had never heard that food caused headaches. That was the beginning of an ongoing learning process. My knowledge has grown and my dietary options have dwindled! Thankfully the number of headaches I get has also decreased.

Here's a helpful list of the most common food and lifestyle triggers provided by WebMD:

• Stress (either during a stressful time or right after stress subsides).
• Menstrual cycle in women.
• Too much or too little sleep.
• Fasting or skipping meals.
• Changes in barometric pressure and weather.
• Bright light or reflected sunlight.
• Foods such as chocolate.
• Excessive caffeine or caffeine withdrawal.
• Smoking or being around someone who smokes.
• Other migraine triggers include:
• Strong emotions, such as depression or anxiety.
• Physical exercise.
• Alcohol, such as red wine and port.
• Aspartame, an artificial sweetener that is found in diet sodas, light yogurts, and other sugar-free foods.
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG), a seasoning that is often found in Chinese food, meats, and other foods.
• Nitrates, which are found in cured meats such as hot dogs, bacon, and cold cuts.
• Tyramines, which are found in pickled or marinated foods, aged cheeses, and yeast.
• Birth control pills and hormone therapy.
• Certain medications, especially those that dilate blood vessels.
• Overuse of headache pain medications, leading to rebound headaches.
• Bright lights, glare, reflected sunlight, or other intense visual stimuli.
• Odors such as perfume, paint, dust, and certain flowers.

In the days to come on Manage Your Migraines we'll be compiling more detailed lists of both dietary, environmental and behavioral triggers.

Your Turn: Anything on this list that's particularly bad for you? Anything missing? We'd love to hear from you.

Weather and Migraines

An article in USA Today discusses the weather-related pain. In this portion it talks about the role of weather in causing migraines:

Likewise, many migraine sufferers believe their headaches result from weather changes. Scientists have been studying this connection since the early 70s, but results have been inconsistent. Those who work with headache patients, however, attest to the correlation, regardless of scientific proof.

Dr. George Urban, associate director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, says his patients can predict the weather based on their headaches. "The 'weather factor' is a very common trigger for many migraine sufferers," he says. "Usually, it is during or before [a decline] in barometric pressure. There is no special group of patients who are more susceptible to those changes."

But different weather changes affect different people in different ways. A study published in 2004 in Headache used extensive weather data the National Weather Service had gathered and matched it up with information gathered from clinically diagnosed migraine sufferers to test the correlation.

The study, which encompassed two years of material, looked into several factors, including minimum, maximum, and average daily temperatures, dew point and average daily air pressure.

Scientists found that while psychologically, many migraine sufferers believe weather helps determine when they get headaches, fewer actually are affected when weather data was matched up to the patients' own logs of headache occurrences.

Additionally, while the study found that temperature and humidity were the most prominent factors in migraine headaches, some sufferers appeared sensitive to high temperatures and high humidity while others were sensitive to the exact opposite.

But as Urban asserted, differences in sex and age didn't factor into the frequency of migraine headaches.

In the end, however, patients couldn't accurately predict their own weather sensitivity, despite knowing they were sensitive.

Experts advise that the best way to handle this inconsistency is for individual patients to be aware of their own sensitivities and to work with their doctors to figure out the best way to handle the onset of migraine headaches brought on by all relevant weather factors.

You can read the full article. I have friends who make fun of me when I blame my headaches on a change in the weather, but I know this is real. When a new weather pattern moves in or out, I feel it in my neck and back. And too often it leads to a headache. During these times food that I can sometimes tolerate will trigger a migraine.

Your Turn: What is your experience with weather and headaches? What have you learned? Can you feel a weather change in your body? Please post a comment.