Down from 8 per month to 1-2

Hi everyone, Hope you are all doing as well as can be expected. I've been on the list for a long time but haven't checked in for about 6-8 months. I may show up as a new member w/no posts because I changed my email and couldn't remember my password so I had to re-register but when I was on last I had the same user name of BC.

I jump on every 6 months or so to give a quick rundown of my story and let everyone know what I have done that has worked for me. I'm still down from about 8 migraines a months to 1 or 2. The last time I came on I let everyone know that I found out I was hypoglycemic and that I started eating every 3 hours which seemed to help quite a bit.

Here's a quick version of my story and what I have done to get me to this point - If something I post helps even one person a little bit then it's worth it.

I'm 44. My migraines started sometime in my late teens. Over the years they gradually got worse until about 5 yrs ago when it was 2-3 per week but that was pretty much one constant one because 98% of the time my migraines last about 3 days.

About 6 yrs ago I found out I had either Celiac or gluten intolerance. Once I went gluten free I noticed that my migraines eased up a little bit. I never believed I had food triggers for migraines because it would seem that either everything was a trigger or it was something other than food. I guess after all these years I found out that it was pretty much everything (at least everything I was eating) was a trigger. After realizing that going GF helped me I started looking at everything I was eating. It literally took me about 4 yrs to figure out most of my food triggers. It was a very hard process.

Sometime last year I found out I was hypoglycemic (actually it was/is pretty bad). Sometimes my glucose lever drops to high 40's low 50's only 3.5 hrs after eating. I thought for so many years that I had a blood sugar problem but all my tests came back normal until I got a meter myself and showed my doctor what was happening then they did some more in depth testing. I have lots and lots of other health issues, severe Raynauds, mild anemia, very bad GERD, hiatal hernia, heart abnormalities, Ehlers Danlos, blah, blah, blah, So I figured that working on my already not too bad diet wouldn't be a bad idea. With the diet I have now I have eliminated a huge amount of unexplained misc. problems I have had for years (most interesting was 14 yrs of unexplained gross hematuria).

So here's what I do now that's gotten me to this point:

1. because of hypoglycemia I eat something every 3 hrs even if it is just a handful of almonds

2. I take iron, B-12 and multi-vitamin (I am mildly anemic and my B-12 was low – It took lots of trial and error to find an iron and multi-vit supplement that didn’t cause a migraine)

3. I eat on set schedule and sleep and wake on schedule

4. I avoid the following ( items w/* seem to be my worst triggers)
gluten
dairy
soy
avocados
carregeenan*
chocolate
citric acid*
dried fruits*
eggs*
many fruits
many vegetables
MSG and all its other names
pork (even nitrate free)*
turkey
vinegar
walnuts
pecans
+ all the other normal migraine triggers
+ lots of other things that I can't remember at the moment.

As you can see I have a very limited diet but it definitely pays off.

Hope something I said helps someone. Take care, Beth

Glad to hear you have been doing better. My, what a process that must have been to develope your diet. Kudos for sticking to it and coming up with your list.

BC, I have CEliac disease and am stricty GF. I have always felt I had a blood sugar issue, but nothing turns up. I did have borderline gestational Diabetes with my first pregnancy. I also cannot find a vitamin with iron, B-12 or D that does not give me migraines. My Dr. has made me try so many (including injectables), I dont want to try anymore. Could you give a little more info on how and what you eat? Also, what brand of vitamins do you take? I really think this could be helpful for me.
Thanks,
Cindy

Hi Cindy, Interesting I was also borderline gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy too. Aside from migraines/headaches some of the strange symptoms I had that I could not figure just seemed to me like they could be blood sugar related. Again no bloodwork to back it up but it was always a feeling in the back of my head. When I got so much more in tune with my body I started thinking about that again.

5 or 6 yrs ago I was just such a complete mess with sooo many symptoms that I couldn't even begin to sort out what was what and what caused what reaction. Once I got rid of the gluten so many unexpected symptoms went away that the field was getting at least a little clearer so I felt I could begin to look at sorting out some of the remaining problems.

I just realized I have to leave for church in 15 mins. I'll definitely continue this sometime later today.

Take care, Beth

Hi again Cindy, I just saw your screen name "30yrsofheadache" - Mine started sometime in my mid-to late teens and I'm 44 so I've had them about the same amount of time. I think they started more like 15 but only occasionally they started to be more regular in my late teens.

Anyway back to your question. I did receive B-12 shots for 6 months and did not get migraines from them. Now I am taking Solgar brand sublingual 1000 mcg B-12. I now settled with Nature Made brand Iron 65 mg. I get them at Target but I'm sure they carry that line elsewhere. I tried many, many multivitamins from the health food stores but believe it or not I ended up with Target brand (now called Up & Up) "multivitamin dietary supplement women's 50+" They are gluten free but they do have soy in them. I got the 50+ type because I was trying to get rid of my horrible brain fog, concentration, memory problems and it had some herbal supplement for brain function. I started out with a 1/2 multi vit. first because I had such bad experience w/others.

I'm going back to add salt to my earlier post for things I avoid. I cut WAY back on my salt which was another thing that I felt had a big + impact. In one of my older posts I mentioned that in my desparation when I was eating absolutely no processed food at all it took me almost blacking out before I realized I was only getting about 100 mg of sodium a day. Very dangerous. That's why people who do these drastic diet changes really should have a dietician helping them.

You asked what I eat. Here's just about everything I eat:

Plain brown rice puffed cereal (no other ingredients)
Almonds
Mimiccream (brand name - my great new find-GF, no dairy, soy, etc. - made from nuts)
Spinach (lots and lots of it)
Kale
Red and yellow peppers (green are on my "iffy" list)
Carrots
Corn
Asparagus
Zucchini
Squash
Sweet potatoes
Blueberries
Quinoa
Agave nectar
Coffee (w/agave and Mimiccream)
Hummus (found 2 brands w/no citric acid, etc.)
Almonds
Peanuts
Cashews
Lara Bar (Cashew cookie is only flavor that didn't give me a M)
All natural peanut butter
Blueberry preserves (there are a few w/no citric acid)
Rice cakes
Trader Joes GJ waffles (very very good & my only "dessert" I put PB & J on them)
Olive oil
Old Bay seasoning
Very little salt
GF pastas
Ener G "Light brown rice loaf" bread - hated their other breads I tried but this one is great
Shelton's uncured chicken franks (GF)
Plain grilled chicken (I make sure they didn't add anything in processing)
Beef very, very occasionally in small amount
Salmon
And that's it!!!!!!!!!!

A few other things I avoid are not necessarily for migraines but because of very bad GERD.

I don't eat out. If I stick to the above I will only get 1-2 M's a month. The one is definitely at the beginning of my period and if I get another one it's probably because I deviated from the above unknowingly or was w/out my food handy.

Back to the blood sugar issue. I would notice that my hands got very shaky at times. For years I thought this was normal. I finally bought my own glucose meter and tracked my levels at all times for a few months and showed my Dr. who finally ordered more extensive testing which showed Hypoglycemia. I have had readings of 49 after eating only 3.5 hrs earlier. So I now try not to wait past 3 hrs. This seemed to help quite a bit.

I have to add in that I am not soy or dairy free because of the migraines. Soy and dairy give me other symptoms like very bad leg aches (soy) and GI issues from dairy and I think some of the brain fog but who knows maybe they are helping w/the M's as well.

Other things that have helped me are learning the correct way to breathe. I think I have actually headed off a few either regular headaches or M's by going outside and breathing correctly (the bottom of your stomach goes out when you breathe in). I think yoga helped a bit also.

I have a problem with OTC meds. in that after 3 or 4 days I seem to get a daily headache or M. Whether it is a sinus med , cold med , Benadryl, etc. My Dr. said he didn't think that was possible but it definitely happens to me. I also had a bad problem with rebound headaches and am now very careful not to take Advil much at all.

I won't go through the whole thing (it is in my older posts) but I did a diet where I started with only chicken and rice then added in things one at a time. This was very time consuming but was the beginning of my finding out so much about my diet.

I often thought either I am getting a M from almost everything I eat or it isn't food at all and it's something else, because one person couldn't have sooooo many foods as a trigger. I think for so many years I refused to believe food could be most of the problem.

I think I ran on for too long now. Best of luck, Take care, Beth

Sorry, forgot to add that I also stopped eating leftovers since they can be a migraine trigger.

Also, I increased my fluid intake of water (which is all I drink except 2 small cups of coffee per day and).

Take care, Beth

Wow, Thanks Beth for taking time to write that all out. I am going to try to incorporate some of your ideas a little at a time. I already eat a lot of the foods on the list, but need to get rid of some other suspects. I will try the vitamins that you use to see if I can tolerate them. At least they arent expensive!

Our problems seem a lot alike. I get migraines from antihistamines and decongestants also. I just realised the Claritin I was taking for the past 2 weeks has caused severe head pain. I dont normally have allergies, but this year the tree pollen is getting everyone here.
I would rather have a small headache from pollen.

I will let you know how it goes.\,
Cindy