What are your Food Triggers

Re menopause / perimenopause -- I am 47 -- my migraines have never seemed to be associated with my period. In such a case, is it still possible that it could be related to perimenopause? My GP seemed to think no unless it had a relationship with my period.

I never had any problem with headaches in my life until I was 46 when I developed chronic daily migraine. So it is definitely not the case that you won't get them later if you didn't have them earlier in life. After trying all kinds of things I am left with the definite belief that perimenopause is a major contributor to my migraines.

From what I have read, HRT is not good for migraines due to the fact that they use artificial hormones, as do birth control pills, that are not exactly the same as what our body produces. According to at least one theory, this is part of what is creating the migraine problems for many people in the first place. That is why it makes a difference to use something that is natural and bio-identical. Look for someone in your area that specializes in natural hormone therapy. Most GYNs do not know a lot about this, as they primarily teach drugs in med school.

While I did not initially think my headaches were related to hormones either, as I had them all the time, once I started taking the bio-identical progesterone my headaches went from 80% down to 20% pretty much immediately. This was amazing as (1) I had tried just about every possible medication with no relief and awful side effects, neck injections, Chiro, acupuncture, etc.. (2) it was a last ditch effort that I really did not have much hope in. So I think it is worth a try.

Thanks for that encouragement. I'm glad that the hormones made such a difference for you. I'll start looking around for someone who might be able to help me on this one.

Lynn

You know it's interesting. I had said in an earlier post that I don't believe in food triggers (having lived almost my whole life with migraines) and feel they are over emphasized. However reading about processed foods I remembered how while I used to recover from having been sick the thought of processed food would make me sick. I would even think about all the artificial stuff and extra ingredients and I was very young at the time and not in the habit of thinking about things like that. Remembering that made me think maybe there is something to it after all. Something to think about.