Ketogenic Diet

Hi Everyone,

How have people fared on ketogenic diets? Has it decreased pain? Improved energy? I have NDPH. How long does it take to work? Thanks!!!

Hi, I have tried the ketogenic diet and it has significantly decreased my migraines.

Basically, you have to eat almost no sugar or complex carbs. Stick to high fat foods and foods that have no carbs. Most meats and veggies are good (except starchy ones like corn or potatoes). Most fruits have too many carbs but there are some you can eat. You CAN eat a few carbs if they also have high fiber. You can't really eat many processed or snack foods because they usually have carbs. For breakfast I would eat things like blueberries with heavy cream, lunch could be a high fiber/low carb tortilla with fillings, etc.

My migraines were decreased in frequency from daily to about one every three days or so. Honestly, most of the migraines I do get are probably a result of me not sticking to the diet as well as I should. The results are really amazing. If I remember correctly the results were seen within a week.

The cons are that it's very hard to do this diet because of the foods we are normally used to eating. You have to change everything. I switched from drinking milk to unsweetened coconut milk (very good), can't drink any sodas, can only have tea or coffee with no sugar/milk added. Also, I had an issue with some vitamin deficiencies because most of the vitamins I got were from eating cereals which you can't do on ketogenic. So you have to take vitamins. It seems that I am still ok if I eat something with SOME sugar in it but also a lot of fat, such as whole milk ice cream once in awhile.

When I do really well on the ketogenic diet, I notice that if I eat too many sugars or carbs when I pee it smells sweet. This is because my body is in a ketogenic mode and instead of using the glucose in my blood from eating sugar, it's expelling it in my urine. If I continue to eat too many carbs this goes away because my body goes back to using the glucose and then my migraines increase.

I did also lose a few pounds, 4% of my total body weight. As far as energy, it seemed to increase my brain power and reduce brain fog although that could be due to more of the reduction in migraines rather than the actual diet.

Hi Seaine,

Thanks for the info!!!

Jeff

New reports show Ketogenic diet highly effective. But it does not work on cervocogenic migraines.
It seems like it would be very hard to stay in this kind of diet. What are people's experiences?

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/less-carbs-more-fat-ketogenic-diet-treats-migraine-patients

Get used to eating salads every time you go out to eat.

lol Seaine. Or fried eggs and bacon.

Or steak and green beans.. I guess it might not be so bad after all!

I've been on a keto diet for almost 3 years and it has reduced my headaches by 70% (severity, frequency, and duration). I still get bad ones about once a month that leave me in bed and I have to miss work/school, this depends on how strictly I am following the diet and other triggers in my life. If I'm having a stressful week, I eat very strictly keto and it seems to help. That being said, after the first 2 years I started to be more flexible with carbs and now will eat a buttery criossant or biscuit and more fruit than typical keto. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with migraine!

Hi Everyone,

I did a ketogenic diet for a little over a month. I ate between 20 and 25 grams of carbohydrates a day. I continued to exercise about 4-5 times a week and did not notice a significant difference in my performance. I had previously done a ketogenic diet with less than 5 grams of carbs a day and noticed a significant increase in fatigue during cardio workouts. I only did the 5 grams a day diet for about 2 weeks. This new diet with less than 25 grams of carbs a day did not change my headaches or my energy levels overally. Fatigue is a big problem for me and a bigger problem now than the 24 hour a day headache. Concord grape that is great that this diet worked for you! It sounds like it really improved your quality of life! Ciao. Jeff

Hi Jeff,
Sorry it didn't work for you! For others reading--I would recommend doing the diet longer to see a change in migraines. It wasn't until 6 weeks-3 months that I started to really notice a change in headaches. (This change improved over time on the diet and probably maximized around 6mo and then held steady). That being said, the less carbs you eat the better. The low energy you felt eating 5 g carb/day was from your body not yet being adapted to burning ketones as fuel. Two weeks is typically the point where your energy levels start to improve and your body metabolizes fats. After your body is used to burning fat and is not as sensitive to sugars, you can gradually increase carb intake--for me this came about 2.5 yrs into the diet. I can now splurge on a slide of bread, chocolate, or even fruit without any change in migraines or energy levels.

It is a hard diet to do, and it certainly is hard to continue if you are fatigued and in pain (and not seeing results). Good luck to everyone who picks up the keto diet, and feel free to reach out if you need help. I have a blog post I'd be happy to share about my progress over these 3 years.

CG

CG, please do share your blog about the Keto diet. Thanks.

Here's the link- https://medium.com/pain-talks/i-need-more-fat-c02b090451fa

Thank you CG.

Well I'm finally getting around to giving a very serious try to this diet to see if it helps. I've done low carb for years without significant benefit but never stayed at or below 20 carb grams per day for more than a week or two. I started on Tuesday the 19th so will let you know how it goes for me. The plan is to see anything carby as migraine on a plate. Should be a good motivator.

Woohoo you can do it! I'm 3.5 years in and still going strong. I'm actually going to stop Botox because I am a month late for this set of injections and have had no uptick in attacks. I think the keto diet has really held me steadily at a low level of migraine attacks. If I do cheat and eat too many carbs I notice I feel worse like my threshold has been lowered, and I do get more headaches.

Another plus side is keto has totally taken off as a "fad" diet, so many more people know about it, are trying it, and high fat is becoming more common at restaurants. It is no longer weird to order burgers without the bun, sandwiches without bread, or asian food without rice or noodles. There are TONS of resources, recipes, and meal plans, plus tips online. And podcasts!

Good luck!

Just an update on the keto diet; it definitely took about 5 or 6 weeks of strict keto but migraines very significantly reduced. If any of you are considering eating keto for migraine, my advice is don't give up until you have eaten careful and strict keto for at least 2 months. It takes a while for significant improvement but don't give up! No cheats! I see a tempting roll or dessert as migraine on a plate, it isn't worth it.

Also have added chin tuck exercises daily to deal with the cervi migraines and because keto diet needs a good bit of extra salt, I have about 1/8 teaspoon of salt in 8oz of water every evening about 45 minutes before bedtime and again first thing in the morning before either coffee or breakfast.

Do you have more energy on the diet? Thanks!

I have been on a low carb diet many times and it does give me more energy and lowers my lipids dramatically but not anything noticeable for the migraines. I need to get back on it now but it is so hard to stay on and be strict with it because I get such sugar cravings when I have migraine. Does this happen to anyone else? I try to make allowances so at least I can look forward to something sweet like I can allow myself something when I go to get my meds filled twice a month. That does help but bread is my other vice. I grew up in a family where if there wasn't bread on the table, it wasn't a complete meal. It does help to focus on what you can have. You really don't have to watch the oils like you do on other diets, you can have real butter and any meats you like including good steaks. Really the sugar is what always gets me derailed. Any ideas? Thanks for reading.

Cindy