Magnesium Seems to Help

It's been almost a month since my last posting, and the reason for the delay is - I've had a headache every day since then. On April 29th, I joined some friends for a home-cooked dinner. I had already told them about the restrictions in my diet, so I was feeling a little like a high-maintenance (pain-in-the-ass) guest, going in. When dinner was serverd (salmon & quinoa), I didn't balk at the yogurt topping on the quinoa. What the heck, I thought - it's been over a year since I've had yogurt (a must-avoid food). Maybe I need to test it out and see how it makes me feel. I also had some wine. I can get away with a little wine without getting a headache, particulary white wine, but in this case, I allowed my gracious hostess to refill my glass. So I don't know if it was eating the yogurt or drinking that 2nd glass of wine, but I woke up the next morning with a nasty headache. Typical. But what was not typical was how long this headache lasted: 21 days. And the last week of it was the worst!

I spent weeks playing detective, trying to figure out what was going on in my system that would be allowing this ongoing inflammation in my head.

Then I remembered that I had read somewhere a couple years ago that taking magnesium and vitamin B helps headaches. I had been taking magnesium, but when the bottle ran out in April, I just let it go. I wasn't sure it was doing anything, so I thought I'd stop taking it to see if I noticed anything different.

Hmm. Maybe stopping the magnesium was the wrong thing to do... I rushed out to buy another bottle of magnesium and started taking it twice a day. And here we are, after two days, and I no longer am gripped by that relentless pain in my head. I have been released from headache prison, and it feels great! Is it a coincidence, or did the magnesium really make the difference? Time will tell.

Avoid: Fresh-Baked Bread

I remember reading during my research that eating fresh-baked bread could trigger headaches. But bread in itself was not an issue, if was older than one day. So having bread in the fridge that you use for toast or sandwiches or whatever is not a problem. When I was first learning about all these headache triggers (the Do-Not-Eat list), I used to think that if I ate something in small quantities, it wouldn't effect me that much. But I learned through a lot of trial and error that sometimes it doesn't take much of a trigger to flip the switch and launch a headache. About a year ago, I was having lunch in a restaurant. I was really careful to order food that wasn't on the Do-Not-Eat list. But before my meal arrived, the waiter brought a small basket of bread. It was warm and toasty, and tasted really good on my empty stomach. I left my meal feeling okay, but shortly after I began to notice a growing headache. In typical form, the small headache increased with every passing hour. By that evening it was a full-blown migraine. I was baffled about this headache, and analyzed everything I had eaten that afternoon that might have caused this. Then I remembered how I had eaten a couple pieces of that delicious bread at lunch. Fresh-baked bread is on the Do-Not-Eat list because it's a headache trigger. If I didn't believe it before, I definitely believed it after this!

How to Eat a Salad

Shortly after I had learned about the Do-Not-Eat foods that cause headaches, I was having lunch with a co-worker at a local cafe. I thought I would play it safe and order a Cobb salad. I asked them to hold the bacon, and put the dressing on the side. The salad arrived; it looked great; it tasted great. I made a note to myself that some of the contents of the salad were on the list of foods-to-avoid (foods that trigger headaches): the avocado, the blue cheese, the vinegar in the dressing, and the turkey meat which was probably process rather than fresh-cut. I thought to myself, "Oh well, everything's in such little chunks, it probably can't hurt anything."

But the result was typical: after lunch, I felt a pinching pain in my head, by 3:00 PM I had a full-blown headache, and by 5:00 PM I was really hurting. I would drive home from work in pain, skip dinner, and take an Imitrex. By this time, the pain in my head would be that sharp, searing, hot pain of having a 10" metal stake driven through your skull while you're being hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and being knocked over the top of your head with a 2x4, all at once. This would usually last about 3 days, but there were times when it went on for 10-12 days solid.

So I learned how to eat a salad. From then on: (1) Dressing always on the side. Most of the time, I end up not adding any of it to my salad. (2) No chicken or turkey unless I'm sure it's fresh cut and not processed. (3) Skip the avocados, unfortunately. (4) No aged cheeses - no blue cheese, no Gorgonzola. (5) Steer around onions too, since they're also on the Do-Not-Eat list. Use salt or pepper to season, add olive oil if they have it available. It ends up being more plain than what I was used to, but it sure feels good to get up from a lunch table and go about my afternoon without being brought down my a major headache!

Avoid: Citrus, But For How Long?

I have a grapefruit tree in my backyard. I always liked the idea of going out to your own backyard to find food, rather than buying it from a store. On hot summer days, I would crave fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. But once I learned that citrus has headache-triggering compenents in it, I had to give it up. And that goes for oranges, orange juice, lemons, limes, and even pinapple. How long are you supposed to give this stuff up, you ask? According to the experts, you're supposed to be able to go about 4 months or so without a headache, then you can start re-entering foods in, little by little, to see what works for you. For me, I had a hard time making it past 4 days without a headache, so I figured I was in for a long haul... But what's worse: feeling deprived (how a person on a strict diet feels) or having bad headaches. The answer: having bad headaches!

Avoid: Yogurt, Bananas & Almonds

I've gotta admit, this is my least favorite part of this blog: talking about all the foods that can trigger headaches. Not only is it a buzz-kill for my readers who are looking for ideas to help alleviate their headaches, but it causes me to re-live some very painful memories of the intense headaches I used to get. But I figure in all fairness to my readers, I need to share my experiences, especially if they end up helping someone else.

So onward to the story of one of my favorite breakfast's: yogurt, bananas, and almonds. The yogurt was plain (lower in sugar) and organic (without hormones found in dairy products). The bananas were sliced, and the almonds were slivered and toasted. I sprinkled a little cinnamon on top for added flavor. When the bananas were nice and ripe, this dish tasted like banana pudding. And it was good for you! But headaches always seemed to follow... After I began my research into tyramine and head-ache triggering foods, I learned that yogurt, bananas, and nuts are all on the Do-Not-Eat list for headache sufferers. Since I was determined to stop these relentless headaches of mine, I stopped eating yogurt and bananas and nuts. I switched over to oatmeal, which is super-healthy, but not quite as delicious. The headaches following breakfast did lighten up, so that made it worth the sacrifice.

Avoid: Chicory, Figs, and Nuts

Years ago I tempered my morning coffee by adding herbal coffee to the mixture. I figured the herbal stuff has got to be healthier than the regular & decaf coffee grounds I was using. It is caffeine-free, and even gluten-free (didn't know coffee had gluten). Even though I was cutting my caffeine intake way down, I was still getting a lot of headaches over time, and I started to notice I was feeling particularly headache-y after my morning brew. So, I checked the label of the herbal coffee. Ingredients: roasted carob, barley, chicory root, almonds, dates, natural coffee flavor, and figs. Yikes! This brew is chock full of foods on the "headache list;" foods that contain Tyramine and are known headache triggers. Sigh...I guess I'll have to go with herbal tea. But I have to be carefull there too. Many of the teas out there contain chicory & nuts. Citrus too is a trigger (which I'll get to in another blog post). That leaves mint tea as a safe option, so that's where I turned. Believe me, it takes a lot of determination (to not have a headache) to go to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or Starbuck's and only order herbal mint tea...

Recommended Book: Heal Your Headache

About a year ago, a co-worker who had a lot of experience with headaches recommended a book to me called Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain. The author of the book, Dr. David Buchholz, explains a lot of things about headaches that I hadn't heard before. He goes into detail about Tyramine, an amino acid found naturally in a lot of well-liked foods like chocolate, wine, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, soy sauce, pork, avocados, bananas, pineapples, figs, nuts, processed meats, and so on. He talks about the foods that trigger headaches; the foods that should be avoided when you're trying to reduce the amount of inflammation in the blood vessels in and around your head. By the time I read this book, I was so completely worn out from having constant painful headaches that I decided I was going to try his suggestions. I didn't try everything he said overnight, though. That would have meant eliminitating about 75% of the foods I normally ate! Besides, I had to test the waters to know that this was legit. It was as if I had to touch the stove to know it was hot, so to speak. I tested each of the foods he said to avoid, to see if I would get a headache or not. And I did (get a headache), every time! Through a lot of painful trial and error, I was forced to come up with a lot of alternative food choices. The food ideas & recipes I came up with - are what this blog is all about. It's a work in process, since I am trying to come up with new ideas all the time. The challenge is - they can't be on the foods-to-avoid list. I'll share these ideas, and will talk more about what I learned about the foods-to-avoid as this blog continues.

I Tried Everything...

Being a person with regular headaches, I was constantly reading articles in magazines and newsletters about things you can do to improve headaches. I read a lot of the same advice over and over again. I was aware of the basics - like how headaches are caused by a variety of different things like sleep deprivation, stress, barometric pressure changes, food allergies, hormonal fluctuations, low blood sugar, sinus pressure, spinal misalignment, muscle tension, and so on.

And when it came to food and drink, it was pretty much common knowledge that chocolate was bad for headaches, and so was red wine, and foods that contained MSG. Some experts said coffee was bad for headaches, and others said the caffeine helped headaches. Letting your blood sugar get too low was bad for headaches, so I made sure that I always had some sort of Scooby-snacks available to munch on (pretzels, almonds, crackers, etc.). I made a point to get to bed earlier than I really wanted to, so that I could get a better night of sleep. I booked regular appointments with the chiropractor to help align my neck and back. I worked on my posture, because I had learned that when you let your head go forward a little bit, the weight of your head is like a bowling ball creating extra pressure on your neck, which can cause headaches. I would do relaxation exercises, a little yoga every now and then, and would get therapeutic massages to loosen the tension caused by sitting at a computer all day. I cut way down on drinking alcoholic beverages (mainly because I seemed to get a headache whenever I would have one). You'd never see me drunk, because I'd get a headache long before I'd get tipsy. In addition, I practiced a lot of other healthy habits, such as always having a nutritious breakfast, not consuming sugar until later in the day, getting physical exercise several times a week, drinking water every day, never eating processed foods or fast-foods, eating fruits & veggies every day (and washing the pesticides off before I ate them), eating organic foods when I could, experimenting with alternative medicine including acupuncture, and using prayer & meditation each day to get grounded. And yet, I still had headaches. Long-lasting, vicious, relentless headaches.

I Won't Ask You to Give Up Coffee...

...but I did. I never thought I could do it. I have loved my morning coffee since I first got into the daily habit around 1993. But that's what desparation will do to you. And having headaches nearly every day of the week creates a desparate situation. Over the years, I had read various articles about how drinking coffee is supposedly bad for your adrenal system, or how it's full of chemicals, or whatever. Then once in a while an article would come out saying how a cup of coffee every day was good for you for one reason or another. I would cling to that and say, "Alright! I'm sticking with my coffee!" But then somewhere along the way, I decided it would be a good idea to take my daily half-decaf/half-regular cup of coffee and break it down even more with a mixture of herbal coffee. So around 2006 or so, I began the practice of mixing 1/2 herbal coffee grounds, 1/4 decaf grounds, and 1/4 regular coffee grounds for my morning brew. I thought it was going to be the healthier thing. But after a while, a couple years maybe, I began to notice that everytime I finished a cup of coffee, I began to get a headache. What's the deal? I thought coffee was supposed to help headaches, not give them. This is where I began digging deeper into understanding how foods (and drinks) contribute to headaches. And boy was there a lot to learn...

The Rebound Effect

I reached a point where I got so tired of having bad headaches all the time that I complained to my doctor again, during an annual physical exam. The last time I made a big deal out of my headaches, my doctor referred me to a neurologist who wanted to put me on anti-depressants. I considered it, but once that particular headache I was having subsided, I bailed on the idea. I figured taking meds every day would only lead to more problems. This time around, my doctor referred me to the radiology department to get a brain MRI. Then I was sent to have some blood work done to check hormone and blood-sugar levels. When both of those avenues turned up nothing to write home about, I was referred to a neurologist once again. I had a pretty bad headache on the day I went to see him, and overall it was not a pleasant experience. The guy was distant, and aloof, and condescending, and kept me waiting alone in his exam room for a very long time. The one thing that I did come away with though was the concept of rebounding. That is - if you take too many medications (aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.) too often, your body gets used to it, and your headaches come back even more painful than before. It takes more and more medication to squelch a headache, and the headache becomes more and more resistant to being calmed down. So you end up taking pills and getting little to no relief. Plus you end up with monster headaches, worse than you ever had before. It's a downward spiral.