Health Interests

Migraines,  Headaches

Drugs I am Taking

Amerge,  caffeine

About Me

I am lucky to know the cause of almost all of my migraines.  Two things cause 99% of my migraines and so I'm able to prevent most of them.  I avoid most migraines by not eating food that contains gluten - almost all baked products like breads, pizza crusts, bageos, crackers, etc.   Another cause of migraines for me is physical - when a neck vertebrae moves back into place.  When it snaps back into place, it must touch a nerve or tendon that is trauma to something in my brain. This situation is the result of an injury to my neck.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley.  Oatmeal has a different type of gluten, but it also affects me.  Gluten causes an inflammation that I feel in my head, triggering a migraine or sinus problems.  Others suffer from gluten by having intestinal problems, called celiac disease.  Estrogen levels seem to "allow" the migraines when eating foods with gluten.  This means that I can eat gluten foods some days in the month but not others.  A simple way to test for a gluten problem is to avoid all such foods for a month, allowing for a full female cycle.  

As I entered perimenopause, the migraines became more frequent, more lengthy, more painful, telling me that lower estrogen levels caused more headaches or maybe another chemical that is also affected by perimenopause.  My father also suffered from migraines, but only once per month.

Migraines have recently become headaches and they come on more slowly. A doctor found me to be deficient in Vitamin D3 and I've been taking 1200 iu per day. It may be the missing clue to why my migraines became more frequent and more lengthy in the past 10 years. It's an amazing little miracle as it's also made my sweet cravings disappear, has raised my mood, and eliminated an afternoon nap I needed because of fatigue!

Of all the doctors, allergists, sinus doctors, neurologists I have seen throughout my life to help me with migraines, not one ever suggested that gluten products (wheat, barley, rye, oats) might be the cause.