Migraine Headaches - Triggers and Addictions

We are at the early to mid June time frame in my journey right now. My headache experience has improved greatly. But I'm still having a serious headache every 1-2 weeks. I have come so far, I desperately want to go the rest of the way and eliminate them completely. Right now, I would like to talk about a few things I have learned along the way.

Certain foods can act as headache triggers to certain people, there is no question about it. From my experience, the most common headache triggers were:

• chocolate, sugar
• alcohol (of any type)
• MSG (often found in Chinese food)
• COFFEE

Ouch, that hurts doesn't it? These were four of my most beloved food groups. After all, who doesn't love a Hershey's bar, or ice cream, or blueberry pie, or a banana split loaded with whipped cream? How many pure tea-tottlers are there? A good Chinese meal every month or so was a staple. And coffee, oh boy, most of you realize the importance of coffee in a persons life.

Along this marathon journey to headache freedom I had to eliminate all of these delectable foods (well, I don't know if delectable is an adequate adjective for beer, but you understand). It was amazing how easy it was for me to give up chocolate and sugar. When I determined that these were definite headache triggers I quit cold turkey. That was the easiest one of them all.

I never was a big drinker but I did enjoy a nice glass of wine at dinner or a cold beer or two, especially on a hot day. Now this one was not easy to give up. I made many excuses for just drinking one more. There was always the "I just need to make sure" excuse. And nearly every time I drank another glass I was sure all over again. All of the advertising and social pressure make this very hard to give up. The most potent of all drinks was red wine. One or two sips would lead to an immediate headache. It would usually take 30-90 minutes for beer or other alcohol to take affect, but it nearly always happened.

MSG was not an easy one either, mainly because I was not aware of the connection between it and headaches until recently. Often when I would go to a Chinese restaurant I would have a drink along with the meal and then blame the post meal headache on the drink. It was my good friend Dr. Teresa Latendress who informed me that MSG definitely leads to headaches for many people. You guessed it, I had to try it for myself to make sure. I have probably had 4-5 meals with food that has had MSG and no alcohol since Dr. T. provided that bit of information to me. And once again, you are right, 4-5 serious headaches. MSG is out of my diet now as much as possible (unless I am not aware of it).

Some people do not know the foods that contain MSG. In tomorrow's post I want to list some foods that are labeled as "Hidden Sources of MSG in Foods" from the book "Excitotoxins - The Taste That Kills' by Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD. And then I also want to talk about coffee.

I hope this information can help some people. It has been a large help to me. Here's to living healthy, here's to Feeling Outstanding!

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