From: woodgold@emr1.emr.ca (Cathy Woodgold)
Subject: migraines
Organization: Energy, Mines, and Resources, Ottawa
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 21:25:54 GMT

Cathy Woodgold's Migraine Treatments:  Some nutritional, some not
(With apologies for straying from the nutrition topic)

I used to suffer from serious, chronic migraines.  I am very happy
to have found several effective treatments over the past 8 years.
I now have merely mild, occasional migraines.

Chiropractic treatment has been the most effective.  Because of 
regular treatments, I get fewer migraines.  When I have a bad headache,
I go to the chiropractor, who usually says something like, "I'm not
surprised you have a headache;  this bone in your neck is out of place,"
and fixes it.  I asked the chiropractors not to x-ray me, and they 
have done just fine without the x-rays.

Biofeedback was the first effective treatment I found.  I learned to
warm up my hands by thinking a certain way.  The hormone which controls
blood flow to the fingers and therefore finger temperature is also 
involved in blood flow to the head and neck and therefore in migraines.
I learned to recognize cold hands as a sign that a migraine was coming,
and to prevent it by reducing stress and using the hand-warming thought 
patterns.  I do this mostly unconsciously now.  I learned biofeedback
from the book Migraine Relief, A Personal Treatment Program by
R.J. Kohlenberg.

Obnutrition:
I get migraines from certain foods.  All the books agree that chocolate
is the most likely food to cause migraines, and I am no exception.  I
also seem to get migraines from avocadoes, pineapples, beans, peas,
lentils, and some Chinese food (MSG?).  Other foods I currently avoid
because they may or may not give me migraines (I don't know yet) are
large amounts of salt, pork, shrimp, pickled herring, alcohol, caffeine,
aged cheese, coconut, and other things I forget right now.  It was easy
to identify chocolate once I got up the will power to go off it for a 
month.  To find the others, I went on a very restricted diet based on
one book about migraines (Control of Migraine by John B. Brainard).
Had I combined advice from several books, there would have been nothing
left to eat!  My migraines diminished significantly, and over the 
following weeks, months, and years I gradually tested and re-introduced
to my diet most of the disallowed foods.  Some I went on and off several
times to test for subtle effects.  Thus I discovered which ones affect me.
I'm still doing this.

The caffeine in chocolate is not the main reason chocolate causes migraines.
There's a group of substances called amines, common in food (different ones
in different foods) which are the main food trigger of migraines.  The one
in chocolate is the worst.  The one in cheese is called tyramine and is
next worst.  The amount of tyramine in cheese varies tremendously by
type and even batch of cheese.   Milk is OK, since the tyramine is produced
in the cheesemaking process by microorganisms.  Other amines are found in
other types of food.  Different amines may cause migraines in different
people.

Sometimes when I have a migraine I take vitamins C and B6, niacin, choline
and tryptophan.  This combination, plus an hour or two of rest in bed,
has produced good results for me.  I have also gotten relief from migraine
by taking enough niacin (not niacinamide) to cause a flush, but I don't 
do that now because I don't like the side effects (the flush, i.e. blood
rushing to the skin; aftertaste; nausea; heartburn in late pregnancy;
and too much niacin is reputed to be able to damage the liver). I also
take fresh, unrefined, uncooked, cold-pressed flax seed oil regularly
as a source of omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are supposed to 
help against migraine.  Vitamin C also helps against depression; when
I feel depressed or irritable, I take a few grams of vitamin C and feel
a bit better within a few minutes.

I also reduce the incidence of migraine by trying to eliminate thoughts
with the word "should" in them.  I notice my hands going cold in
conjunction with thoughts like "I shouldn't have said that".  I have
been helped in this by Effectiveness Training and psychological
counselling, and try to rephrase these thoughts without the concept
embodied by the word "should".  For example, "I decided to say that,
and I accept that both good and bad things may result."  It helps
to write the thoughts down;  otherwise they occur so fast I can't
pin them down to examine them properly.

Cathy Woodgold
woodgold@seismo.emr.ca  OR  woodgold@emr1.emr.ca
There is so such a thing as a free lunch!
(This posting is from me personally and does not represent
the policy of any organization.)