Migraines
When you have a migraine the blood vessels in your head go through extreme constriction (vasoconstriction) followed by rapid dilation (vasodilation).
This process is probably caused by an excess of excitory neurotransmitters and a lack of the calming neurotransmitter serotonin.
There are many triggers for a migraine attack and these include various
food sensitivities , climate, stress, loud sounds etc.
The reason triggers lead to a migraine attack is not clearly understood but there are many credible theories.
In the first part of these notes are the simple suggestions for patients suffering from migraines.
The second part is a brief summary of the research behind the suggestions.
The basic diet and lifestyle protocol outlined in From
Depression to glorious health (free download at www.geocities.com/glorioushealth ) is recommended. This diet and lifestyle protocol explains how to increase and normalise levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin and improve basic health.
1. Diet
A diet which produces a good balance of eicosanoids, normalises levels of serotonin the "feel good" hormone and controls blood glucose is essential and the primary method of treatment.
Eat low fat protein with every meal and especially sardines, salmon, turkey breast, tofu, chicken breast and whey protein isolate.
Eat fruit and vegetables for carbohydrates. Eliminate bread, pasta, rice, potatos, bananas and processed foods from the diet.
Eat good fats from raw almonds, macadamia nuts, avacado or cold pressed extra virgin olive oil every meal.
Eat as many leafy greens and as much lettuce as you like.
Eliminate food triggers.
Examine your reaction to foods and eliminate any foods that trigger a migraine attack.
You can also perform the arm strength test to determine possible food triggers.
Supplements:
Fish oil could have an antispasmodic effect on the blood vessels in your brain, possibly helping to prevent migraines.
Fish oil can also help restore eicosanoid balance and better eicosanoid balance usually leads to better neurotransmitter balance.
Take at least 4 fish oil capsules every day.
If necessary take pharmaceutical grade fish oil symptomatically.
Magnesium in capsules or in sea minerals.
500mg to 1000mg a day.
Magnesium may reduce the frequency of migraine attacks according to several studies.
B vitamins.
Take one B complex tablet.
Also riboflavin (vitamin B2) 400mg daily.
Lactobacillus capsule 1-3 times daily for two weeks then once a day.
Also known as good bacteria or probiotics.
Some preparations also contain bifidus which is fine.
Glucosamine at 1500mg or more a day has been shown to prevent some migraines.
Glucosamine is also useful for joint repair.
Co enzyme Q10.
Consider taking 150mg daily.
Gingko biloba.
Consider taking 120mg daily to improve blood circulation in your brain.
2. Water
Headaches can be caused by dehydration so you should be sure to drink enough water. You could also add sea minerals to your drinking water below the threshold of taste to increase your intake of magnesium.
Somewhere between 8 and 16 glasses of water a day is about right for most people.
3. Exercise.
With migraine sufferers it’s very important to exercise moderately and build up slowly. Exercise is essential for good health and insulin control but excessively vigorous exercise could lead to a migraine attack.
A study at the institute of Biomedical Research of Light and Image in Coimbra, Portugal found that high intensity exercise to the point of exhaustion over 30 seconds could lead to a migraine attack in the next 4 ½ to 5 ½ hours.
Exercise moderately. Be gentle on your body and build up gradually over a period of weeks or months. Be sure to stretch and warm up before you exercise.
4. Hygiene
In some cases, especially where sinusitis coexists with migraines allergic triggers can be involved. Practicing advanced hygiene and especially effective cleaning of the fingernails of your hands can reduce the innoculation of allergic triggers.
Avoid contact between your fingers and the mucous membranes of your eyes, nose and mouth. This is the primary method of transmission of many allergens.
Since sinusitis is often linked to migraines practising facial dips daily or several times daily can help.
Fill a bowl with warm water and add around two teaspoons of salt per litre. Immerse your face in the water, blink and blow bubbles through your nose.
5. Sleep
Insomnia and other sleep disorders like snoring often coincide with severe headaches.
This could be due to poor neurotransmitter production and low serotonin levels in particular.
Serotonin the "feel good" hormone is the major building block of melatonin the sleep hormone.
The low levels of serotoin in migraine sufferers could lead to poor melatonin production, trouble getting to sleep and poor sleep quality.
Too little sleep or poor quality sleep could lead to a migraine attack. In some, more rare cases too much sleep can lead to a migraine attack.
Closely examine your sleep habits and improve the quality, quantity and consistency of your sleep.
Getting fifteen to thirty minutes of sunshine (direct or indirect) in the morning helps to reset your internal body clock helping in the natural production of melatonin around bedtime.
Melatonin supplementation.
Supplementing with melatonin could reduce the incidence of migraine attacks and is sometimes used to reduce the symptoms of an attack.
A dose of 1/2mg to 10mg is normal.
3mg a half hour before bedtime is the most usual dose.
You should be cautious supplementing with melatonin as it may increase asthma symptoms.
A basic guideline is that it is probably safer to supplement with melatonin if the protein/carbohydrate ratio in your diet is good.
6. Emotional health.
Stress can be a trigger to migraine attacks and anxiety and panic attacks could be linked to migraines.
Relaxation training helped reduce the severity, frequency and duration of migraines in children in a small study at Cincinatti Children’s Hospital in Ohio.
Relaxation can reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Excess cortisol can lead to the overproduction of "bad" eicosanoids.
So learning a basic deep breathing relaxation response to stress is recommended.
Scrutinizing your fundamental values and beliefs to see where they may produce excess stress can also be helpful.
Being more compassionate, understanding, accepting and loving invariably reduces emotional stress.
EFT (emotional freedom techniques) are easy to learn and clinical success in reducing migraine attacks and reducing the symptoms of attacks is promising.
In one study EFT significantly reduced the severity and frequency of epileptic seizures in children and subsequent brain scans showed significant improvement.
Epilepsy is similar to migraines in that they both involve an excess of excitory neurotransmitters.
A study by Australian researcher Steve Wells showed significant improvements in patients suffering from arachnaphobia (fear of spiders) using just one session of EFT.
Remember that arachnaphobia is related to the anxiety and panic attacks that can be linked to migraines.
EFT or the method of reducing emotional distress is outlined briefly in the free book From
Depression to glorious health or you can seek out more free infomation from the links at www.geocities.com/glorioushealth .
Migraines in more detail.
When you have a migraine the blood vessels in your head go through extreme constriction (vasoconstriction) followed by rapid dilation (vasodilation).
The cause of migraines seems to be multifactoral.
Serotonin the "feel good" hormone.
The most likely cause is poor neurotransmitter control and in particular poor control of serotonin levels. Low levels of serotonin are the most likely but an excess is also possible. Supplementing with serotonin’s precursor 5 hydroxytryptophan showed significant benefits in one study so a lack of serotonin is the most likely cause.
Serotonin helps reduce neurotransmitter communication.
This could in effect calm down the excess excitation in your brain implicated in migraines.
It’s also interesting to note that anti-epileptic medications can be useful in reducing the symptoms of migraines and these medications usually work by reducing neurotransmitter communication.
Since serotonin release and reuptake is controlled by eicosanoids (PGE1 in particular) achieving good eicosanoid balance with diet and lifestyle changes should be considered the primary method of treatment. The book From
Depression to glorious health in six steps (free download at www.geocities.com/glorioushealth ) outlines a diet and lifestyle protocol to increase levels of serotonin and improve overall health.
This basic diet protocol should also help improve general mood, reduce inflammation, control blood glucose and improve digestive problems which could be linked to migraines.
Mood problems and migraines
Migraines can be linked to a variety of mood related disorders.
It’s interesting to note that most of the neurotransmitters which affect mood are directly or indirectly controlled by eicosanoids.
A good balance of eicosanoids usually results in constant good moods.
Poor eicosanoid balance is implicated in the following diseases which can all be linked to migraines:
Neurotransmitter diseases.
Depression can be linked to migraines. A study at the University of Turin in San Diego in 2002 showed a link with depression and migraine headaches and several other studies have done the same.
Pre menstrual tension (PMS) and menstruation can coincide with migraines. Migraines are at least twice as common in the two days before and the first two days of menstruation. For woman suffering from migraines in this way it pays to be especially strict with diet and lifestyle regimine in the week leading up to and during menstruation.
Anxiety and panic attacks were linked to migraines in a Norwegian study. Again these can be at least partially symptoms of poor neurotransmitter balance and a lack of serotonin in particular.
Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in children could be linked to migraines. ODD is characterised with problems accepting parental rules or discipline, being argumentative and difficulty in relationships with peers and siblings.
ODD is almost certainly due to poor neurotransmitter balance and most likely poor serotonin levels.
Inflammatory diseases
All inflammatory diseases are classic cases of poor eicosanoid balance because nearly all inflammation in your body is caused by "bad" eicosanoids.
It’s interesting to note that non steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and aspirin can both reduce the symptoms of migraines and both of these drugs act by inhibiting the production of eicosanoids.
To reduce inflammation in most cases requires restoring the balance of eicosanoids through diet and lifestyle.
This is usually the most effective method of control.
Sinusitis can be linked to migraines and in some cases sinus headaches and migraines can be confused.
One cause of sinusitis is inflammation leading to swelling in the sinus nodes.
Sinusitis can usually be relieved with methods of advanced hygiene.
Trochleitis is inflammation of the trochlea tendon in the eye socket.
Treatment of this inflammation can often relieve migraine symptoms.
Inflammation of some teeth could also be implicated in migraine headaches according to one dentist who had some success treating the inflammation of particular molars.
Asthma, a disease caused mainly by inflammation in the lungs could be linked to some cases of migraines.
Digestive disorders
Gluten or wheat intolerance (celiac disease) could lead to migraines in some patients according to a study by the Catholic and La Sapienza Universities in Rome.
Celiac disease could also be at least partially considered an inflammatory disease too.
Elimination of wheat products like bread, pasta, pastries etc is recommended to help control insulin production in any case so this finding gives special significance to dietary control in this area.
Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria could be another cause of migraines according to several studies.
Helicobacter pylori can often be eliminated with
Antibiotics (tetracycline or similar) and bismuth.
Supplementing with the good bacteria from probiotics (lactobacillus capsules) has also been effectove in at least one study.
Controlling blood glucose
A steady supply of glucose in your brain is needed to maintain your body’s basic fuel (ATP) in the mitochondria of your brain cells.
This ATP allows those brain cells to pump out excitory neurotransmitters into the surrounding glia cells for storage.
Without a steady supply of glucose these excitory neurotransmitters could cause the overexcitement of the brain cells implicated in migraines.
This could also explain why anti-epileptic drugs can reduce the symptoms of migraines because epilepsy also has the same excess excitement of brain cells.
Your body has no way of controlling the level of glucose in your brain so it is essential to follow a diet that controls glucose in the rest of your body to keeps levels steady.
In particular reduce insulin production (insulin drives down blood glucose by storing it as fat) by eating low glycemic fruit and vegetables as your main source of carbohydrates. Avoid bread, pasta, rice, potatos and bananas.
Eat low fat protein with every meal. Protein stimulates the release of glucagon and glucagon stimulates the release of glucose from your liver where it can be transported to your brain.
Exercise
Why would exercising vigourously to the point of exhaustion over 30 seconds lead to a migraine attack. The researchers in Portugal theorized that this kind of exercise could spike levels of nitric oxide which could dilate blood vessels leading to a migraine headache.
I’m not sure I agree with the theory but I do agree that you should stretch, warm up and build up your exercise program very gradually.
Triggers
Migraine triggers can include food,
food additives , stress, some medications, flashing lights, loud sounds, humidity or changes in weather, changes in altitude, hormone changes and hormone replacement therapy.
The most common food suspects are milk, wheat, soy, chocolates, meats with nitrate
preservatives like ham, pizza, aged cheese, alcohol and especially beer and wine, caffeine (both in excess and withdrawl), some nuts and especially peanuts, pickled fermented or marinated foods and MSG.
It may take a combination of several factors to lead to a migraine attack which supports the theory that the cause is an excess of excitory neurotransmitters which simply overreact to a trigger’s stimulus.
Getting your body’s neurotransmitters back in balance through changes in diet and lifestyle is likely to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks.
The arm strength test to determine triggers.
Although it seems a little strange in many patients the arm strength test is a quick, simple and useful tool for determining possible food triggers.
The arm test was, in fact, the invention of Dr George Goodheart who found that people became weak when exposed to substances they were allergic to or substances that were simply not good for their health.
Using this basic principal Dr Goodheart fathered the field of kenisiology.
Keep in mind this method is not necessarily a
Science and for a few people it seems ineffective, and under certain circumstances it can be ineffective.
Having said that, in most cases it is very useful.
The technique.
Hold your arm out to your side horizontal.
Simply think of a food or hold that food against your chest.
Have a friend try to push your arm down to test your resistance.
If your arm goes down easily you should probably avoid that food.
If your arm shows plenty of resistance it’s probably safe to eat that food.
Free download of From depression to glorious health and other notes on disease
http://www.geocities.com/glorioushealth