diet - Migraines Retreat With Diet Modifications

Migraines Retreat With Diet Modifications

by Alisa Fleming

The research is clear, food intolerance, allergies, and hypersensitivities are key triggers of headaches and migraines. Although each migraine sufferer may react to a different food or group of foods, there are a few which seem to pop up as frequent offenders: dairy (including milk, cheeses, and yogurt), wheat, eggs, soy, corn, citrus, chocolate, coffee, beef, yeast, red wine, and processed foods with additives and preservatives.
In the pursuit to identify these top offenders, scientists and physicians have enlisted the oligoantigenic diet. This is a hypoallergenic "elimination" diet, consisting of a selection of foods that are presumably well tolerated. During their studies, patients are told to eat only the "safe" foods outlined on their version of the oligonantigenic diet in an effort to eliminate any symptoms. Once the symptoms have gone into remission, the "high risk" foods are re-introduced into the diet one at a time to assess their potential trigger effect on symptoms. This type of diet should be undertaken with the assistance of a physician, in order to ensure adequate nutritional intake. In each of the 3 case studies listed below, some form of an oligoantigenic diet was used:
60 migraine patients followed an elimination diet after a

5-day withdrawal from their normal diet. Upon reintroduction, specific foods elicited migraine reactions in a significant percentage of patients: wheat (78%), oranges (65%), eggs (45%), tea and coffee (40% each), chocolate and milk (37% each), beef (35%), and corn, cane sugar, and yeast (33% each). When an average of ten common trigger foods were avoided, there was a dramatic decline in the number of headaches per month and 85% of patients actually became headache-free! As science would have it, an added benefit was welcomed by the 25% of these patients who also had hypertension - their blood pressure returned to normal levels
In a clinical trial 93% of 88 children who suffered frequent and severe migraines recovered on oligoantigentic diets. Most of the patients responded to several foods, which suggested the probability of an allergic rather than a metabolic cause. An added bonus... abdominal pain, behavior disorder, fits, asthma, and eczema also improved in several of these patients
A research study trialed an oligoantigenic diet on 63 children with epilepsy, 45 of which also suffered from migraines, hyperkinetic behavior, or both. The 18 children who had epilepsy alone saw no improvement on the oligoantigenic diet. However, of the 45

children with additional symptoms, 25 ceased to have seizures and 11 had fewer seizures while on this diet. Migraines, abdominal pain, and hyperkinetic behavior halted in the 25 children who stopped having seizures, and also in some of those who did not stop having seizures. Reintroduction of foods one by one confirmed that the seizures, migraines, hyperkinetic activity, and abdominal pain these children were experiencing related to 42 different "trigger" foods.
So why do so many people suffer from migraines and other headaches when they consume these foods? The medical community is getting closer to an answer. Researchers in Germany have discovered a genetic mutation responsible for the "faulty wiring" and the subsequent pain. Although clinical scientists have known for a while that migraines are hereditary, the exact "defect" being passed on was previously unknown.
About the Author
© Go Dairy Free (2005) - http://www.godairyfree.org
GoDairyFree.org was written and published by Superstar Life, Inc., a company centered on life management, growth, and enhancement. If you have any questions, or would like to submit a testimonial, recipes, or useful information, please email info@godairyfree.org

Other Articles:

Liposuction - What You Need To Know
In today’s world, our culture dictates a very unrealistic body shape to be considered fit and beautiful, many people find this a problem and suffer from many different psychological complications because of the fact that they feel they do not fit the body requirements to make them...

The Benefits of Being Fit
Being able to deal with and handle the daily stresses of life is a benefit afforded to the fit person. Making sure we take the time to accommodate our needs for stress relief, such as downtime, therapy time, massage time, or simply take the time for a nice, hot bath. The body tends...

Lecithin - An Amazing Youth Element
Lecithin is the most abundant of the phospholipids. It is a fatty food substance, which serves as a structural material for every cell in the body. It is an essential constituent of the human brain and nervous system. It forms 30 percent of the dry weight of the brain and 17 percent of...