the program

The adventures of a chronic migraine sufferer. On getting sick, getting better, and surviving both.


Today is the day after a migraine. This one was sharp and came on quick. It was on the right side of my head, which was all kinds of disorienting since I am used to them being on the left. Even how I made my bed on the couch had to change. I managed to squeeze out a half-day at work before saying uncle and going home. I was dangerously nauseous on the bus ride home--the only thing that curbed it was balling up my hoodie and pressing it against the right side of my head and breathing as slow as possible.

Currently I'm digging deeper into the 1-2-3 Program book, by David Buchholz. The idea is that one can heal their headaches by things like dietary change instead of quick fixes like medication(over-the-counter or prescribed). I'm all for this perspective. The more I read, the more excited I get. Until...

...until I hit the chapter with suggested dietary restrictions. Oy vey, what is there left to eat?

For example, tyramine is a trigger. What is tyramine? Tyramine is a natural-occurring compound found in many foods that can cause blood vessels to dilate, which can set off nasty head pain in people prone to migraines. This amine is prominent in foods that are processed/aged. The more it is aged, the worse the trigger can be. This covers anything dried, pickled, fermented, salted or smoked.

I'd like to try a low-tyramine diet, for sure. Here are a few things that I will have to say au revoir to:

- sauerkraut
- pickles (NOOOOOO)
- olives
- sourdough bread
- snow peas (NOOOOO)
- lima beans (NOOOOO)
- tofu
- avocado (Sigh. No, please not my avocado)
- eggplant
- beets
- spinach (!?!?)
- fermented or overripe fruit
- nutmeg
- ginseng
...and more that I am now getting too depressed to list here.

MSG is also a trigger. MSG is a form of concentrated salt added to foods to enhance flavor. I think a diet free of MSG would be awesome. To make that happen, here are a few things I will need to avoid:

- soy sauce
- overripe tomatoes
- mushrooms
- any snacks with powdered cheese(Doritos, Cheetos, etc)
- veggie burgers
- sausage
- take-out chinese food
- Progresso and Campbells soups
- marmite
- bacon bits (OH NO)

...Again, the list goes on. The part I find extra-cruel about these triggers is that they may not hit the trip wire immediately. Meaning you may have a food trigger and not get a migraine for up to 72 hours.

According to the 1-2-3 Program, here are a list of other things I will need to avoid:

- caffeine (this is going to be the hardest thing for me to kick. I doubt I will ever completely remove it from my diet, but I would like to knock my intake down a peg or two)

- chocolate
- cheese
- nuts, including peanut butter (I'm not ready to give up my pb yet--it's where I get a lot of my protein anyway)

- citrus fruits and juices, including pineapples, oranges, lemons, lines (I cannot even wrap my head around this one. I love my citrus fruits. I had an orange wtih breakfast this morning--how could I possibly kick those buddies to the curb?)

The program goes on to say that you should follow the diet strictly to get the full results. It's honestly a little too ballbusting for me, so I think I'm going to take some things from the 1-2-3 program and adapt it to my own bastardized version of a migraine diet. For example, I am confident that I can remove MSG from my diet. I can work on removing foods high in Tyramine, but that might take longer. Buchholz recommends following his very strict diet for at least 2 to 3 months before slowly introducing foods to see what triggers one might have. I can't imagine following that sucker for a day let alone months. Oof.

So yeah, food triggers? They are everywhere. And it is a bummer to think about.

My next post will cover more of my current diet plan in detail.