This occasionally happens, and in fact, some people are sensitive to several different foods
Your doctor can arrange special blood tests to detect food sensitivities. The reason, presumably, is that the natural changes in hormones that occur over the month affect her sensitivity"; Your triggers can change over time. For example, a woman might normally be able to eat half a box of chocolates with no problem, but as she approaches her period, a single piece might trigger the migraine. Your tolerance might be different at different times. This sometimes leads people to believe that foods are not the problem.'; You might find that you can have a small amount of a trigger food without getting a headache, while a larger amount brings on the headache.
If you are affected by several foods, eliminating only one may make no difference at all. Sometimes the headache will not show up until a large amount of the culprit is eaten, perhaps over a few days. They may be the ones you might least suspect. The offending foods can be ones you are fond of, perhaps even foods for which you have cravings.' Here are some tips to help you identify triggers: Foods that have caused headaches were usually eaten within three to six hours of the attack. Hold off adding any foods on the dirty-dozen list and any of the beverage and additive triggers until last. If not, you can keep it in your diet. Again, have a generous amount of each new food so you can see whether it causes symptoms.
Once your symptoms have gone or diminished, which may take a week or so, you can add other foods one at a time, every other day, to see which ones cause symptoms. You simply start by building your menu entirely from the pain-safe foods, avoiding all others for the moment. The idea is simple. It is used for many other conditions as well, particularly arthritis and digestive problems. The elimination diet is designed to track down any unusual pain triggers.
An elimination diet will help you sort this out. If two weeks on the basic antimigraine diet does not reduce your headaches, the next step is to check whether a food that is not on the list of common migraine triggers may be causing your symptoms. First, chocolate, red wine, and many other foods contain chemicals that affect blood flow to the brain and encourage inflammation. Two reasons. How can chocolate or a glass of red wine look so friendly and appealing and then suddenly stab you in the back-or, more accurately, in the side of your head? Typical skin-patch tests are of little use for migraine triggers, since they detect only certain kinds of allergies. Information is available from Serammune Physicians Lab, 1890 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 22091,800-553-5472. They can be rather expensive, but are faster than elimination diets.
Low-fat vegetarian foods let you | Try the simple guidelines below for three | If fatty toppings are your nemesis | See guidelines on how to check your iron | It is a general indicator of risk, not | It simply means that you have less cholesterol | Even small deviations from a vegetarian | You can substitute any equivalent activity | As the pain intensified, she feared she might | It lasts for anywhere from four hours | Of this group, seventy-eight recovered completely | A headache kicks in, and eventually the lights | The key is to be careful in avoiding | This occasionally happens, and in fact, some | Red wine does seem to be among the | The factory was founded by Dr. James Baker | Surgeons used to puzzle over the fact | As a naturally occurring plant, it cannot | When they did occur, a dose of ginger | All of these are pain-safe foods | It drops / quickly just before her period | But men benefit from the same diet change | Avoid the common trigger foods completely | Acupuncture has been helpful for | One-half milliliter of the lidocaine solution | Doctors may recommend antinausea medications | Environmental chemicals
