October 5, 2023 general

My migraines started in college. They were the classic most uncomfortable type—sensitivity to light, sounds, smells, and stomach-churning pain. Heat on the back of my neck and ice on my forehead helped a little. Doctors could only offer the latest pain killer (they didn’t work & upset my stomach). New medications are more effective but still don’t fix the root cause. If I asked doctors what was causing the problem, they looked at me like I was speaking Klingon. Many years later (still suffering) I noticed a Let’s Live magazine that mentioned migraines on the cover. The article was about tyramine, an amino acid (especially high in red wine and certain foods like aged cheese) that can trigger migraines. Avoiding tyramine helped a little bit but the big benefit of the article was to wake me up to the idea that something I was doing or eating might be responsible. So, not knowing what that might be, the next time I had headache, I simply ate nothing. The next day I was not only headache free, but also felt fantastic (fasting can do that). Fortunately, in 1981 I discovered a pioneer functional medicine doctor (Don Mannerberg, MD) who tracked down the source of my problem. It turns out that I was deficient in magnesium and selenium, sensitive to some foods and had intestinal yeast overgrowth. Implementing those changes, got the headaches down to one per month. Those were so regular on the calendar that I figured out it must be related to hormones. Indeed…I needed progesterone. Thankfully, I haven’t had a migraine in 40 years! (My sweet husband wants to claim some of the credit. OK) Occasionally, I will do get a visual disturbance that is an aura (sign of a impending migraine). When that happens, I figure out what rule I’m breaking and stop it.