I loved that this post refers to the fact that this is a condition, one which employers, teachers, family and friends should have a better understanding of.

I recently started on the path of finding “the answer” for my migraines. My menstraul cylcle sets them off and they last for days; eating certain trigger foods, sunlight, etc - all triggers. BUT what I had found was that most of the foods I eat (I am very picky) were triggers and I was completely unaware of it.

I have since reduced my diet to baby carrots, apple slices, and grilled boneless skinless chicken. I have not had a migraine in 5 days! That is along time considering I would go weeks before I would go a day without one. Even during my cycle this month, my headache was reduced to one occurance and I was able to stop it with the Imitrex.

I have only started this change in food that I eat; but admittedly I am TERRIFIED to reintroduce any foods for the fear of another migraine.

There has to be a better way, a “migraine diet”…does anyone know?

We have a nice community of people many with their own health challenges. One loyal reader comes to mind that may be able to offer advice - either personally (she may have contact info on her site) or via her blog: http://migraineur.wordpress.com/

I hope this helps and that you and your husband are able to get to the root of this serious problem.

My husband has severe migranes. He has an almost permanent headache everyday and then on top of these daily headaches approximately once a week he has a migraine of horrendous proportions. Several times he has had to be rushed to hospital for them, he vomits, collapses and has gone unconcious at times during them.

He has tried many medications both to prevent and to minimize the effects of these migraines, none of which have helped and some of those medications have had seriously adverse affects, including rage and uncontrolable irratibility. For which my husband had steadfastly refused to use or take any of them ever again. Other medications leave him loopy and feeling unfocused, which is just as bad.

These migranes are so dibiliatating and painful for him and there seems that there is nothing that anyone can do. We have tried chirporactic, accupuncture, reflexology, essential oils, B supplements and many other things, all of which have not helped in the slightest.

I have a serious concern due to the frequency, duration and severity of his migraines (coupled with the almost permanent running headache) that we will not be able to find some type of mitigator or ease for him.

Please can anyone tell me if there has been good sucess with the glueten free lifestyle. I have read and heard reports that this is a viable option, but it is a substantial change to a family (yes if we did this it would be for the whole family, as I wouldn’t want my husband to have to go through this alone and in all honesty having to cook two different styles is not realistic everyday).

Is there anyone that can give me more information or give me directions to books or websites that might provide this?

Thank you.

I’ve been getting severe migraines since I was seven years old. I am now 20. For five years now I’ve been strictly on holistic and herbal supplements/remedies, and have paid close attention to staying away from foods in which trigger my migraines. It helps, but I still get them, and when I do I’m out for days… which is difficult since I’m in college now and professors don’t like hearing sob stories about why my attendance is so low.

I’ve tried to deny now for years to myself and those around me how bad my migraines are. It’s hard to always be explaining to people who don’t and will never understand the pain I’ve had to live through… the pain I still go through. How hard it is to sometimes get through the simple matters in life.

Anyway. I wanted to applaud you on the post. I’ve really needed to stay informed… and I find myself not as informed as I thought I should be anymore. Although there was one thing I wanted to say…

I highly discourage pharmaceutical therapy… from the time I was ten years old to the time I was 15, I had neurologist after neurologist put me on medications to help “prevent” my migraines… except every drug they put me on never did anything… and in the end they simply started guessing at what may work for me, putting me on medications that had nothing to do with migraines… leaving me to deal with the horrific side effects. You say that the side effects are better to deal with in the end… and while I agree with you on the fact that “downing piles of pills in desperation” isn’t healthy at all (believe me… I know)… the medications I was on with their side effects only made the situation worse. Far worse. Migraines and the side effects from the medications I took for those five years nearly obliterated my life…

Anyway… after refusing to take medications after turning 15 my family and I heard of a holistic medical center, and it was then I learned of my food allergies, mainly wheat/gluten, corn and sugar. Cutting these out of my diet helps a lot, but as you can imagine can sometimes be hard to get around. Other triggers can be bright lights (mainly the bright sun… its not always a blessing to live in SoCal…), stress/anxiety and certain chemicals…