Consider an example. After a few weeks or months, before you see a pattern in your observations, risk factors will gradually become clear, for example, sodium glutamate, onions, stress, weather change and hormonal changes. And although the influence of a lot of this list – the weather, for example, will not be able to avoid, it will be possible to reduce the level of risk in general, you only need to exclude dangerous foods, drink enough water and try to get enough sleep, avoiding sleep disturbances.
The stories of people who seriously follow their food diet cannot but inspire – a forty -year -old resident of a large metropolis decided to carefully monitor the circumstances accompanying the emergence of migraine attacks. She determined that hormonal changes and food – glutamate sodium, red wine, smoked cheeses and meat, red food dyes and dark chocolate are most affected. Other factors – cosmetic aromas, flashing or fluoriscitting lamps and acute hunger – also caused a problem. After she limited contacts with these sources, the amount of her migraines decreased from 100 to four per year.
The success that these people come to is not surprising for Bukholts. He says that almost all people suffering from migraines can get significant relief by identifying food sources of headaches.
How to set restrictions
In addition to keeping a diary, Bhaholz recommends restrictive diets in order to help determine the stimuli. Using this method, first, for four months, exclude from the diet all products that are most often mentioned as causing headache (see. The list below), and then gradually add them one at a time until problematic food is found. He advises to exclude problematic products at once, and not one at a time to reduce the number of mixed options.
The source will not appear instantly – know how to wait. “Often people suffering from headache, people try to convince themselves that some of their favorite food cannot be a source of their headache, or because it does not always cause a headache, or because the pain occurs only the day after taking this food , while they believe that the result should appear immediately, ”says Bhaholts. But in reality, headache can occur a day after the adoption of a problematic product.
Caffeine myth
Bhaholts claims that while food sources of headache can be different among different people, caffeine will probably lead the list of food “villains”. Many are misleading, thinking that caffeine gives a positive effect. “Caffeine helps for a while to weaken the pain due to narrowing of the blood vessels, but the opposite effect of expanding these vessels subsequently leads to a larger number of headaches as a whole,” he says. – When a person experiences a headache as a result of the termination of caffeine, it seems that the head hurts from its lack, which enhances the incorrect performance ”.