Fight Migraines With A Migraine Headache Diet
Most people today, even the elderly, live far more active lives than our forefathers did. This puts greater pressure on us to be able to perform as much as possible as well as possible. According to the National Headache Foundation, one of the biggest obstacles in the way of adults functioning to their full potential is migraine headaches. Some people suffer occasional attacks and others, especially women, are prone to regular debilitating migraines. Medicine has yet to find a cure for this affliction. Medication can help in alleviating the symptoms, but they often have long term side effects. It is far better to try and prevent the migraines or, as far as possible, to reduce the severity of the headaches. And that is where the migraine headache diet enters the picture.
Migraines can affect your work and your earnings, your relationships with family and friends and your health in general. These are all long term issues and the solution has to be equally long term – the migraine free diet. Medicines can help to treat the problem once it starts. A migraine headache diet can help to reduce the affect they have on you and improve the quality of your life.
What Makes For A Good Migraine Headache Diet?
A migraine headache diet is really nothing more than eating healthy. There are three factors that go towards creating a good migraine headache diet.
Firstly is eating good fresh foods. Except for a few restrictions mentioned later, a migraine headache diet should include everything, but in moderation. The first part of the migraine headache diet is overall good health and weight control. The healthier and stronger a person is, the better he is able to fight the effects of a migraine. And being overweight causes hormonal changes that makes the body more prone to migraines.
The second part of the migraine headache diet is avoiding foods that trigger migraines. These include alcohol, preserved foods, those containing MSG (Chinese foods, chips and so on), citrus fruits and some dairy products. Each person will have his own migraine trigger foods and experimenting over a period of time will show you which are the foods that trigger your migraines and which should be off your migraine headache diet.
Finally, there are foods that help prevent migraines, like those containing magnesium and vitamin B12. Iron rich foods also help to fight migraines. This list is more difficult to create for yourself because unlike foods which trigger migraines, it is difficult to identify foods that help your body to fight them and which should be part of your migraine headache diet. The best way to go about this is to do some research on the subject and add as many of these foods to your migraine headache diet as you are comfortable with.
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The Migraine Headache Diet – Its Safe And It Works
28 million Americans suffer from migraines, according to the National Headache Foundation. This costs the economy about & 50 billion a year from loss of work. And the World Health Organization says that migraines are the 19th most common cause of general disability worldwide. With figures like this, its obvious that migraines are an immense problem. With no permanent cure in sight, prevention and reduction in severity of the attacks is the only option. While medication does help, there are other options that are better for the health in general and chief among them is the migraine headache diet.
It has long been known that certain foods act a migraine triggers and avoiding these is part of the migraine headache diet. The second part of he migraine headache diet is the foods that should be eaten to prevent or at least reduce the severity of the migraines.
Foods To Avoid
Among the things that a good migraine headache diet recommends avoiding are:
All foods that contain Tyramine, a chemical that constricts blood vessels in the brain. This is found in preserved and aged foods like cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, onions, smoked meats, alcohol and Chinese and Japanese sauces
Foods and drinks that contain caffeine
Chocolates
Foods with Monosodium Glutamate
These are just a few of the items that should be kept out of the migraine headache diet. There are many more. These will vary from person to person and will depend of allergies, metabolisms and various health factors. Developing the right migraine headache diet will take time. You will have to keep a record of everything you eat and drink and over time you will be able to find foods that are linked to your migraines. These should be removed from your migraine headache diet. Once you have a good migraine headache diet in place, you can experiment with some of the foods that are generally supposed to cause migraines. They may not affect you and you are free to eat them.
Foods To Eat
Once again, this is not an exhaustive list of things to include in your migraine headache diet. These are foods that are supposed to help you fight migraines, but in a few cases allergies to specific foods etc. can cause problems. Use the following items as a general guide to creating your migraine headache diet and make changes to suit yourself.
Spices such as peppermint, mint, cayenne pepper, ginger and garlic
Fish
Spinach, broccoli and other calcium rich vegetables
Oatmeal
Magnesium rich foods like spinach, whole grains and beans
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