Food Intolerance and Migraines
Classified as a headache of varying intensity, migraines are often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. While they may seem like a temporary inconvenience, migraines routinely affect 1 billion people worldwide.
How Can Migraines Affect Your Life?
Living with debilitating migraines is not only painful, but can also affect sleep patterns, result in a loss of productivity, and raise levels of anxiety and depression.
Chronic migraine sufferers should seek medical treatment as a significant history has been shown to increase the risk for heart attacks or stroke.
Common Causes of Migraines
Migraines can have many triggers including bright lights, alcohol, food, certain smells and more.
Symptoms Include:
- Throbbing head pain
- Sensitivity to light
- Sensitivity to sound
- Blurred Vision
- Aura
- Vomiting
Migraines, Diet, and Food Intolerance
The American Migraine Foundation suggests a certain eating strategy when it comes to combating migraines through diet. Recommending fresh, whole, unprocessed foods, the AMF advises to eat foods in “portions spread throughout the day averaging five to six calorie controlled portions. This eating behavior assists in preventing headache due to hunger, avoids large amounts of any supposed chemical trigger at any given time, and finally, fires up one’s metabolism—preventing weight gain, which is a likely factor contributing to risk of headache progression.”
However, even the most healthful foods can still work against you if you’re intolerant to them. This happens when your body cannot properly digest and convert the foods you eat into the necessary nutrients that fuel your system. The immune system will then kick-in and start attacking improperly digested proteins, causing inflammation, which can then exacerbate many negative symptoms.
How a Food Intolerance Test Can Help
Eliminating and replacing problem foods from your diet may help fight against migraines. The quickest way to identify your food intolerances is by taking a blood test that measures IgG antibody levels against a variety of different food proteins.
This kind of testing helps to quickly identify which foods are responding negatively with your system and can be much more efficient than food journaling or guess-and-check diets.
All that’s left to do after you get your results is to eliminate the foods you’re intolerant to. That’s it. No follow ups. No exercise regiments. Zero hassles.
