I am not a good writer and english is not my mother language so I will try to make this quick and to the point.
One day I woke up and I was dizzy. Also, my vision was all blurred and with lots of TV static. My depth perception was gone and I felt like my brain could not fuse the image of both eyes properly. I went to a neurologist and a ENT doctor… they told me everything was fine and it was stress. I got worse and worse… I was going crazy, cried… all the normal stuff I read in this forum. I lost my life. Then one day I decided to research for myself and discovered about MAV and this forum. I bought the book “heal your headache”, followed the diet and 3 months later I was ok. I am sure now that my problem was coffee since all my problems started at the same time I started to drink it every day, something I had never done before in my life
David! Thank you SO much for posting this. I will try to be better about following the recommendations in that book. It takes self control esp when your favorite foods used to be all the foods that are migraine triggers. I used to drink so much coffee and that may have partly triggered it- and on days that I have coffee, things are worse. That’s really great that you didn’t have to take any meds and were OK just on diet modification alone. Stay well! x
What is important to make clear is that if it is coffee the cause of your problems it is gonna take several months to cure. It’s gonna be a slow process with lots of setbacks. Also, the moment you quit coffee you actually get worse. But don’t give up.
Hi Liv85! Yep I think you really should try to knock the caffeine on the head. I have a feeling that it’s one thing that I’ll always have to avoid. I’m hoping the day comes when I can have a bit of red wine or chocolate, or even an orange! But I don’t think I’ll be able to have coffee. A couple of weeks ago I accidentally drank my husband’s coffee (basically got his cup and my cup of barley coffee mixed up- I was thinking how much it tasted like thd real thing that day! Duh!) My heart was beating out of my chest and I’d a couple of horrible days afterwards. I know it’s tough when you feel like so fatigued and you want something to pick you up, but maybe have go without it and see how you get on? Hope you’re still doing ok though. You levelled out quite a bit didn’t you?
I’m doing alright but really want to get off the gabapentin if I can stabilize enough just on my supplements and petadolex butterbur (has helped me quite a bit!) - the days when I take gabapentin, I seem to get more acne (I never used to have much) and feel more bloated and lethargic. My moods are also more unstable… I really appreciate your advice about the caffeine!! I’ll try my best to quit that if I can get off gabapentin (or even if I have to stay on it). Gaba makes me just so tired… xx
Just get off the caffeine. It is not worth it, is it? Plus, if you go into remission, you might be able to go back to it in a year or two. But if you don’t get off it, you might have to live like this for much longer than that. I can’t even have decaf coffee, forget regular or tea or green tea etc. and I don’t care. Let me tell you, I had three pleasures in life: morning coffee, and jasmine green tea with Cadbury milk chocolate every evening. I can’t have any of them and wouldn’t care one bit if I never did as long as I go back to normal.
Thank you. Asli! Yes, it’s true. But gabapentin makes me sleepy so I don’t know what the best remedy is Maybe just putting up with some symptoms off the gabapentin. I’m giving butterbur a go right now… Hope you’re feeling better! xx
Hey John - Good for you. I have been off Nortriptyline for 4 months and doing well. I avoid caffeine - even brewed decaf gives me issues and it took me awhile to really believe that. I drink only Mount Hagen Instant Coffee (it is co2 processed, no chemicals) and I am okay. I have 2 cups a day, making each with 3/4 tsp of the coffee and 8 ozs of boiling water… That gives me a little coffee pleasure at least. I take it with me on trips. I also drink African Rooibus Tea (Not the chai version) which is from the tree root so I can drink that all day and make it as strong as I like. Nothing to worry about with that tea. I put in a little Agave and it is very good. I have found that, for me, the big triggers are caffeine, alcohol, MSG foods and larger portions of citrus, chocolate, aged cheese, fermented items, etc. I stay away from coffee and alcohol. I now enjoy small amounts of the other food triggers. A tablespoon of fresh avocado, 1/2 of an orange per week, two small pieces of cheese 2-3 times a week, one square of chocolate or a little chocolate sauce, one small slice of salami once in a while, etc. Small amounts seem to be okay. I am not so concerned about “Natural Flavors” in small portions. The other day I had a wonderful gourmet hamburger but they loaded it with horseradish sauce of some kind and the next day I could feel the nerves in my head tingling and irritated. I was very careful for a few days. For added energy I will admit that I eat a little more sugar than I use to. 2 squares of white chocolate or maybe ice cream or homemade cookies or 8 chocolate chips… This helps. Good luck to you.
Spinning Girl (vertigotalesandtastes@blogspot.com)
hi Spinninggirl1, I agree that natural flavors in ingredients lists mask MSG a lot - I too have issues with caffeine, cheese/even yogurt (any thing high in tyramine that is aged) - and also nuts since those are high in tyramine. MSG is a baddie. I need to do a better job following the migraine diet. I am on gabapentin which helps so much (even at my low dose) and magnesium and B2 also seem to help a lot. Dr. Weil has a website about those supplements that is great - his migraine supplement list. If you google his name and migraine it should come up! I need to get the book “Heal Your Headache” and take a look! I think soy milk may also trigger some symptoms for me as soy milk might have “natural flavors” - The only plus of MAV is it does force a healthier(non processed) diet!! Liv xx
