I started the migraine diet about a month ago. I don’t know how long I should try it before going on meds/ how long until I should see some results. So far I see none.
If my memory is reliable, the advice in “Heal Your Headache” is to stay on the diet for four months, then try adding one thing at a time back into your diet. I’ve also read that it takes at least two months to see results. Hope this helps.
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TheHeal your Headache book recommends 3 months. I tried it for 6 and it did absolutely nothing for me. Good luck, though.
OnandOn posted a link to this advice in a previous thread. It mirrors what I have found most helpful through trial and error ( and 2 years on the HTHYH diet) over the years. Keep well to over hydrated, avoid mucous producing foods and foods high in tyramine, avoid caffeine and dark alcohols.
https://vestibular.org/understanding-vestibular-disorders/treatment/vestibular-diet
I have had consultants who pooh, pooh the diet, others who think its effects are so marginal in reducing trigger load that it’s not worth it unless you have a very obvious trigger like red wine, one who thought only caffeine needs to be dropped and my current specialist who endorses the Six C’s diet (like a simplified, pared back HTHYH diet)
The 6 C’s
Cut out
- Cheese and other dairy products including yoghurt, fresh cream, sour cream and buttermilk ( sheep and goats milk products okay as is a splash of milk in decaff drinks)
- Caffeine - therefore coffee, tea, coke
- Chocolate - including chocolate biscuits, cakes and drinks
- Chinese food - and any other food containing MSG
- Citrus food - oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, clementines, lemons, limes (and pineapple and bananas). A squeeze in cooking is fine
- Chianti and any other red wines, certain other alcoholic beverages
Also fresh bread with high levels of yeast (any packaged bread is okay)
and Marmite
- Regular sleep
- Regular meals
- No undue exertion/exercise
- Avoid stress
I think it takes a few months and a lot of trial and error to find any triggers. For me, I still wonder if I get the craving for chocolate and dry salty carbs (like crisps, crackers) as part of the lead up to a migraine that is already activated rather than those foods actually triggering it.
I think it is rare for diet alone to totally resolve things. I’d consider also trying a med, one of the first or second lines ones such as propanalol, amitriptyline or pizotifen.
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From what I recall about the heal my headache diet is that you’re on it for three months and then if it doesn’t work you stay on it while you try medication and then if you find a medication that works then you stay on it for another I think two months and then you slowly add back foods one week or two weeks at a time. I’ve been on it for about 2 1/2 years and it hasn’t worked and I’ve had dizziness 24/7 since 2011 but the dizziness is so annoying that I mostly stay on the diet to play it safe until I find a med that works or this goes away.
This is all in the wiki here
Feel free to elaborate in the Wiki if you have some suggested improvements