Tag: histamine

Chronic Migraine, Diet, Symptoms, Triggers

Diet Update: Beyond Frustration; Debilitating Chronic Migraine Looms

Kerrie Smyres

After my eagerness to meet with a dietician, you might have expected an update on how the appointment. I intended to write one. It was to be about the foods she recommends people with headache disorders avoid (histamine, tyramine and benzoates) and her interesting schedule for reintroducing foods. I was so excited to tell you all about it… until I tested my first food and the frustration returned threefold. Since then, I haven’t been able to talk — or even think — about my diet without crying.

Frustration is no longer even close to an adequate representation of my emotions. I can’t sort out if a food is a trigger or not, if my symptoms are connected to a particular food or to eating in general. I can’t tell if I would have gotten a migraine if I hadn’t eaten a certain food or not. I can’t identify how much of a role other triggers are playing in all of this. It’s like I’m constantly banging my head against the wall.

What I do know is that I always feel worse on days I test foods. That eating ANYTHING, even my “safe” foods of chicken breasts, white rice, and oats usually makes me feel worse. That the issue doesn’t seem to be certain foods, but food itself. My naturopath’s hypothesis that I have a inherited metabolic disorder is sounding more and more plausible. I won’t if that’s the case until I get the results of genetic tests. (Check out WebMD overview of inherited metabolic disorders for an excellent short introduction to the topic.)

I also know that I feel trapped. Trapped between getting good nutrition and feeling horrible all the time. Testing foods has already increased the frequency of my migraine attacks as well as the severity of all my symptoms. My head pain is back to a level 5 or even 6 almost daily. Violent bursts of nausea shock me out of sleep at night. My equilibrium is distorted enough that I have trouble standing up and walking straight. I’m weak and shaky. My knees occasionally collapse when I walk. The effects are mitigated somewhat by only testing foods every other day, but the severity of the symptom is steadily increasing. I wonder how much longer it will be before the drenching night sweats and nightmares, which accompany my severe nighttime migraine attacks, return.

I fear the enormity of the pain and discomfort that are creeping up, preparing to overtake me. Malnutrition appears to be the only way I can keep them at manageable levels, but that’s taking too great of a toll on the rest of my body. I don’t want to give my life back over to chronic migraine, but I can’t continue starving my body of nutrition.

Debilitating chronic migraine’s return appears imminent. It’s breaking my heart. These last few days, it feels like it’s breaking my spirit, as well.

Chronic Migraine, Diet, Treatment, Triggers

An Almost Normal Life Thanks to an Extremely Unhealthful “Diet”

Kerrie Smyres

In April, my migraine frequency and severity finally decreased enough that I began to feel like I had a normal life again for the first time in more than a decade. The pieces have been falling into place for a while: the move to Phoenix, wearing TheraSpecs, starting a high dose of magnesium, taking cyproheptadine, attempting a low-histamine and low-salicylate diet, starting Ritalin. I’ve been feeling better than at my worst for a while now, but it wasn’t until April that I began to feel like I could have a consistently almost normal life. The change? I took my diet down to nothing but gluten-free oats, chicken breast cooked in safflower oil, and unenriched white rice. I felt even better after cutting out the chicken and safflower oil a few weeks ago.

I haven’t written about this “diet” — what I eat isn’t healthful enough to constitute an actual diet so I have to use quotation marks — because it is unhealthful and I do not recommend it to anyone. It is an untenable solution and I worry about my nutrition all the time. Yet, I can’t let go of the life that eating this way has given me.

On this limited “diet,” I wake up each morning and know I can probably do what I have planned, rather than knowing I’ll be lucky to mark two items off my list. It enables me to have engaged and interesting conversations with my husband, make plans with friends actually be able to follow through, write regularly for Migraine.com and The Daily Headache, make meaningful decisions for TheraSpecs, exercise most days, go to yoga classes, attend therapy appointments…. In other words, subsisting on oats and rice is the difference between living a fuller life than I have in more than a decade and spending most of my time on the couch, in the unpredictable throes of a migraine.

I know I need nutrition and I don’t plan to eat this way indefinitely. It has yielded some important clues that I hope will further my treatment — I have an appointment with a dietician experienced in food sensitivities in a couple weeks and my naturopath is going to test me for metabolic disorders. While waiting for those appointments and results, I’m slowly testing high nutrition foods to see how I react. I do so with great caution. It’s hard to willingly return to the migraine cage I’ve lived in for so long.

Chronic Migraine, Coping, Diet, Treatment, Triggers

Trusting Myself With the Failsafe Diet

Kerrie Smyres

Have I lost my mind? This is what I wonder daily when I consider this low amine, low salicylate, and additive-free diet that I’m still on. I mean, seriously. I’ve severely restricted what I eat based on guidelines from one hospital in Australia, which uses the diet to treat behavior problems in children, not migraine or headache. I rely on The Failsafe Diet Explained for accessible, concise information about the diet, a website written by someone only known as alienrobotgirl who doesn’t share her background or credentials.

“Trust yourself” is the best migraine (and life!) advice I’ve ever received, and it is what I’m trying to do with this diet. Trusting that I know what I feel like on a baseline diet of chicken, unenriched white rice, and gluten-free oatmeal. Not just an overall pain rating, but where the pain is located and what it feels like, how much energy and stamina I have, how dizzy and nauseated I am not. And trusting that I can identify how those things change when I test foods that don’t agree with me.

Last week I tested short grain brown rice. Within 24 hours, I had the most painful migraine I’ve had in months. While it seems impossible that brown rice could trigger a massive migraine, there were no other obvious variables at play, not even weather. This is insufficient evidence for any scientific trial, but I know how I felt. I’m not going to swear off brown rice forever, nor am I going to preach to the world that it is evil. I’m simply going to be aware of how my body seemed to react and avoid it for now.

This diet is a wacky experiment with variables that are impossible to isolate. Part of me wants to say it is all crap and move on. But I cannot deny how much better I have felt on it. I’m a poster child for intractable chronic migraine. If something decreases my head pain and isn’t going to hurt me (once I improve my nutrition), then I’m going to stick with it and slowly reintroduce foods to test them, rather than ditching it all and eating whatever I want.

I’m not going to declare that the Failsafe diet is be the solution for everyone (nor am I sure it is the solution for me), but maybe there’s something to it for some of us with refractory migraine. Scientific studies show that some people have trouble processing lactose or gluten. Is it too far-fetched to believe that other components of our food could be difficult for some bodies to process?

I’m still skeptical, but I’m also still on the diet. I’m the only one who knows how I feel — that makes me the expert here. I have to trust myself on this one.

Chronic Migraine, Coping, Diet, Treatment

RPAH/Failsafe Diet for Migraine & Headache

Kerrie Smyres

The low histamine and salicylate diet that seems to be helping me is referred to as either the RPAH diet or the Failsafe diet. Originally developed by the allergy unit of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia (that’s the RPAH part), the diet was popularized under the name Failsafe by a woman whose daughter was helped by RPAH. The name Failsafe comes from the diet being free of additives and low in salicylates, amines (including histamine and tyramine) and flavor enhancers.

Calling the diet “flavor-free” sounds snarky, but it’s an easy and accurate summary. Naturally occurring food chemicals are responsible for the flavor in foods. Without them and without artificial flavors and chemicals, the diet is pretty bland. However, it is not a permanent dietary change. The idea is to cut out all these possible food chemicals for two to four weeks, then slowly add them back in, testing to see which ones are problematic for you.

This diet was developed for treating behavior problems in children. You’ll find people online saying the diet has helped them with a wide variety of health issues, from eczema to migraine and headache to heart palpitations. All the evidence is anecdotal, but if you’re really sick and no conventional or alternative treatment seems to help, it is worth a try.

The diet is drastic: check out this two-page list of allowed foods (PDF). This list, which I printed and keep on my coffee table, includes common pitfalls and mentions other chemicals in allowed foods. Even though potatoes are allowed, I discovered this week that I react to them, perhaps because they have naturally occurring nitrates. Working with a nutritionist is the best way to maintain proper nutrition without losing your mind.

Where to learn more:

Failsafe WordPress Blog: This blog is a superb resource and is where the aforementioned two-page list comes from. It is really all you need to get started on the diet.

RPAH on Food Intolerance: The original source, which doesn’t have a ton of information online, but the overview is particularly helpful. You can order the diet handbook from them for about $80 (including shipping from Australia), but it doesn’t seem necessary.

Food Intolerance Network: This website is run by the woman who coined the name Failsafe. The amount of information is a bit overwhelming, but the site answers a lot of questions. Check the US shopping list (PDF) for specific allowed foods.

Allergy Friendly Food: I ordered this book used from Amazon (much less expensive than ordering it directly from RPAH) and reference it a lot. This and the Failsafe WordPress blog are my go-to resournces.

The Failsafe Cookbook is good if you’re looking to get the most flavor possible while on the diet. I bought this book, but haven’t used it because many of the foods (like nuts and dairy) are ones I’m avoiding for other migraine-related reasons.

Keep in mind that I haven’t started the “challenges” yet. Once I begin testing which foods/food chemicals I can tolerate, my list of recommended resources may change. Also, most of the information is from Australia, so product information isn’t always relevant and you may need to do some translating.

After writing this all up, I’m struck by the fact that I’m not following the RPAH/Failsafe diet, although it was my starting point. Because of a stomach virus, the results of an ELISA food allergy test, and foods I’m pretty sure are migraine triggers for me, I’ve eaten mostly chicken and rice for the past week. My head feels better than it has in a decade, but this is not a healthy diet for the long-term. I’m definitely scheduling an appointment with a nutritionist.

P.S. In your reading about the diet, you’ll see toiletries mentioned. Many body and beauty products contain salicylates and histamine and it is recommended that you avoid those as well. I’m working on another post about that.

Chronic Migraine, Coping, Diet, Treatment, Triggers

2012: A Year of Remarkable Personal Migraine Progress

Kerrie Smyres

Exactly one year ago tomorrow, I had a massive breakdown. Sobbing, I proclaimed that I wanted out of this life. I didn’t want to fight anymore; I didn’t want to live with chronic migraine any longer. I even wished for cancer so that I could choose to not treat it, thus dying without technically committing suicide.

Today, my head pain is at a level 4, which is the highest the pain has gotten in a week. In the past four months, the pain usually topped out at a 5, occasionally a 6. Still far from comfortable, that’s way better than daily pain that hits a level 7 or 8, where I was last January. I don’t know how these pain ratings appear to anyone outside my body, but to me, pain reduction of even a single number is cause for celebration.

In the 11 years that chronic migraine has been the focus of my life, last year was the first in which I made significant progress in reducing the severity of attacks. I tried more than three dozen medications in that time and countless other Western and alternative treatments and diets, none of which had any effect. To see any progress is amazing to me; to now be at a place where I expect even more improvement than I currently have experienced is astonishing.

Though you’ve read about my progress through the year, here’s a summary of what’s working for me:

Magnesium: Although I had been on magnesium before with no success, I noticed an improvement  increasing the dose to 700 mg. After trying IV infusions to see if they would be more effective (they weren’t), I ultimately pushed my daily oral dose to 1,000 mg.

Cyproheptadine: The starting dose of 4 mg was enough for me to feel a bit better. Each 4 mg increase brought additional relief until I hit 16 mg, which didn’t seem to be any better than 12 mg. I’m back at 12 mg, though will probably try increasing it again, to be sure that I wasn’t just having a bad week the first time I tried 16 mg.

Diet: It has been a year since I started an extreme version of a traditional migraine elimination diet. Until a month ago, the diet was horribly frustrating. It seemed like both nothing and everything I ate were triggers. I wondered if there were other aspects of foods that I was unaware of that could be triggers. Then a reader mentioned that she feels better when she avoids foods with histamine. This started major research and an even more drastic diet to cut out amines and salicylate.

The initial improvement started to look like a fluke as the migraine attack severity returned to previous levels. A week ago, I switched from ground dark turkey meat to skinless chicken breast as my main protein source and the migraine severity dropped to a level 4. I’m still tweaking the diet and waiting to see a nutritionist. It will be a long process as I test out foods I’ve been avoiding, but I really think histamine and salicylate content in foods and body/beauty products is a major component of my debilitating migraine attacks.

I have so much more to tell you! There’s a detailed post about the diet coming later this week. First I needed to write this overview to remind myself of the massive improvements that 2012 brought. Sure, I still feel worn out and discouraged at times, but every little bit of progress shows me that chronic migraine is necessarily not a life sentence. A year ago, I was convinced I’d never escape that prison.

I was basically the prototype of chronic intractable migraine. (In a bizarre sort of way, that sounds like bragging.) Ten years with no improvement. Countless doctors, naturopaths and all manner of traditional and alternative health care providers have given up on me. I had given up on me. If I can see improvement, so can you. The struggle may be long and arduous, but there is always, always hope. Hang in there.