Is Your Migraine in Your Face?

What I mean is… are migraines part of your genetic facial blueprint? Can you tell just by looking at people whether they are migraine sufferers?

I decided to find out and look up face readers and came across a video about a lady who can tell you your life’s purpose just by looking at your face.

She says that your blueprint is indeed written all over your face and if you knew how to decipher it, your face will reveal to you your life’s purpose. She also claims that face reading will give you an immediate understanding of your client, boss, coworker, friends and family. Her name is Naomi Tickle and has been on CNN, NBC and Good Morning America talking about Personology. It’s a fantastic tool to validate yourself and to understand other people better, she says.

I was intrigued (I love to learn) and the skeptic in me decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. I was also curious to see if she would talk about specific conditions, such as migraines. The lecture was very interesting and for the most part illuminating for me, personally.

She talked about what the size and shape of the head, ears, eyes, nose, and forehead meant in terms of your personality and admitted that she only touched on general characteristics in an hour which if she were to go in details, would be 92.

For example she talks about how people with eyes that are closely set don’t like tardiness, are detail oriented and are a bit intense while those with a wide set eyes are very easy to get along with and more relaxed. Exposed eyelids when your eyes are open means that you are a person that cuts to the chase and will interrupt or get irritated if whoever you are listening to, takes too long to get to the point. While she quickly pointed out that when she worked with one set of clientele for example in prisons, there are no features that are common to ‘criminals’, it is possible to tell if someone is competitive, wants harmony, is unpredictable or if someone had an ear for music.

Here’s the link to the lecture I listened to.

(if the above doesn’t appear as a link, cut and paste in another window).

I found myself wondering if these were the set of features for migraine sufferers?

I browsed through her website (what else would you be doing on a Sunday?) to see if she writes about migraines.

Nothing on migraines but I found out that face reading is indeed a very ancient skill. Aristotle had one of the first known system for understanding faces. Since then the skills have been rediscovered many times during the past 4000 years.

According to Naomi, I have one of those noses that like to get to the bottom of things, so I sent her an email to ask her that very question, not really expecting a reply until possibly sometime next week by one of her staff. To my surprise she answered in less than 20 minutes and here is an extract of what she wrote:

Hello Sile,
There is no feature in the face that indicates some people may suffer from migraines. It may be people with close set eyes focus on situations until they are bigger than life. Plus they find it hard to turn off from the anxiety. The close set eye could indicate you tend to worry more on that side. This would also indicate one of your parents is less tolerant than the other.

I also noticed your teeth slant inwards which indicates someone who keeps their feelings to themselves. This is a habit that is formed when people shut themselves off. Orthodontists have tried to correct this, but until the behavior or thinking pattern has changed then the teeth will stay that way. The latter is a developed trait.

You might observe when people share with you they suffer from migraines, if they have close set eyes. My daughter suffers occasionally from migraines and she has close set eyes and a big worrier. She takes after my husbands side of the family and I believe my sister-in-law who has the same trait also suffers from migraines. One would have to do a study of at least 100-500 people before coming to any conclusion.

Ok, so no conclusive evidence but maybe there is something to Personology. What do you think? How closely set are your eyes, how much of a perfectionist are you, how much do you worry in a week? Please leave a comment below and let’s get a discussion started.

One thing for sure is that I am now a fan of Naomi who has the best customer service of any celebrity/expert I’ve seen so far!

For more information on Naomi Tickle and personology, here’s her website http://www.naomitickle.com

Is Your Medication Giving You Migraines?

When you feel that throbbing pain on one side of your face, the first thing you do is reach for your migraine medication, certainly not natural migraine relief products. After all, you think that migraines medication will get rid of your migraine faster than anything else and you certainly don’t want to waste a day cowering in pain. But if you’re experiencing migraine headaches more often or your migraines are getting steadily worse, your pain relief pills could be to blame.

Taking too many pain medications too often – as little as three times a week or 10 times a month – can put your migraines in a rebound cycle. Your body becomes accustomed to the pain medication being in your system, so when it wears off, you start to get another headache – prompting you to take more medication. Any painkiller can cause rebound headaches, though doctors think that drugs containing caffeine, aspirin and acetaminophen, and ergotamines and triptans carry the most risk.

Migraines on the rebound!

How can you tell if you’re suffering from rebound headaches? Most patients with rebound migraines experience low-grade headaches almost continuously. Many wake up with their head already hurting. Some find that their headaches get worse within a few hours of taking medication.

If you’re experiencing frequent migraines while taking pain medication, your best option is to go cold turkey – stop taking painkillers, and you will break the rebound cycle. Of course, giving up pain medication makes many patients nervous. Migraines are excruciating, and facing them without medication can seem like a terrifying prospect.

However, some all-natural remedies can provide relief without creating the rebound cycle caused by over-the-counter and prescription medications. Lipigesic-M, a migraine pain reliever, uses a unique sublingual delivery method to send its medicinal ingredients into the bloodstream quickly for fast relief. The individually packaged dosages contain migraine-fighting ingredients, including feverfew and ginger. Best of all, none of the ingredients are associated with rebound headaches, so you can relieve your migraine pain without worrying about making your headaches worse.

For more information, visit www.lipigesic.com.

How Eram Finally Got Rid of Her Migraines

I love seeing how people achieve what they thought was impossible, like getting rid of your migraines forever and never having to rely on pills ever again.

I am especially grateful to Eram who shares her story with you below.

ooo000ooo

I had suffered from migraines since childhood, until only few weeks ago. Migraines were like a part of life, a very strong reality for me that I thought I just have to live with all my life. As a kid I used to really get scared when I had to go to a party because it always ended with a strong headache and nausea for me. This was really tough because I always looked forward to any family gatherings but I associated any gathering of people, with bad headaches. Perfumes have been a major trigger of migraine for me which obviously used to be in abundance in any gathering.

My migraines got really worse during teenage. I had to skip school for 2 to 3 days almost every 3 or 4 weeks. That is when my parents started to take me to doctors and we got to know that I have complex migraines. The doctors gave me a lot of pills which lessened the occurrence of migraines but once it attacked it used to last for 2 to 3 days.

As I grew up more triggers came into play. Boredom and stress being the major ones. I used to get really exhausted with boredom and stress and then I would have a migraine. I have been to a lot of different doctors and have taken a zillion pills, some of which had really bad reactions but nothing got rid of the migraines.

During the last four or five years my migraines became worse as my ability to cope with stress lessened. I used to get a headache on a slight hint of tension. This is when I stopped any treatment and started taking pain killers only. However, I got too desperate to get rid of my stress and looked for ways other than medicines.

This is when I came across the Natural migraine relief website. I signed up for the top 10 tips and amazingly they worked. I started making notes of my feelings, conditions and triggers of migraines. I could figure out more triggers and could avoid them. Increasing my water intake really helped and so did yoga and specially the hand mudras. I actually learned more about hand mudras and now use many mudras regularly for various benefits. The blogs also helped. I started using the ice therapy mentioned in one of the blogs and it so quickly vaporized the migraine. I also became aware of my sleeping habits and started taking proper naps. This not only reduced the occurrence of migraine attacks but also made me less stressful and less anxious.

Then I read the book Living Deliberately (which you get once you sign up for Sile’s top tips) and after being inspired by Sile who is an Avatar master, I went for the Avatar training course.

This is what really transformed my life and helped me in actually getting rid of the migraines. I now have only minor headaches that I can get rid of through Avatar tools but I haven’t had a migraine since the course.

Avatar is truly the most powerful self development course. It surely is a guide to one’s own self. I had a chance to journey through my self and see what troubles me, what causes stress and how easily I can choose not to be stressed.

During this 9-day course I had a chance to look at my beliefs that I had constructed. These beliefs were just there operating my life and causing stress and anxiety in my experiences. The Avatar tools helped me to free my attention and once I realized what believes I was operating with, I began to change them.

The tools made it so easy. I learned how I could dis-create my stress, my fears, my judgments of others and myself, my fixed attentions, my lost concentration, every negativity that was stopping me from loving and experiencing and eventually my migraines.

Even the frequency and intensity of the minor headaches that I am left with is decreasing. Being migraine-free is a huge blessing. Also being medicine-free is a huge blessing.

Love
Eram

Sile’s note: I hope to bring you many more stories about people who are migraine-free in the near future. Question is: do you want to read about it or write about it?! What would your life be like without migraines?

PS The next dates for the Avatar courses are:

May 1-9, 2010 – Berg en Dal, Netherlands

June 12-20, 2010 – Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands

July 3-11, 2010 – Orlando, Florida, USA

Ready to Relax Yourself to Perfect Health?

Cutting-edge scientific research now proves what the yogis have always known: deep relaxation can have a profound and beneficial effect on a wide range of medical conditions, not least for anyone suffering from migraines. The following abridged article I found will, hopefully, help anyone who is going through a stressful time if you follow the steps.

By Anastasia Stephens / Source: The Independent UK

It’s a piece of advice that yogis have given for thousands of years: take a deep breath and relax. Watch the tension melt from your muscles and all your niggling worries vanish. Somehow we all know that relaxation is good for us. Now the hard science has caught up – for a comprehensive scientific study showing that deep relaxation changes our bodies on a genetic level has just been published.

What researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered is that, in long-term practitioners of relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation, far more “disease-fighting genes” were active, compared to those who practised no form of relaxation.

In particular, they found genes that protect from disorders such as pain, infertility, high blood pressure, migraines and even rheumatoid arthritis were switched on. The changes, say the researchers, were induced by what they call “the relaxation effect”, a phenomenon that could be just as powerful as any medical drug but without the side-effects.

“We found that a range of disease-fighting genes were active in the relaxation practitioners that were not active in the control group,” explains Dr Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who led the research.

The good news for the control group with the less-healthy genes is that the research didn’t stop there. The experiment, which showed just how responsive genes are to behaviour, mood and environment, revealed that genes can switch on, just as easily as they switch off.

“Harvard researchers asked the control group to start practising relaxation methods every day,” explains Jake Toby, hypnotherapist at London’s BodyMind Medicine Centre, who teaches clients how to induce the relaxation effect. “After two months, their bodies began to change – the genes that help fight inflammation, kill diseased cells and protect the body from cancer, all began to switch on.”

More encouraging still, the benefits of the relaxation effect were found to increase with regular practice – the more people practised relaxation methods such as meditation or deep breathing, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.

Benson believes the research is pivotal because it shows how a person’s state of mind affects the body on a physical and genetic level. It might also explain why relaxation induced by meditation or repetitive mantras is considered to be a powerful remedy in traditions such as Ayurveda in India or Tibetan medicine.

But just how can relaxation have such wide-ranging and powerful effects? Research around the world has described the negative effects of stress on the body. Linked to the release of the stress-hormones adrenalin and cortisol, stress raises the heart rate and blood pressure, weakens immunity and lowers fertility.

By contrast, the state of relaxation is linked to higher levels of feel-good chemicals such as serotonin and to the growth hormone which repairs cells and tissue. Indeed, studies show that relaxation has virtually the opposite effect, lowering heart rate, boosting immunity and enabling the body to thrive.

“On a biological level, stress is linked to fight-flight and danger,” explains Dr Jane Flemming, a London-based GP. “In survival mode, heart rate rises and blood pressure shoots up. Meanwhile muscles, preparing for danger, contract and tighten. And non-essential functions such as immunity and digestion go by the wayside.”

Relaxation, on the other hand, is a state of rest, enjoyment and physical renewal. Free of danger, muscles can relax and food can be digested. The heart can slow and blood circulation flows freely to the body’s tissues, feeding it with nutrients and oxygen. This restful state is good for fertility, as the body is able to conserve the resources it needs to generate new life.

While relaxation techniques can be very different, their biological effects are essentially similar. “When you relax, the parasympathetic nervous system switches on and that is linked to better digestion, memory and immunity, among other things,” explains Jake Toby. “So as long as you relax deeply, you’ll reap a variety of rewards.”

But, he warns, deep relaxation isn’t the sort of switching off you do relaxing with a cup of tea or lounging on the sofa. “What you’re looking for is a state of deep relaxation where tension is released from the body on a physical level and your mind completely switches off,” he says. “The effect won’t be achieved by lounging round in an everyday way, nor can you force yourself to relax. You can only really achieve it by learning a specific technique such as self-hypnosis, guided imagery or meditation.”

The relaxation effect, however, may not be as pronounced on everyone. “Some people are more susceptible to relaxation methods than others,” cautions Joan Borysenko, director of a relaxation programme for outpatients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, US. “Through relaxation, we find that some people experience a little improvement, others a lot. And there are a few whose lives turn around totally.”

The health benefits of deep relaxation

The next time you tune out, switch off and let yourself melt, remind yourself of all the good work the relaxation effect is doing on your body. These are just some of the scientifically proven benefits…

Immunity

Relaxation appears to boost immunity in recovering cancer patients. One study at Ohio State University, in the US, found that progressive muscular relaxation, when practised daily, reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence. In another study at Ohio State, a month of relaxation exercises boosted natural killer cells in elderly people, giving them more resistance to tumours and viruses.

Fertility

A study at the University of Western Australia found that women are more likely to conceive at periods when they’re relaxed rather than stressed. Another study at Trakya University, Turkey, found that stress reduces sperm count and motility, a finding that implies that relaxation may boost fertility in men, too.

Irritable bowel syndrome

When patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome practised a relaxation meditation twice daily, symptoms such as bloating, belching, diarrhoea and constipation improved significantly. The method was so effective that the researchers at the State University of New York at Albany, recommended it as an effective IBS treatment.

Blood pressure

A study at Harvard Medical School found meditation lowered blood pressure by making the body less responsive to stress hormones, in a similar way to blood pressure-lowering medication. Meanwhile, a report in the British Medical Journal found that patients trained to relax had significantly lower blood pressure.

Inflammation

Stress leads to inflammation, a state linked to heart disease, arthritis, migraine, asthma as well as skin conditions such as psoriasis, say researchers at Emory University in the US. Relaxation can play a role in preventing and treating such symptoms by switching off the stress response. In this way, one study at McGill University in Canada found meditation clinically improved symptoms of psoriasis.

Take a deep breath… How to relax deeply

So how can you access relaxation’s healing powers? Harvard researchers found that yoga, meditation and even repetitive prayer and mantras all induced the relaxation effect. “The more regularly these techniques are practised, the more deeply-rooted the benefits will be,” says Jake Toby. Have a go at one or more of the following for 15 minutes once or twice a day.

Body scan

Starting with your head and working down to your arms and feet, notice how you feel in your body. Taking in your head and neck, simply notice if you feel tense, relaxed, calm or anxious. See how much you can spread any sensations of softness and relaxation to areas of your body that feel tense. Once your reach your feet, work back up your body.

Breath focus

Sitting comfortably, become aware of your breath, following the sensation of inhaling from your nose down to your abdomen and out again. As you follow your breath, notice your whole body and let tension go with each exhalation. Whenever you notice your mind wandering, come back to your breath.

Mantra repetition

The relaxation response can be evoked by sitting quietly with eyes closed for 15 minutes twice a day, and mentally repeating a simple word or sound such as ‘Om’.

Guided imagery

Imagine the most wonderfully relaxing light, or being on a walk with on the banks of a river, listening to the water while with a light breeze is blowing away any tension or worries from your body and mind. Make your image as vivid as possible, imagining the texture, colour and any fragrance as the image washes over or through you.

Did Larry King Interview Sile on Migraines?

Catchy title eh?  Me on Larry King Live, being interviewed on how I got rid of my migraines and asked to come back again? I wish! Well, who knows. Anything can happen!

Anyway, I had so much fun creating this video, I hope you enjoy it too.

If you want to see me back on the show, please post your questions below. Hopefully, I’ll be back soon!

In the meantime, if anyone is interested in watching another video about the training course I mention, click on www.avatarintro.com

How Graham Got Rid of His Migraines

Every January, I go to Orlando to recharge my batteries – not by going to Disneyland but by attending the Wizard course (www.wizardcourse.com).

It’s so awesome to hang out with over 3,000 Avatar Masters around the world all of whom are interested in taking more personal responsibility for their lives. Exploring my mental blueprint in 2005 was my first step to a fuller life, a life without migraines and I haven’t looked back since.

I met an good friend and kindred spirit I never met. What I mean is that I had never met him in person. I had chatted with him, knew what he looked like, shared migraine stories but we had never spoken to each other. We were facebook friends.

He had told me that like me, he used the Avatar tools to get rid of his migraines. So I asked him if he would write something for my blog viewers who suffer from migraines and who want to get rid of them. He said he didn’t know what or how to write something inspiring. I asked him just to tell his story (and asked and asked and asked until finally..!) here it is:

Dear Sile,

Here’s the piece, you’ve asked me to write… sorry, it’s been a long time coming.  I’m not a writer, really, so I put off  putting pen to paper. Anyway, here it is.  I like the idea of sharing my story on the internet if it means that more people will know that with the right training, they can get control over their migraines. I can still hardly believe it myself when I think about it.

Back to the beginning:

Migraines. The word itself put the fear into the biggest of man. My first contact with it was as a child not understanding it. I think I was about 10 years old. My mother had it and when she did she would tell my father that she would go into her room, lock the door, drew the curtains and we didn’t see her for days. I sat outside the door and listened to her as she sobbed herself to sleep.

I now know that from an early age I started getting migraines even though I didn’t know they were migraines because they were different to what most people complain about. I didn’t actually have the pain and still don’t. I got the numbness, lack of any feeling in my arms, legs and face and my words and speech would start to slow down. It was like my body would shut down. I was paralysed.

My father put it down to growing pains and didn’t give it any attention all these years. I don’t blame him though, as he didn’t know any better.

As an adult, I was afraid of driving long journeys for fear that if I got a migraine mid journey, I would put my family at risk. I’m over 45 now so I’ve had this a long long time. I carried pills with me, had an inhaler and when I felt a migraine coming on, I would have to stop what I was doing, pop some pills and press my head down on the (cold) ground until I felt fine again. Not the sort of thing you want to do in the middle of business meetings or if you are driving. But that was the only thing that helped me cope and feel better.

Until…

This time last year, I  did an Avatar course (www.avatarepc.com) which is all about looking at your own belief system and how you feel about the world we live in and how we can shape our future the way we want.  I loved it and continued to do the Masters course in the summer in Germany. Well, in the middle of the course, I had a migraine and as everyone knows too well, the panic started to set in which always made the problem worse. I wanted to leave course immediately. One of the trainers, John, came over to me gave me a specific exercise to do which was about deliberately directing my attention in a specific way. I did it for 20 minutes and the numbness vanished and it was ok for me to carry on the day. That was my first and fastest experience of getting on top of my migraines. In the last year I just did this exercise when I felt a migraine setting in and I’d get better faster and faster. Just knowing this makes me much more relaxed. And I know I am getting more and more in control of it.

I would never have believed it if you just explained it to me. I had to try it myself and it worked and was one of the best tools I’ve learned (and not just for migraines because I don’t think about them too much anymore)!

Lots of love,

Graham

PS I’ve thrown away my inhaler but still keep my pills in my bag, just in case. But before you ask, I haven’t taken a pill in a year.

ooo—000—ooo

I find Graham’s story very inspiring and insightful and I hope that you do too.  If you liked the post please leave a comment below. If you’ve gotten rid of your migraines without medicine, please leave a comment to share how you did it so that you can inspire others to do so too.

When Tummy Aches are Abdominal Migraines

Abdominal Migraines in Children

Migraine headaches usually involve head pain, but there’s another category of migraine that affects children known as abdominal migraine syndrome. Abdominal migraines in children are not as uncommon as most people believe. Children aged between 5-9 years old are most prone to this form of migraine. According to an article published in Family Practice News, abdominal migraines in children may account for a full 15% of unexplained, abdominal pain that recurs on a regular basis.

What is Abdominal Migraine Syndrome?

This is a frequently under diagnosed condition where a child experiences recurrent abdominal pain that lasts for anywhere from an hour to three days at a time. The child usually describes the pain as a dull soreness that’s difficult to pinpoint – although it’s most common in the mid-abdominal region. A child with abdominal migraine syndrome may vomit and be unable to eat. He or she may appear pale and experience episodes of flushing – although this isn’t always seen. Some kids experience sensory symptoms such as numbness, tingling, and sensitivity to light – similar to that seen with a migraine headache.

Why is It Called Abdominal Migraine Syndrome?

It’s called an abdominal migraine because many children who have this condition go on to develop typical migraine headaches. In fact, children who are diagnosed with this condition are four times more likely to develop migraine headaches later on in life. Many children with this syndrome have a parent who also experienced migraine headaches.

Although this form of abdominal migraine is primarily seen in children, it can occur in adults as well. The abdominal pain is severe enough to interfere with nomal daily activities. The pallor is often accompanied by dark shadows under the eyes.

Other disorders such as peptic ulcer, urogenital disorders needs to be ruled out by the physician before concluding it as abdominal migraine.

What Should You Know About Abdominal Migraines in Children?

It’s important to remember that the diagnosis of abdominal migraine is made only after other causes of abdominal pain are ruled out. Conditions such as appendicitis, peptic ulcer disease, obstruction of the intestines, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and viral and bacterial infections of the intestines can be difficult to distinguish from abdominal migraines. Some of these conditions can be life threatening if not treated – so always have a child evaluated by a doctor if he or she has abdominal pain.

How is Abdominal Migraine Syndrome Treated?

Treatment depends on the age of the patient, but usually consists of anti-inflammatory medications to reduce the pain and medications to relieve nausea. Most of the emphasis is on prevention of abdominal migraines which means avoiding stress and determining foods that seem to trigger the symptoms and avoiding them.

In children, acute attacks of abdominal migraine are treated with rest and this frequently resolves with sleep.

Abdominal migraine symptoms

The patient suffers from recurrent ( more than 5 attacks ) of Abdominal pain lasting between 1-72 hours. Symptoms including pallor, vomiting and nausea or anorexia is experienced.

The child suffers from recurrent Abdominal pain with one or more symptoms of vomiting, nausea or anorexia. The pain occurs mostly in the mornings on awakening and can also include sensitivity to light and sound.

If its not related to any other gastrointestinal or such disease, the diagnosis is made by the pediatrician. There is no diagnostic test to conclude abdominal migraine.

Most children with abdominal migraine will later develop migraine headaches.
They are also likely to develop migraine with aura or migraine without aura.

Abdominal Migraine Syndrome: The Bottom Line?

Any child who has abdominal pain needs evaluation. Don’t assume it’s an abdominal migraine until other causes have been ruled out. Most kids outgrow abdominal migraines, but, unfortunately, go on to develop migraine headaches later on.

Massage Oils Reduce Migraine Pain

If you feel a migraine coming on but you don’t want to swallow a whole load of expensive chemicals in your body, massage oils may be a natural alternative for providing quick relief. I’m grateful to Errilyn who shared this information with me and I hope that it helps you too.

Hi Sile

Hope you are well, just thought I’d pass on to you that I use massage oils on my neck when I have a headache whether it’s just a headache or one that is heading migraine way…

I use to use a blend of oils with Lavender & Rosemary which calmed it down a little however I ran out over a week ago & looked everywhere & couldn’t find any so grabbed some oils & made some up.

In the meantime Hubby went to a New Age Holistic store & found some it is based on Sweet Almond oil, apricot kernel oil, ylang ylang, Patchouli, sweet orange, Lavender, Sandalwood & Jasmine, at first I wasn’t sure about the mix But the first time used it within 15mins the headache had eased & within 1/2 it was gone, have used it a total of 4 times in the past week each time with the same results.

I was on medication (sandomigran) which I took 2 times a day however one of the side effects was rapid weight gain & after putting on 2 stone decided to ditch the medication ( gets very expensive when having to keep buying clothes etc in larger sizes all the time not to mention the health aspects).

Am much happier just using the oils & if I get a migraine so be it…
take care
xo Errilyn

If you enjoyed the post, or know of other massage oils that might benefit migraine sufferers, please leave a comment here below.

I Need Migraine Case Studies – Will You Help?

Over the past few months, I have been writing and mulling over my book, Natural Migraine Relief – Killing Your Pain Without Painkillers and to finish it, I really need your help.

I want this book to touch and help as many people as possible and I need a few more perspectives. I would like to have a few case studies about different migraine sufferers’ experience and find out what has and hasn’t worked for them. In return I will give you an ecopy absolutely free or a hard copy for free, if you pay shipping and handling – once it is finished.

Before answering the questions, I need to know if any of the Ten Top Tips have helped you (mentally and physically) become stronger and in a better position to tackle your migraines. Describe the state of your health now.

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so now  (there are a few hidden gems in there – http://naturalmigrainereliefnow.com) After reading and following the tips, I’d be grateful if you could let me know.

Please answer the 12 questions in the comments box below: (see website http://naturalmigrainereliefnow.com in case you are reading this anywhere else) .

1. Describe your migraine in detail (when did it first strike you and now, when does it happen? What happens to you? How long does it last? What do you do to cope?)

2. What do you think is/are the cause(s) of your migraines?

3. What alternative methods have you tried? What happened?

4. How often are you (mentally) stressed? What happens to your body?

5. What (events, foods, things, other)/who causes you stress?

6. How do you deal with this stress?

7. What do you believe about yourself and your migraines? (please list your most common beliefs about them)

8. Do you believe you can get rid of your migraines completely? If not, why not?

9. What would it be worth to you to get rid of your migraines?

10. Can you imagine how your life would be without migraines?

11. Can you describe how you would feel what you would do and what your day would now be like?

12. Would you be willing to try something you haven’t tried before?

Please answer every question in the comment box below.

Thanks  to everyone in advance who will take the time to answer these questions! Now I need to get back to writing.

Namaste!

Most Common Migraine Food Triggers

Following an earlier post on how oranges could be a trigger to your migraines, I’ve been asked about other triggers. Here is a list of some of the most common foods, beverages, and additives associated with migraine headaches:

Aged cheese and other tyramine-containing foods: Tyramine is a substance found naturally in some foods. It is formed from the breakdown of protein as foods age. Generally, the longer a high-protein food ages, the greater the tyramine content. The amount of tyramine in cheeses differs greatly due to the variations in processing, fermenting, aging, degradation, or even bacterial contamination. For people who take monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor medications to treat their headaches, it is especially important to avoid all foods containing tyramine, including aged cheeses, red wine, alcoholic beverages, and some processed meats, as these foods can trigger severe hypertension.

Alcohol: Blood flow to your brain increases when you drink alcohol. Some scientists blame the headache on impurities in alcohol or by-products produced as your body metabolizes alcohol. Red wine, beer, whiskey, and champagne are the most commonly identified headache triggers.

Food additives: Food preservatives (or additives) contained in certain foods can trigger headaches. The additives, nitrates and nitrites, dilate blood vessels, causing headaches in some people.

Cold foods: Cold foods can cause headaches in some people. It’s more likely to occur if you are over-heated from exercise or hot temperatures. Pain, which is felt in the forehead, peaks 25 to 60 seconds and lasts from several seconds to one or two minutes. More than 90% of migraine sufferers report sensitivity to ice cream and cold substances.

Do Other Foods Trigger Headaches and Migraines? These foods have been identified as headache and migraine triggers by some sufferers.

Peanuts, peanut butter, other nuts and seeds
Pizza
Potato chip products
Chicken livers and other organ meats
Smoked or dried fish
Sourdough bread, fresh baked yeast goods (donuts, cakes, homemade breads, and rolls)
Bread, crackers, and desserts containing cheese
Certain fresh fruits including ripe bananas, citrus fruits, papaya, red plums, raspberries, kiwi, pineapple
Dried fruits (figs, raisins, dates)
Soups made from meat extracts or bouillon (not homemade broth)
Cultured dairy products, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt
Caffeine found in chocolate and cocoa; beverages such as coffee, tea and colas; also found in certain medications
Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners

What Cheeses Have High Tyramine Levels? The following types of cheeses have been reported to be high in tyramine:

Blue cheeses
Brie
Cheddar
Stilton
Feta
Gorgonzola
Mozzarella
Muenster
Parmesan
Swiss
Processed cheese

Other foods high in tyramine are: aged, canned, cured or processed meats, certain beans (fava, broad, garbanzo, lima, pinto), onions, olives, pickles, avocados, raisins, canned soups, and nuts.

What Food Products Contain Additives?

Hot dogs
Ham
Sausage
Bacon
Luncheon meats and deli-style meats
Pepperoni
Other cured or processed meats
Some heart medications
MSG (monosodium glutamate). MSG is a food additive/flavor enhancer found in soy sauce, meat tenderizer, Oriental foods, and a variety of packaged foods.

What Are the Symptoms of Food Additive-Induced (Migraine) Headaches? Most symptoms begin within 20-25 minutes after consuming these products.

They include:

+ Pressure in the chest
+ Tightening and pressure in the face
+ Burning sensation in the chest, neck, or shoulders
+ Facial flushing
+ Dizziness
+ Headache pain across the front or sides of the head
+ Abdominal discomfort

Reviewed by Department of Neurology, Department of Pediatric Neurology, The Cleveland Clinic.

There are other triggers like wheat which I’ve covered in earlier posts. In addition to these, if there are any other types of food that cause migraines which haven’t been listed, please do share and write it in the comment box below.

PS Avoiding these food triggers is the first step to getting control over your migraines, step two is to detox (see store page for tried and tested detox products). I’ll write about the steps three and four in the next post.

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