Diet
I've been using the Migraine Summit's elimination diet for almost 2 years, still having chronic daily Migraines but with somewhat less severity some days. When I showed it to my neurologist he barely glanced at it and said he only does drugs, gave me an RXt & said goodbye. I had a bit of hope until I tried to get the Rx filled which is far beyond my means at $700/month! So now I'm reading a book called The Migraine Miracle which purports to get relief for good by eliminating sugar & gluten. Anybody have experience with this diet? I'm open to all reasonable suggestions. With thanks!
@wonderfulone9 I don't have personal experience with an elimination diet but know people who do! And I'm sure they will chime right in!
I know people personally who may have started to help with migraine but have found it helpful for other reasons as well (other health issues/aesthetics). I will have to check out the book. There are some articles on elimination types of diet and migraine here on the website - here is one to add to your list! https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-food-triggers-elimination-diets
Thank you so much for being part of our community! Warmly, Tracy (Team Member)Thanks for that, Tracy! Although I've been using the elimination diet for almost two years I still have daily headaches, some days a bit less severe. The challenging thing is that when I constantly have nausea, vomiting, extreme sensitivity to light, sound & smells I don't have the energy to stand and prepare food & cook it for any length of time. Sucking on a cracker with ginger tea and waiting for the painkillers to kick in is about it. I have tried purchasing prepared frozen meals ~ very expensive and tricky to get a dinner without any trigger food elements ~ and somewhat more nutritious than a cracker, when I can keep it down. The simplest food items, simplest prep & ingredients is really what's needed. Thanks again for your interest! 
I'm very grateful for this topic you raised and relate deeply to it. An elimination diet helped me reveal that I needed to avoid dairy and gluten. I already knew I needed to avoid refined red meat, sugar, and alcohol. Later, a CGRP I'm taking for migraine has caused me to have a troublesome gut reaction to beans and eggs, so I now must avoid them as well. Having such a restricted diet is tricky, and you're so right that navigating that trickiness is all the more challenging when living with migraine. For me, like it sounds for you, diet is only one of my triggers. So while avoiding my dietary triggers quieted some of my migraine attacks, it did not stop all of them. I have multiple other triggers (hormonal, stress, weather, moon, exposure to sustained or flashing bright lights, loud noises, to name a few- and most of mine are unavoidable). My condition is chronic, which means I'm experiencing some level of a migraine attack most of the time.
Having to navigate a complex diet while experiencing an active migraine attack is very difficult. Nausea and vomiting is one of my top symptoms. How to prepare, much less stomach, a meal while nauseated is a problem I've never solved. The result is that I'm often undereating.
I've learned to carefully study my patterns and because I seem to be in slightly better shape first thing in the mornings, I researched a very nutritious protein shake which I now have most every morning. It has 20g protein, a daily serving of greens, almond milk, spinach, avocado, ginger, mango, and pineapple. The huge chunk of fresh ginger helps calm my nausea if I'm struggling.
I also am dependent on ginger beer (I buy one called "Q" and get the light version)- it has actual ginger in it. It's truly spicy and helps to settle my stomach sometimes as effectively as my nausea meds.
I keep the rest of my diet fairly simple- mostly chicken, salmon, shrimp, and steamed veggies that don't require a ton of prep time.
Irony of ironies, my nausea med doesn't properly release unless I take it with food! Ridiculous. I really struggle with that one. Sometimes I can down a few slices of apples. There's a gluten-free ginger cookie I can handle also that can do the trick to help soften the landing of a medication like that.
I would SO LOVE to hear any tips you have learned about how to prep food and generally handle the challenge you raised in this most helpful post you wrote. It's a really important topic you brought up. Thank you again. Warmly - Holly (team member)
