It worked for me

Hi,

I have had migraines off and on all my life. If I caught them early I could usually stave off the worst symptoms by lying down in a dark room with a damp washcloth over my eyes.

In July 2011 however, I experienced two hemiplegic migraines that landed me in the emergency room. The first one affected my left side -- my left leg, arm and hand all felt strange. I use the computer mouse with my left hand and I lost the ability to make fine motor adjustments. The emergency room ran some tests but could not find anything physically wrong. The symptoms diminished and then vanished over the course of a few hours so I thought everything was fine.

One week later, however, I suffered a second one. This time it affected my ability to speak. I could not find my words -- they asked me if I knew where I was -- I *knew* I was in a hospital, but could not find the word to say it. The doctor this time around started me on an IV which included magnesium -- she said that there was some research to suggest that it would help the symptoms.

After a few hours the symptoms diminished and ultiamtely vanished. As you can imagine, this experience was terrifying. The doctor recommended that I take magnesium daily and that I also take fish oil -- she stated that the oil would "lubricate" my brain cells. She also recommended this book: "Heal your headache"

After reading the book, I chose to remove three triggers from my diet as well as continuing to take fish oil and magnesium daily. I cut out all alcohol, caffeine and aspartame from my diet. Since the second incident now almost a year ago, I have not had any migraines at all and have had hardly any heahaches either. After 6 months I cautiously re-introduced "light" alcohol into my diet -- light-colored beers, white wine (no red!) and very occasionally hard light alcohol such as gin or vodka. I have not had any caffeine (except for the small amounts in milk chocolate which I still eat) and have completely avoided aspartame (although I have eaten Splenda and that has been ok).

These dietary changes worked for me. I found the book helpful as well. I hope that these changes will work for others as well.