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Question? Medicating Pain Relief


PonyLove

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Hi Everyone

I'm on Day 11 of my W30 :lol:

Advice please..

I have so far 'influenced' 7 other people into starting theirs.. My brother in law is one of them & a major regular migraine sufferer. He is also a diet pepsi addict.

So he started today and I prepared all his meals ahead of time to make it easier but he's already on his downward spiral to debilitating pain.

Apart from water, rest and quiet.. what can I recommend to him? He know's the next 5-6 days are going to be like going through hell in a swimsuit and I believe he will make it.

I really want him to succeed and undo his very unhealthy habits. Are there any pain medications that are better than others by way of negative effect on the body?

Ie.. ibuprofen, paracetamol or codeine?

Which is the better choice?

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Prescriptions and medications (in general) trump the Whole30. If he has a debilitating headache, take something. Just double check that there isn't any gluten or soy in the binding agents of the pills.

that being said, we don't love NSAIDs; they can be gut disrupting...but I'm not the one living with the migraines, you know? honestly, whatever works best for him is the right answer....just as long as he takes them when he has a migraine, and doesn't pop them ahead of time to prevent one.

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honestly, whatever works best for him is the right answer....just as long as he takes them when he has a migraine, and doesn't pop them ahead of time to prevent one.

Renee, can I ask why you say this? I don't experience migraines and I'm grateful for that! But my general understanding with pain is that is often necessary to "stay ahead of it" than to get into a pain situation then treat it. Can you say more?

To make this relevant to me, I use NSAIDs sometimes for monthly cramps and I often take them at the first little glimmer of a cramp (preventative) instead of waiting to see if I'm going to get into a full blown episode.

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Emily, in my opinion (and this isn't M&D's official view, btw), it breeds dependency and clouds awareness...both of them are counterproductive to the W30's goals.

If the first thing you do in the morning is pop a couple of aspirin to keep the headache away, will you ever know if the Whole30 has helped them? Can you attribute the absence of a migraine to eating or to the meds? Will you ever have an incentive to wean yourself off of them, or will you ever be particularly enthusiastic about doing it?

That's just the way I look at it.

And relating it back to you: you're done with your W30. You can do whatever you want. ;) NSAIDs are not ideal from a gut health perspective (AND from the Cox-2 inhibition standpoint, actually), so we try to dissuade folks from using them...especially using them regularly. If you want to pop some advil once a month to deal with cramps, go for it. Sometimes I have to too...but neither you nor I are currently trying to figure out our body's reactions to foods, where the NSAID could disrupt that.

Hopefully that makes sense. It reads a little pedantic I think...but I don't mean it that way at all!

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Heads up, when I went off diet soda my migraines got a LOT worse and almost landed me in the er. I would even get clouded vision,heart racing and sweats. Also in my case taking meds after a migraine has started does absolutely nothing so I take them at the first hint of aura. So he may need to continue his meds for the first couple weeks but after the detox my migraines reduced a lot. From weekly to once in awhile. Diet soda is a lot worse than many realize and you may want to warn him so it doesn't come as a shock and quit whole30.

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Yes sadly only on day 2 he gave up & guzzled down 3 cans of diet Pepsi :(

He is avoiding me today likely feeling crappy about the whole thing. I'm going to see if he can wean off it & try again. Maybe it was too much all at once.

Ya, I gave up diet soda a couple months ago and probably couldn't have done it with whole 30 at the same time. I HIGHLY suggest a structured program weaning to about 2 a day over a month. Then going cold turkey. The withdrawals if you are a heavy diet soda drinker are nasty but they may actually be causing the migraines. When I pulled my calm, loving, quiet, ADD, teen son off splenda he screamed and cried like a three year old for an hour because "I don't want sugar! I want Fake sugar" so uh yeah.... My thoughts on fake sugar aren't good at all.

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