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9 days into my Whole 30, I've had 3 migraines! What's going on?!


KarlaV

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After 9 days in to my Whole 30, I have had 3 migraines. I have struggled with them forever, but they have significantly improved since going Paleo. This is my first whole 30, and I am shocked to be struggling with them so badly. If anything, I thought this would help. Does anyone have any similar experiences or answers for me? I am on day 10 today, and I will definitely continue. Thanks.

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Yes, yes, and yes! Actually, I think I've been doing really well. I'm not hungry, I'm eating tons of veggies, and drinking plenty of water. I cut down to 2 cups of coffee a day (down from 3 or 4) and eliminated diet coke (about 12 oz. per day). I'm wondering if the diminished caffeine could have anything to do with it. Should I add some more fruit for some extra carbs? I have mostly just been having one serving per day. When I'm not suffering from the pain or the hangover-like day after, I feel really good.

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Aw, sorry you're experiencing this! Migraines suck!!! It might help if you post a day or two of a food log. Sometimes it helps if you show us a log so that we can see where there might be a problem.

Cutting down on caffeine can definitely be a migraine trigger. You might want to back down a little more slowly or maybe try some tea (although after this many days, you should be past the caffeine withdrawal). How is your sleep? For me, too little, too much, or even varying my bedtime can trigger a migraine. Are you going through a stressful time? I sometimes get a migraine that starts as a tension headache when I'm having a lot of stress. Have you started anything new -- like a new exercise routine or new medication?

I hope you can figure this out with some help! The Whole30 has really made a difference with my migraines, but I do notice that even if my diet is Whole30, if I get out of balance in the other areas of my life, I'll get a migraine.

Hugs!

Tami

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Thanks so much for the advice. My average day looks like this: breakfast is eggs, maybe some sausage, maybe some veggies, or both, but always eggs. After that I have my coffee. 1-2 cups, black. For lunch I usually have some chicken breast with homemade mayo, carrots, cucumbers, or salad. Dinner has been wonderful. One night was grilled pork chops with braised red cabbage and homemade applesauce. Another night was stuffed cabbage (pork, beef, cauliflower, onion, mushroom) with green beans and almonds and butternut squash. If I'm hungry after dinner (usually not) I'll have some coconut milk and berries.

The only medicine I'm on is allegra for allergies. I just switched over from zyrtec a couple weeks ago. Could that possibly be related?

Stress is just at the usual level for the mom of three kids. Nothing too new there. I totally agree with you on the sleeping aspect. If I get too much or too little I'm in trouble. Because the quality of my sleep is so much better, am I getting too much? Ugh, so many questions.....I added a clementine to my lunch this afternoon, ate some almonds for an in between snack, then dinner - chicken thighs and asparagus (worked tonight, so no gourmet!)

So that sums it up. Any hints in there that I'm missing, please, point them out to me! I appreciate the help. Other than the migraines, I couldn't be happier with this Whole 30!

thanks again!

Karla

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Your food looks good. The only thing I might try is making sure you get some starchy carbs every day - sweet potato, winter squash, beets, etc.

I don't know how relevant it is to migraines, but I find it important to drink 2-3 big glasses of water when I get up in the morning. On days I forget, it is easy to find myself mildly dehydrated later in the day because it is hard to catch up. My glass will hold a bit over 2 cups, so I am talking about starting the day with 4-6 cups of water. Throughout the course of the day I usually drink 10 big glasses (20 cups), not counting anything I drink in the gym, a bottle of kombucha, and a few cups of tea.

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Whoa, Tom! That's a lot of water!! I usually have a big glass of water (maybe 2 cups) when I get up and try to drink a lot of water throughout the day as well. I don't know if my bladder could physically hold as much as Tom's. :D

Karla, I don't think you can have too much sleep if you're a mother of 3!! The only thing I wondered about with your food log was your fat intake. Are you being sure to have 1-2 fat servings (not counting what you cooked with)? I know you mentioned coconut milk and nuts, but getting fat servings from avocados, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, etc. is good, too. I was "talking" to someone else in another group who was having headaches, and it turned out that she was not eating enough fat.

If you're sensitive to medications, a switch could be a trigger. I used to take Allegra, but, weirdly enough, it gave me really bad menstrual cramps. Zyrtec is supposed to be the strongest/broadest range antihistamine that is over-the-counter. Maybe you want to go back to that to see if that helps or do a little test to see if you might not need it now that your Whole30 is bringing down your inflammation (and possibly reducing your allergies).

One other note -- some folks have troubles with nuts. If I eat too many, especially almonds, I have digestive issues and I get a weird little headache.

Just some thoughts based on my experiences, though! Hope this helps and you get over the migraines!!! Keep us posted!!

Tami

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Thank you both so much! Its a good feeling to know there is support for us rookies. I will definitely try adding more water. I usually just have one big cup in the morning and then maybe 40 ounces more through the day, so I could probably use more. As far as fat, I have been using olive oil and coconut oil, along with making my own mayonnaise and then "dressing it up" and using it for all kinds of salad dressings and dipping sauces. I plan on adding some avocados after my next trip to the store. I usually only have one serving of nuts per day, pistachios or almonds usually, but occasionally pecans.

I plan on stopping the allegra today. I was trying to gradually diminish the zyrtec, from 10mg/day to 5mg/day and then to every other day. Just when I was doing pretty good with that I developed a gross little issue with my nose being kind of chapped and sore and then more and more aggravated by the one side running, so that's when I switched to allegra hoping it would help. It has seemed to help that issue, but if it is possibly effecting my head, its gotta go!

I really appreciate your time and advice. This experience has really made me want to be able to help someone else. I hope I get the chance eventually! Won't be a rookie forever :)

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Hi Karla - I have a history of migraines too, and was surprised when I went low carb in October that I was suddenly having more. I changed to the Virgin Diet in December and didn't have them anymore. Then one night I had a cup of hot almond milk - instant migraine! I didn't realize how much more almond I was eating when I switched to low carb. Just wanted to bring it up so you could see if there is anything you are eating more of that could be causing it. For me eggs and mushrooms cause headaches too. Good luck!

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I get migraines too and bad headaches in general, this time it was daily for about 2 weeks into W30 before going away (I'm on Day 23 now and things are better). I think the detox process hits us migraine sufferers hard, and compounds anything else going on (stress, etc.)

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