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Migraine?

copey399

Well-Known Member
Messages
374
Location
West Sussex
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Usually, in the past, when I've tried to cut out all the sweet stuff to try and lose weight I've ended up with frequent Migraines which I suppose I've used as an excuse to come off the diet and fail again. Ten days into the LCHF diet and I've had 2 so far. I'm "lucky" that I don't get the pounding, lay you out headaches now, in later life, but believe me I've had them so I do know what a full-on migraine is like. Nowadays it is mostly visual. Starts with blind spot, partial vision, then what I call "the fizzies" when it all goes squiggly and then it just goes off eventually. Sometimes I find it hard to make sense of what I'm reading or what someone is saying to me. Don't worry, I've seen my GP and he gets them himself and says that there's nothing they can do because all the Migraine tablets are aimed at relieving the headache part of it.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else has had them on the LCHF diet and does the body adapt to the sugar-free eating or are they just something you have to live with? They're really just inconvenient most of the time but I'd hate to have them more frequently because if it happens when I'm driving it's scary, although I can see enough to pull over or get myself to a safe place til it goes off.
 
I personally have not had a migraine since low carbing.
My migraines were a reaction to low level fluorescent lighting!

There is not another thing I can think of unless it is an allergic reaction to something that you are eating or drinking.
Don't stop low carbing as your blood glucose levels are really important to your health!
 
Hi @copey399 - sorry re migraines. I have had only 1 recently & that was like @nosher8355 said - due to lights. I was laying under 1 at a Pilates session & it triggered a migraine. Try n stick with lchf if able. Maybe keep a food diary? All the best
 
Generally speaking your body will get used to the diet. Unfortunately migraines are part of your body detoxing. It takes up to a month for your body to adjust. I'm a sufferer of full blown migraines and medicated for them so I feel your pain.
 

Thanks x Not giving up with so much at stake. In it for the long haul now. If I keep getting them I'll just have to go with it. Just wondered how common it was.
 
Medusa41 said:
Hi @copey399 - sorry re migraines. I have had only 1 recently & that was like @nosher8355 said - due to lights. I was laying under 1 at a Pilates session & it triggered a migraine. Try n stick with lchf if able. Maybe keep a food diary? All the best
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Thanks x
There's no pattern at all to mine apart from being more frequent if I haven't eaten anything sweet. Heat, stress, sunlight flickering through trees, stripes (can't iron stripes .. lol) but then sometimes these things won't have any effect. Tried to pin it down to certain foods but never found anything specific.
 
Cirbear89 said:
Generally speaking your body will get used to the diet. Unfortunately migraines are part of your body detoxing. It takes up to a month for your body to adjust. I'm a sufferer of full blown migraines and medicated for them so I feel your pain.
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Oh no (hug). Awful things and had them on and off since age 11. Always seemed to happen when I was looking forward to something too
 
copey399 said:
Oh no (hug). Awful things and had them on and off since age 11. Always seemed to happen when I was looking forward to something too
Click to expand...

I only had one in my teens then got really ill June 2014 and had them since. Although luckily I'm now quite well controlled on the migraine front thanks to the mixture of preventive medicines I'm on now average on between three and five a month. (Mostly triggered by stress and hormones)
 
Interestingly I used to get visual migraines fairly frequently with all the symptoms you describe @copey399. This was pre diabetic diagnosis. Since adopting LCHF diet I have not had one. I hadn't connected the 2 things before but possibly for me high BS levels were causing the migraines?
 
I've suffered from chronic "common" migraines (debilitating pain without much in the way of visual disturbances) and have had to take preventative medication for all my adult life. Originally they were mainly due to stress, hormones - which stopped with menopause - and a few trigger foods. In the last 4-5 years I additionally started having weather related ones. When I began low carbing last year they stopped completely for a while, but more recently the stormy, windy weather and some severe stress have started them off again. I think now that there were probably more food triggers than I believed, as when my husband took over shopping and cooking our diet deteriorated and included many more processed foods - jars of sauces, etc, and they got much worse. Going back to a "cleaner" and more varied diet since starting low carbing has actually helped me greatly, but there's not a lot I can do to avoid the weather patterns and stress!

Robbity

PS I actually had a few normal (non-migraine) headaches form a few weeks when adapting to low carbs, but they were quite bearable and not particularly serious.
 
The wife gets migraines and one of her problem food was Tea ! Combinations of foods also can cause them for her. So it could be food induced..have you keep your food and mood charts upto date, you may see a pattern .. Also blood sugars can influence migraine
 
Yes I remember having a really bad one after a WI cheese and wine party where I had a combination of red wine and blue cheese, neither of which caused me much of a problem on their own, but in combination...

Robbity
 

Strange because I always thought it was low BS that did it for me. Before I was diagnosed I got my O/H to test me when I had one but it wasn't particularly low though.
 
@Enclave I've never found a trigger in all those years apart from, as @Robbity reminded me cheese and wine is a definite no no.
I don't drink any alcohol in fact because they used to trigger them and gave up cheese for years but gradually tried things with cooked cheese in like quiche and pizza and found they didn't affect me. I've still not eaten raw cheese for years though.
 
The only times I get the visual auras these days is if I chew too much sugar free gum - I'm pretty sure it's a reaction to aspartame so I try to limit it as much as possible.

You haven't added sugar free versions of any products by chance?
 
Migraine has been the bane of my life since puberty and definitely linked with the menstrual cycle. We're all different but for me I now avoid red wine, drink other alcohol sparingly, avoid all fizzy drinks, go easy on cheese, avoid Marmite and the biggest revelation has been going gluten free that has really seemed to make a massive difference. There really seems no one solution for us all.
 
I've never done dairy!
Perhaps, and I might be talking b.....! here, but there could be something in lactose intolerance. I'm not, been tested, but can't eat cream, butter, cheese! (Yuk!)
But I love full fat Greek yogurt!
But I'm weird!
 
They really are a mystery aren't they. If certain situations or food always brought them on then you'd know what to avoid but it seems to be a combination of various factors. I suppose that's why they've never found a cure. No common denominator.
 
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