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Migraines! :(

C

CatAndLucy

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I've been low caring for a few months now and it's going great. I've dropped a tonne of weight, my cholesterol is down, bp is fab, kidneys are fine, and my hba1c is 37.
But, I've started getting migraines! I've had them very intermittently over the last 20 years or so but. It's been about 4 years since the last. Now they're clustering, 3 in 24 hours last weekend! And the normal meds don't seem to do a thing!
Any advice? :/
 
I may be wrong so please don't quote me but I think migraines can be l brought on my many things and be thought as migraines but be something completely different id honestly check with a doctor just to be sure!! Feel better soon
 
I am going to. I was just wondering if there's any definite link with diabetes or low carbing. The people on here seem to know way more about it than anyone at my surgery! :-D
 
Could it be that you are eating a lot more cheese, perhaps? I know I'm eating a lot more cheese that I ever used to, since low carbing.

Also, I agree with @asparagusp, in that you're needing a bit higher glucose levels until your body adjusts to your glucose levels being steadily lower.

I do hope you find your 'trigger' very soon and can feel better. Migraines are horrible things to endure.
 
Don't worry - your brain doesn't need carbohydrate to function.
I used to get some wicked migraines, but they just went away never to return. I could never work out why they came, nor why they went.
 
Resurgam said:
Don't worry - your brain doesn't need carbohydrate to function.
I used to get some wicked migraines, but they just went away never to return. I could never work out why they came, nor why they went.
Click to expand...
Excuse me but you do. Please read my link.
 
The brain does not need any dietary carbs at all, ZERO. The liver will provide the small amount of glucose needed and as @Resurgam said the brain runs on ketones quite happily. Low carb is sometimes used to treat migraines as well as seizures and some cancers. When dealing with a young man having severe migraines I was told that the 3 most common triggers were chocolate, peanut butter, and cheddar cheese. Turned out his was indeed cheddar cheese.
 
Hi and welcome.

Getting back to your migraines
I have seen more people posting on the forum saying that LC improved or reduced their migraines, than posting to say LC has made them worse. From memory, I think @KevinPotts no longer has migraines after suffering for decades - but i may be misremembering.

So while it is possible that LC is causing them (anything is possible), i would look at various other things before you decided it was the simple fact of lowering your carbs.

For instance:
Are you drinking enough?
How have you changed your diet to achieve your lower carbs? More dairy? More dark choc? More coffee? There are so many different dietary triggers for migraines, you could have unknowingly increased your trigger by your LC diet changes - in which case a simple tweak of your eating habits could remove the problem.
Then there is the detox theory. Are you rapidly losing weight on LC?
Have you introduced artificial sweeteners? Or increased them?
Alcohol? Citrus?

These are all speculation, of course, but I hope they help. Migraines are utterly miserable. I have only had 2 in 50 years, and i never want another. 3 in 24 hrs sounds like hell on earth.

(Incidently, I think both of my migraines were triggered by a dairy+citrus meal, so that is a combo i try to avoid nowadays)
 
I find I get the visual auras for an impending migraine if I have too many foods with artificial sweeteners in them. Luckily once I get the visual symptoms, I take ibuprofen immediately and it seems to head off a full blown migraine before it hits. Adding to @chalup's list, I recall oranges being another migraine trigger for some people.
 
Duh - when I moved to Leicestershire I discovered Leicester cheese, the orange one - and have used it ever since. I think you might have just solved the mystery of why my migraines stopped. I have not eaten cheddar cheese for decades, about the same length of time as I have been free from migraines.
When at home my mother used white Cheshire cheese, so I only ever ate cheddar cheese when living in the south of England with my first husband - poor fellow - I suspected that it was him causing the headaches at one time.
 
Us West Country boys are an "aquired taste."
 
chalup said:
When dealing with a young man having severe migraines I was told that the 3 most common triggers were chocolate, peanut butter, and cheddar cheese. Turned out his was indeed cheddar cheese.
Click to expand...

(Very strange - I used to suffer the most horrendous migraines where I would vomit in the street. Then I was eating chocolate, peanut butter and cheddar. I still eat these but no migraines until a few years ago when I went to an IKEA Christmas eat all you want buffet - and lo and behold ..... )

Apologies everyone for my mistake in my last post.
 
Maybe it was that "odd glass" of red...?
 
Thanks for tagging me @Jaylee but I can't offer any help, never having had a migraine in my life. I did used to get headaches many years ago before I retired when I drank a lot of coffee. I stopped the coffee. The headaches went.

Sorry to hear your problem @CatAndLucy it sounds awful. I hope you can resolve it.
 
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