The Headache Prevention Cookbook

You can follow an elimination diet by using the recipes in this book and by creating your own recipes that avoid foods which can trigger headaches. You should avoid these foods for at least two months and record whether your headaches improve during this time.

After the two-month period, you can begin to reintroduce the potential trigger foods into your diet, one food at a time. Wait for a week or two before adding another. That way you can more accurately determine the effect of a particular food on your headache pattern. If your headaches increase after introducing a food, then you should assume it is a trigger and avoid it permanently. If the food does not result in any change in your headache pattern, you are not sensitive to it.

Paula S., a twenty-eight-year-old Italian woman, came to my office complaining of headaches that occurred three days a week. She was understandably distressed by their frequency but had noticed no particular pattern to them. Three weeks after starting the elimination diet, Paula's headaches improved dramatically. She was feeling great, but she wanted to go back to her normal diet. As Paula slowly began to reintroduce one food at a time, she remained headache-free, until she came to her favorite cheese-filled Italian foods: ziti with mozzarella, pizza, and lasagna, which she had previously indulged in several times a week -- the same frequency with which she used to get headaches!

Another patient, Carla L., had discovered that she was sensitive to aged cheeses like cheddar and Parmesan. But when she ordered a chicken Caesar salad in a restaurant one day, it never occurred to her that the small amount of cheese in the dressing would be a problem. Big mistake! Within an hour, she developed a severe migraine.Sometimes people have reactions to foods that don't usually cause headaches. These items are not included on the list of "forbidden" foods because they rarely cause problems. Unfortunately for some people, "rarely" is not the same as "never."

Gail H. was a teacher who went on the headache-prevention diet. One night she ate a lobster dinner. Within an hour, she developed a severe migraine. After that episode, Gail decided to experiment, and three days later, she had lobster bisque for lunch. Within an hour, she had a migraine. Because lobster is not a common headache trigger, it is not on the list of prohibited foods. But by paying careful attention to her headache pattern, Gail was able to determine that this food had an adverse effect on her.

Michael N.'s food reaction was one of the strangest I have seen in my practice. Michael never had a headache for the first thirty-five years of his life. One day, while driving, he bought a roll of hard butterscotch candies and put one in his mouth. Within fifteen minutes, Michael developed an excruciating cluster headache. He had trouble staying on the road but was able to make it to his destination. When he arrived, he was almost totally incapacitated. Fortunately, this attack lasted for only an hour and a half. However, Michael did not make any association between his headaches and the butterscotch candy. Three days later he ate another butterscotch candy while driving his car. Once again, within fifteen minutes he had a severe clusterheadache.