Plant-based diets are being tested to treat migraines.
Headaches are one of the top five reasons people end up in emergency rooms and one of the top reasons people visit their doctors in general. One way to try prevent them is to identify your triggers and avoid them. Common migraine triggers include stress, smoking, hunger, sleeping problems, certain foods (such as chocolate, cheese, and alcohol), the menstrual cycle, or certain weather patterns (such as high humidity).
Regarding dietary treatments, the so-called father of modern medicine, William Osler, suggested trying a “strict plant diet.” After all, inflammation of the nerves associated Patients with migraines “can be reduced by a vegan diet, as many plant foods are high in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds and, similarly, meat products have been reported to have inflammatory properties.” However, it was not put to the test for another 117 years.
As I analyze it in my video. Friday Favorites: Foods That Help Relieve Headaches and Migraines, among study participants who received a placebo supplement, half said they improved, while the other half said they did not. But, when they followed a strictly plant-based diet, they did much better and experienced a significant decrease in the intensity of their pain, as you can see in the graph below and at 1:08 in my video.
Now is “It is possible that the pain-reducing effects of the vegan diet are due, at least in part, to weight loss.” Study participants lost about nine more pounds when they followed a plant-based diet for a month, as shown below, and in 1:22.
Even just overcast the fat content of the diet can help. Those who consumed less than 30 grams of fat per day for a month (for example, less than two tablespoons of oil throughout the day) experienced “statistically significant decreases in the frequency, intensity, duration, and medication consumption of headaches.” ”that is, six times more. decrease in frequency and intensity, as you can see below and at minute 1:44 in my video. They was from three migraine attacks every two weeks to just one a month. And by “low-fat,” the researchers weren’t referring to SnackWell’s; They meant more fruits, vegetables and beans. Before the food industry co-opted and corrupted the term, eating “low-fat” meant eating an apple, for example, not Apple Jacks from Kellogg’s.
Now, they were on a low-fat diet: about 10 percent fat for someone eating 2,500 calories a day. What happens with less than 20 percent fat? compared to a more normal diet that still contains relatively less fat than average? As you can see below and at minute 2:22 in my videothe researchers Mountain range the same significant drops in headache frequency and severity, including a five-fold reduction in severe pain attacks. Since the intervention involved reducing the intake of saturated fats, found primarily in meat, dairy and junk food, by at least half, the researchers concluded that reduced saturated fat consumption may help control migraine attacks. , but it’s not necessarily something they can do. we are receiving less. There are compounds “present in real, live green vegetables” that could bind to a migraine-triggering peptide known as calcitonin gene-related peptide, CGRP.
Pharmaceutical companies have been trying to find something to bind to CGRP, but the drugs have failed to be effective. They are also toxic, which is a problem we don’t have with cabbage, as you can see below and at 3:01 in my video.
Green vegetables too have magnesium. Magnesium, found throughout the food supply but most concentrated in leafy green vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, is the central atom of chlorophyll, as shown below and in minute 3 :fifteen. So, you can see how much magnesium foods in the produce aisle have by the intensity of their green color. Although magnesium supplements do not seem decrease migraine severity, they can reduce the number of attacks you experience in the first place. Can ask Talk to your doctor about starting 600 mg of magnesium dicitrate every day, but keep in mind that magnesium supplements can cause adverse effects, such as diarrhea, so I recommend consuming it the way nature intended: in the form of real foods, not supplements.
Any foods that might be particularly helpful? You may remember that I have talked about ground ginger. What about caffeine? In fact, combining caffeine with over-the-counter pain relievers, such as Tylenol, aspirin, or ibuprofen, can increase its effectiveness, in doses of about 130 mg for tension headaches and 100 mg for migraines. That’s about what you’d expect from three cups of tea, as you can see below, and at 4:00 in my video. (I think it’s just a coincidence that the principal investigator of this study was called Lipton.)
Please note that you can exaggerate he. If you take children and adolescents with headaches who drink 1.5 liters of cola a day and reduce their consumption of soft drinks, 90 percent of them can be cured. However, this may be a cola effect rather than a caffeine effect.
And finally, a plant food that may not be the best idea. is the Carolina Reaper, the hottest chili in the world. It’s so overwhelmingly hot that it can block the arteries in your brain, as seen below and at 4:41 in my videoand you can end suffered a “deafening headache,” like the 34-year-old man who ate the world’s hottest pepper and ended up in the emergency room. Why am I not surprised that he was a man?
I have previously covered ginger and topical lavender for migraines. Saffron may help relieve PMS symptoms, including headaches. A more exotic way that a plant-based diet can prevent headaches is by helping to maintain you had out of your brain.
Although hot peppers can cause headaches, they can also be used to treat them. Watch my video on how to relieve cluster headaches with hot sauce.
