February 27, 2008: I'm still going strong after three and one-half years. I'm generally sticking with Dr. Buchholz's program and try to avoid caffeine, nitrates and other foods with multi-syllable preservatives. In addition, my wife and I try to eat organic foods whenever we can, and this seems to be extremely helpful in avoiding most of my known food triggers. Finally, I now drink a lot more water every day than I used to. When I get a migraine, I tend to get extremely dehydrated. I specifically drink Glaceau SmartWater when a headache comes on and when I'm recovering after a headache, and this seems to help by restoring electrolytes to my system.
By the way, keeping a migraine diary is critical. Every time I get a headache, my wife notes what I ate and drank within the past 12-24 hours, how much sleep I got (too much or too little), etc.
I'm still not cured completely, but my quality of life has dramatically improved over the past couple of years.
May 7, 2007: It's been over two and one-half years since I got with Dr. Buchholz's program, and I'm still relatively migraine free. Once again, I try to stay away from caffeine and any foods with nitrates/nitrites and other multi-syllable non-natural preservatives (e.g., MSG) that clearly can't be good for you. Also, I no longer use any big-pharma migraine meds. Bottom line: My migraines continue to be relatively infrequent and much more manageable.
August 1, 2006: I'm still with the program (i.e., no migraine meds and watching what I eat pretty carefully), and my migraine headaches continue to be under control. As of September 2006, I'll be coming up on the two year mark of following Dr. Buchholz's recommended protocols, and it's been worth it since I've gotten my life back.
February 27, 2006: Now more than a year after my original posting, I am pleased to report that I am still relatively migraine free due to Dr. Buchholz's recommendations. Again, what worked for me is the two-pronged approach of eliminating the most notorious food triggers and getting off of all of my migraine meds that caused rebound headaches, etc. Now, I only take a couple of Advils and try to sleep off the headaches, which are far less frequent and much less severe than at any time during the past decade.
January 4, 2005: I am 46 years old and have suffered from migraines for most of my adult life. About nine years ago, my migraines became much more severe and started to hit me every two or three weeks. My typical symptoms included severe ice-pick like pain behind my left eye socket, moderate to severe pain across my entire forehead, nausea, dehydration, alternating sweats and chills, etc. During the past eight or nine years, I have worked continually with two leading migraine specialists in Manhattan. I tried all of the usual migraine meds and, in particular, all of the triptans including Imitrex, Maxalt, Zomig, Amerge, Axert, Relpax, etc. On balance, the pharma-approach to dealing my migraines was a failure.
I never was really serious about attacking the dietary side of the equation, but I did try certain other alternative treatments such as botox injections, acupuncture, massage therapy, etc.
I am pleased to report that as of January 4, 2005, I have been virtually migraine free for over three months. This is clearly a modern day record for me. Since late September 2004, I have had only three relatively minor migraines which lasted only five or six hours in duration and which were not overly severe.
I owe most of my progress to my wife, who read "Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain." As a result of her research, my wife and I determined that I should pursue a two-pronged approach to dealing with my chronic migraines:
* Eliminate suspected food triggers. While I had talked with my doctors about food triggers during my many years of treatment, my wife was the one who first noticed a possible food trigger in the form of nitrites/nitrates used in processed meats such as bacon, sausages, prosciutto, etc. As a result, she convinced me to completely eliminate from my diet the following suspected contributors to my migraines: (i) caffeine (I usually had one cup of coffee in the morning and one or two bottled ice teas containing caffeine throughout the day), (ii) nitrites/nitrates (I have not eaten much processed meat during the past few months), (iii) sulfites (I generally steer clear of red wines and most aged cheeses), (iv) citrus fruits, (v) bananas and nuts and (vi) various other foods that the book indicates could contribute to migraines. My own instincts tell me that the two most significant foods that contributed to my migraines were probably caffeine and nitrites/nitrates. I believe that keeping these items out of my diet has really helped me break the migraine cycle.
* Eliminate migraine meds. While I had already phased off of some of my meds following my most recent visits with my doctor, I was still using Relpax as a migraine abortive. However, while Relpax seemed to sometimes defer the onset of the migraine, I found that it usually only delayed the inevitable while also creating really wicked rebound headaches. So, starting in September 2004 I stopped taking all of my migraine meds and just "toughed it out" whenever I got hit with a migraine. On reflection, I think that the Relpax created a major problem for me in terms of rebound headaches. And I never liked taking the various pain-killers that I had tried over the years, although I don't think that I could have gotten through my worst headaches without some form of pain relief.
So, the two-pronged approach of eliminating suspected food triggers and eliminating my migraine meds really seems to have set the stage for a breakthrough. I don't believe that I'm totally cured, but I can deal with one relatively minor headache each month that only lays me out for one day or less. It was the severe migraines every two weeks that laid me out for two or three days at a time that was debilitating from both a professional and a personal perspective.
Dr. Buchholz -- Thanks for writing "Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain." I would not be on the road to a pain-free 2005 without your help.
