Essential Reading If You Get Headaches or Know Someone Who Does

On 2/19/09, I hosted a SIL Brown Bag lunch session “Living with Migraine: Issues & Coping Strategies.”  Migraine has been is a major component of my life for nearly 30 years.  I tend to get episodic headaches, usually once or more a week, on either side of my head.  The headaches have been sometimes debilitating, lasting nearly 10 hours at a time, but since 2000, I have been able to greatly reduce the severity and frequency of the headaches primarily by avoiding “trigger” foods.   Watching my diet has greatly improved the quality of my life, and as a number of my SIL colleagues know, I can proselytize endlessly about this. 

At the brown bag, we watched a short documentary, “Life and Migraine,” with a number of affecting testimonials from people who suffer and struggle with migraine (if you’re interesting in borrowing the film, please let me know).  We also viewed a short TV clip with a Johns Hopkins neurologist I saw briefly as a patient, who is a big proponent of the “dietary trigger” method of controlling migraines (and is somewhat controversial).   

Below are a few tidbits from the talk that I hope are useful.  I should mention that am not medically trained – I can only speak from my personal experience.  If you regularly suffer from headaches, I highly recommend getting a thorough check-up from a neurologist or group practice that specializes in headaches.