The Pros and Cons of the different diets for Headaches and Migraines

Do you suffer from headaches or migraines and struggle to find what foods triggers them? Or perhaps it seems like EVERYTHING you eat triggers them? Do you want to be able to manage your headaches through dietary changes but you don’t know where to start? Keep reading and you’ll learn about a few of the diets that are known to influence headaches, migraines and chronic pain.

Studying your diet, making healthy changes and understanding your food triggers may help keep headaches and migraines at bay.

There are a number of diets and lifestyle changes that we can make to try to decrease the pain that arises from headaches and migraines. The aim of many of these diets is to reduce inflammation, replenish missing nutrients, heal the gut and identify what may be a trigger for you. But with so many options it’s hard to know which to choose.

The IgG Elimination diet
Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is an immune protein that is thought to be the cause of many food sensitivity reactions. Food sensitivities are reactions to foods you may be eating that can result in an immune response in the gastrointestinal system and throughout the entire body. Since migraines are associated with hypersensitivity and neuro inflammation this diet has been implicated in the treatment of headaches and migraines.

Pros
● Food reactions are sometimes delayed by several days after consumption which makes it hard to determine and connect what food has caused your symptoms. The IgG elimination diet removes certain foods for a period of time to reduce the immune responses and repair the GI tract. Certain foods may be reintroduced one by one to determine if it is a trigger.
● Dietary inflammation is thought to play a role in chronic migraine. An elimination diet has shown to help remove inflammatory foods and reduce the frequency of attacks
● Reduces inflammation by reducing the immune response.

Cons
● Works better when combined with an IgG Food assessment blood test. This may provide false negatives if a person has been avoiding that food already and your measured antibody response may not correlate with the severity of your symptoms.
● The diet is not specifically designed for migraines and has been found most successful in treating IBS and IBD symptoms
● Nutritional deficiencies may occur when eliminating too many food groups, therefore professional supervision is advised.

The Paleo Diet
The paleo diet imitates the huntergatherer diet of the paleolithic era and involves eating the foods that were available to our ancestors in that era. It minimizes grains, legumes, dairy and refined sugar which can be inflammatory for some people, and includes plenty of meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, healthy fats, and oils.

Pros
● Based on the theory that our paleolithic ancestors were free from modern diseases such as diabetes, heart disease obesity
● Is known to help with weight loss
● Eliminates processed foods and added refined sugars
● Provides a “clean” diet without additives, preservatives, or chemicals.
● Plant nutrients in fruits and vegetables, oils, nuts and seeds have anti-inflammatory benefits.

Cons
● It can be an expensive and time consuming diet to follow
● Lack of grains, dairy and carbohydrates may reduce energy

GAPS diet
The gut and psychology diet (GAPS diet) is based on the theory that many conditions affecting your brain are caused by a leaky gut. It claims that once foreign substances enter your blood through a weakened intestinal wall, they can affect your brain’s function and development, causing “brain fog” headaches and conditions like autism.

The GAPS diet protocol is designed to heal the gut, prevent toxins from entering the bloodstream, lowering toxicity in the body, and restoring the beneficial bacterial ecosystem in the GI tract. Grains, pasteurized dairy, starchy vegetables and refined carbohydrates are removed and replaced with easily digested and nutrient dense foods.

Pros
● The diet is widely promoted as a natural treatment for many psychiatric and neurological conditions
● It may relieve bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea
● Helps to determine food sensitivities and food triggers

Cons
● Its controversial. Doctors and scientists have criticized it for being too restrictive
● Can be difficult to maintain as it restricts many food groups
● Not designed specifically for headaches and migraines.

Ketogenic Diet
The Ketogenic diet aims to bring the body into a state of ketosis by increasing fats and proteins while reducing carbohydrate intake. The body then uses the ketone bodies rather than glucose to fuel the brain and body. Some research suggests that migraine sufferers have a genetic mutation which causes poor glucose uptake creating an electrolyte imbalance and resulting in migraines. Ketone bodies are thought to be a preferred fuel source in these cases.

Pros
● Shown to be very effective in certain types of migraine sufferers
● Many studies have suggested that this diet can aid in weight loss and overall health and may be more beneficial than a low fat diet.

Cons
● Very strict and complex diet which can be hard to follow long term
● The high intake of meat may be quite inflammatory
● Beware of undertaking this diet if you have other health conditions, make sure you get advice from your healthcare provider before undertaking

RPAH (Royal Prince Albert Hospital) elimination diet and FAILSAFE diet
These elimination diets are designed to identify food chemical intolerances such as salicylates, amines, glutamates and certain food additives known to cause food reactions in sensitive people and then remove them from ones diet.

Pros
● The RPAH Elimination Diet is the gold standard approach for identifying and managing suspected food chemical intolerance.
● Only needs to be done for 2 weeks to 4 months in order
● While restrictive it is still nutritious when done corrrectly

Cons
● Need to be aware of salicylates and other chemicals in the environment as well, which may be harder to avoid.
● You may experience withdrawal symptoms
● The best elimination diets are the strictest. A good elimination restricts as many food groups as possible to uncover triggers.Takes a lot of time and brainwork to do correctly and many people will slip up on the first attempts.

Tips for choosing the right diet:
Try to match the diet you choose to your symptoms. For example; if you notice you have issues when you eat carbs and sugar you might find that the keto diet or paleo diet will suit you best. If you react to certain chemicals in foods like chocolate, wine or fruit and suffer from eczema you might want to consider the RPAH elimination diet. If you are having lots of gastrointestinal upset or suffer from brain fog type headaches you may want to consider the IgG Elimination diet or the GAPS diet. For best results you should seek guidance from a healthcare provider with knowledge in these diets.

Final note:
If headaches and migraines are taking over your life and you want to find out more about what could be triggering your headaches and migraines then get in touch with us. Here at Melbourne Headache Solutions we are passionate about helping people with their headaches and migraines. We are dedicated to finding out what the root cause of your problem and helping you to find a way to get your symptoms under control. So please get in touch!

 

Written by Dr Helen (Osteopath) who works in our Camberwell Clinic - Melbourne Headache
Solutions https://www.melbourneheadachesolutions.com.au/the-team.html