The next meeting of the Austin Migraine Support Group will be Friday February 8th, 2008 at 11:30 at Central Market at 4001 N Lamar Blvd, near Lamar and 38th (Google Map). We'll meet upstairs. Look for a table of four people with "MSG" written on a piece of paper on the table. All visitors are very welcome. We'd love to hear your story.

For more info email We meet every three months. We talk about treatments like Botox, massage therapy, bio-feedback, nutrition, and various triptans and herbs.

Trivia: 18% of women and 6% of men have migraines. Only 15 to 20% experience visual disturbances before a migraine.

New Migraine-Friendly Recipies.

Recommended Book:

Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain Don't let the cover scare you away; this is the best book I've found.

1. Migraine triggers
   1. Drug Induced Rebound

      Taking Tylenol, Excedrin and triptans can actually start to cause headaches. Some estimate that 70% of chronic headaches are caused by drug overuse.

   2. Food Triggers

      Food Triggers are often vasoactive, that is, chemicals that either dilate or constrict the blood vessels in our brains.

      Editor's Note: OK, I'm not a doctor - I don't even play one on TV, but here is my best guess on foods:

      For some people foods can trigger their migraines. Perhaps people are sensitive to a small number of substances. If you can determine the 'family' of foods containing that substance, you may be able to remove all those foods and lessen your headaches. The major families are: MSG, Caffeine, Phenylethylamine, Tyramine, and Tannin. If chocolate gives you a headache, then orange juice from concentrate and red wine may also since they all contain Phenylethylamine. Try to remove all of them for a time and then reintroduce to determine if that's true. To make things more interesting, many of these foods have two or more common migraine inducing ingredients.

      What migraineurs really need is a chart like this:

      Food	MSG	Caffeine	Phenylethylamine	Tyramine	Tannin	Nitrates
      Coffee		X			X
      Red Wine			X		X
      Lunch Meats	X					X
      Chocolate		X	X

      (If you have the time to complete this chart please send the chart to me and I'll post it.)

      1. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

         MSG is found in most commercial soups, some corn and potato chips, salad dressings, frozen dinners, canned meats, croutons, bread stuffings, and many oriental foods.

         MSG is also found in steaks prepared in finer restaurants. The helpful staff will marinate steak in sauces containing MSG to make it tender and flavorful.

      2. Caffeine

         I love coffee; there's nothing like a piping hot cup in the morning with a pastry. The caffeine in coffee actually helps migraines in the short term by constricting the blood vessels, but it's a Faustian bargain. After being constricted the blood vessels can then swell back beyond their original size, stretch those tender nerves that cover the blood vessels and cause a worse headache.

         Beware of decaf coffees. The chemicals used to decaffeinate coffee cause me a headache. I have been successful with one cup of water-decaffeinated coffee in the morning. Many stores with a large selection of coffees will have a decaf processed only by water.

      3. Monoamine Containing Foods
         1. Phenylethylamine

            From http://www.migraeniker.dk/"Since 1974 it has been well known that the chemical compound phenylethylamine may trigger a migraine attack. But little effort has been directed to finding where this chemical is found in our food. Recent research has demonstrated that some strains of bacteria, particularly Lactobaccilli, decompose bitter tasting compounds thus making wine taste better, morning fruit juice becomes 'soft' and smooth to the taste, and chocolate a bit less bitter."

            1. Chocolate
            2. Citrus concentrate
            3. Alcohol/Red Wine
         2. (Tyramine)
            1. Aged Cheeses
            2. Yogurt/Tofu
            3. Smoked or pickled fish or meat
            4. Beer
            5. Lima beans, Italian beans, lentils, navy beans, pinto beans
            6. Snow peas
            7. Peanuts
      4. Histamine-releasing foods
      5. Histamine-containing foods
      6. Allergic Foods

         Being allergic to a food may cause a migraine.

         1. Cow's Milk
         2. Wheat
         3. Chocolate
         4. Egg
      7. Tannin Containing foods
         1. Bruised fruits
         2. The red skin of apples and pears
         3. Most berries, blackberries
         4. Tea/Coffee
         5. Alfalfa, Barley
         6. Chocolate
         7. Cigarette Smoke
         8. Nuts
         9. Apple Juice, Apple Cider
         10. Beer
         11. Grape Juice
         12. Wine
         13. Black and Red Beans
         14. Spices/Herbs
         15. Apricots, ripe Bananas, unripe Peaches, Pomegranates, Persimmons, Cranberries
         16. Eggplant
         17. Smoked meats
      8. Nitrate preserved foods (bacon, hot dogs, pepperoni, salami)
      9. Peanuts / Foods fried in peanut oil
      10. Misc
          1. Some movie popcorn (peanut oil? MSG in salt?)
          2. Maple Syrup / Brown sugar
          3. Dunkin Donuts (don't ask me why, krispy kremes are OK with me)
          4. Normal Decaf Coffee (For me, its a one way ticket to migraineland)
          5. Nutrasweet, aspartame, and other artificial sweeteners - give up Diet drinks
          6. Sulfates and Sulfides used to preserve lettuce at some salad bars
          7. Food colorings - especially Red 40, Yellow 5
          8. Active yeasts - hot bread and yogurt
          9. Planetary Alignment - sometimes it seems like it
   3. Release of Stress
   4. Conflict with Family
   5. Hormones
   6. Neck strain
   7. Not eating something soon after waking in the morning
   8. Sensory Overload

      Headaches can be triggered by too much information being sent to the brain too quickly. Any of our senses will do especially: sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. The brain of migraineurs cannot recover from a rush of stimuli and a cascade effect of neural activity starts. The end of this trip is not a happy one.

      1. Computer monitors flickering (see note below)
      2. Bright flashes of light, like the sun reflecting off the car in front of you. The optic nerve sends too much information and overloads the brain.
      3. Loud or repeating noises
      4. Pungent odors like freshly cut grass, second hand smoke, perfume
      5. Intense tastes
      6. Changes of temperature
   9. Changes in weather (think about buying a barometer) although research has not shown this, and unfortunately you can't do a lot about barometric pressure
2. What helps to prevent headaches?
   1. Exercise - gently regular workouts
   2. Tempurpedic pillow to support the neck while sleeping
   3. Getting regular Goldilocks sleep, not too much and not too little
   4. Relaxing the facial muscles during the day
   5. Chiropractor
3. What helps to relieve symptoms?
   1. Ice pack on neck to cool blood entering the brain and reduce swelling
   2. Neck and Head massage
   3. Lying on the floor with two tennis balls in a sock behind the neck
4. What medications work for you?
   1. Relpax (my current favorite - it starts to work slower, 80 minutes for me, but stays in your bloodstream for much longer than Imitrix)
   2. Imitrix
   3. Zomig
   4. Axert
   5. Frova
5. Suggested dietary supplements
   1. Magnesium Glycinate 600 mg/day
   2. Co-Q10 100-150 mg in morning
   3. B2 400 mg/day at night
   4. Petadolex (Butterbur extract) 2 - 3 per day.
   5. Omega Brite (omega 3 oil) 1-2 with meal
6. Diversity in Diet

   We all know that a diverse diet is key to good health, but with migraines you should consider spreading the diversity over time. Eat fewer foods per day to deteremine what your triggers are. If you get a headache from eating a salad with ranch dressing, croutons, walnuts, and cranberries, you don't really know which of the toppings triggered the headache. Eat fewer food items per day until you know your triggers.

7. Eating Out.

   Traveling is the worst. I've found a few foods I can eat at commercial fast food places, but not many:

   I can eat burgers at WhatABurger with no tomotoes, no onions (the pickles and mustard are fine for me - and very yummy). The burgers at Burger King without the tomotoes, onions, and pickles work for me. I don't know why I react to the pickles at BK but not Whataburger. McDonald's burgers don't agree with me at all, perhaps some flavor enhanser they provide.

   I can eat the Country Griddle Cakes with strawberries and whip cream at IHOP.At some Indian restaurants, the Saag Paneer is OK, without the Paneer.

8. Prepared Foods

   Whole Foods carries "The City Butcher Buffalo Dogs", a no-nitrate, no MSG, very pure hot dog, that works for me. I can't tell you how good it felt to eat a hot dog after not eating them for six years.

   I eat three cereals regualarly: Arrowhead Mills Organic Spelt Flakes, Cascadian Farm's PurelyO's, and Kashi's Autumn Wheat. While traveling, I will often take a baggie of cereal and order a milk to have a migraine-free meal.

   Youplait Strawberry yougert is fine, be sure to get the regular and not the lite version. For some reason the peach gives me a headache, but the strawberry is great.

9. Favorite Links on Migraines:
   1. Rhonda's MigrainePage with community wiki.
   2. Understanding Triggers
10. Definitions:
    1. Agonist: A drug or other chemical that can combine with a receptor on a cell to produce a physiologic reaction typical of a naturally occurring substance. So 'serotonin agonists' like sumatriptan, dihydroergotamine (DHE), and ergotamine trigger an increase in serotonin levels.
    2. Antagonist: A chemical substance that interferes with the physiological action of another, especially by combining with and blocking its nerve receptor.
11. Notes:
    1. What causes the actual pain in a migraine? Some people think its the nerves that wrap around the blood vessels in our brains. If the blood vessels swell, those nerves get stretched and don't like it and they don't mind telling you they don't like it. That's way many over-the-counter headache medicines have caffeine; it constricts the blood vessels.
    2. Recently when I feel pressure building on one side of my head, I immediately ice it and then get something to eat. This seems to head off some migraines.
    3. Flickering computer monitors are interesting.

       Many people with migraines can look at a computer screen and tell that the refresh rate is set at 60Hz by seeing the flashing light. I can. Many migraine-free people cannot discern between 60 and 75Hz just by looking. A theory of mine is that migraineurs' brains process visual stimuli faster than normal and this overloads the brain.

       Here's a video I did to show you how to change your refresh rate in windows xp:

       If you have migraines, temporarily set your monitor at 60Hz and see if you can tell the difference. Ask your friends with and without migraines if they can tell the difference and let me know at the email address at the top of this page. (In windows XP, right click on the background of the screen then select "Properties/Settings/Advanced/Monitor". Be sure to set the refresh rate back to 75 or 80Hz when you are done since low refresh rates can trigger migraines. You may need to install the actual drivers for your monitor instead of the "plug and play" drivers to get the best refresh rate.

       You can change your default color scheme to reduce the amount of white light from your computer. Right click on your wall paper and select "Properties/Appearance" and set the "Color scheme" to "Eggplant". Then select "Advanced". In the "Item:" dropdown select "Window" and set its color to a light grey. All your well-behaved apps will have a light grey background instead of stark white.