Eating These Foods Could Help Fight Your Migraines

A peer-reviewed case study from Toronto has revealed new evidence which suggests that certain previously overlooked varieties of food could present an effective alternative to heavy medications for patients suffering from severe migraines. Reported by doctors and published in BMJ Case Reports, the case study showed that a man who suffered from ” intensely debilitating migraines for more than 12 years.” according to CTVNews was successfully treated through the consumption of something most of our mothers and grandmothers have been hassling us to eat for decades: “dark green, leafy vegetables”… Seriously.

In the paper, the doctors wrote,

“While medication plays a central role in migraine prevention and treatment, there is growing evidence that dietary intervention may also offer an effective approach to migraine management without the adverse effects associated with some medications,”

According to the report, the patient, a sixty-year-old male had suffered for over a decade with severe migraines and had found very little in the way of relief through conventional forms of treatment and medication. Pharmaceutical options such as Zolmitriptan and Topiramate, cutting out foods like chocolate and caffeine and even Yoga, some of the old standby’s of treating migraines were ineffective as well. He described experiencing four to six headaches per month, some for days at a time for up to 18-24 days a month!

According to CTVNews, the patient told doctors,

“I am a photographer, and migraines made my job almost impossible,” the unnamed patient said in report.

“Before I changed my diet, I was suffering six to eight debilitating migraines a month, each lasting up to 72 hours. Most days, I was either having a migraine or recovering from one…if I missed the 15–30 min medication window, the migraines would be a 12 out of 10, and I could end up in bed in the fetal position.”

The Relief From This Patient’s Migraines Was Undeniable

Doctors place the patient on a “Low Inflammatory Foods Everyday (LIFE) diet” one avoiding processed foods, meats and focusing on fresh vegetables, fruits. Dark leafy greens daily and limiting his intake of whole grains, starchy vegetables, oils, and red meats. The diet included eating at least five ounces of raw or cooked dark leafy vegetables per day. such as, spinach, kale, and watercress

• After just two months on the diet, the number of migraines along with the length and intensity of those attacks all fell dramatically. The patient reported just one episode a month and stopped all his prescription drugs and even tried foods that might normally trigger an attack.
• After three months, the migraines disappeared altogether, with results “far exceeding the goal of migraine treatment with medication, which is to reduce migraine frequency by >50 per cent per month,” the doctors wrote in the paper. The results were also long-lasting, leaving the patient headache-free for seven and a half years.

“I am no longer a prisoner in my own body. I have my life back,” the patient stated. The report concluded, “This report suggests that a whole food plant-based diet may offer a safe, effective and permanent treatment for reversing chronic migraine. While this report describes one very adherent patient who had a remarkable response, the LIFE diet has reduced migraine frequency within 3 months in several additional patients.”