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THE SYMPTOMS OF FOOD INTOLERANCE: MIGRAINE

Defining migraine is no easy task. It is generally described as a severe, throbbing headache that is usually restricted to one side of the head and is often accompanied by nausea and a dislike of loud noises and bright lights – or any light (photophobia). Some people also experience split vision, half vision, flashing lights or other visual disturbances – this sort of migraine is called classical migraine. Where there are no visual phenomena, the term common migraine is used. In both types of migraine, there may be indications that an attack is imminent – visual effects or just mood changes.

Doctors differ in their interpretation of these criteria. Some will tell you that it is not migraine unless you feel nauseous and your head throbs. Others maintain that the pain has to be incapacitating for it to qualify – if you are walking about, it’s not a migraine. In reality, migraine refuses to fit into these rigid definitions. Many patients with migraine experience varying symptoms. Sometimes their attacks are incapacitating, or make them vomit violently, at others they are fairly mild but have that same essential ‘migraine’ quality. Whereas a headache is just a pain in the head, migraine seems to disrupt the mental functioning and perception of the world – even if the visual disturbances of classical migraine are lacking. There is a spaced-out, cut-off-from-things, groggy, disorientated quality to a migraine that sets it apart from a headache, even when the pain is mild, and there is no throbbing or nausea.

The foods identified by elimination diet seem to be acting in a different way from the accepted food ‘triggers’. When they are eliminated from the diet, the migraines usually clear up completely – whereas excluding trigger foods only makes the migraines less frequent. Following an elimination diet, and the avoidance of culprit foods, patients often find that they can once more tolerate their triggers – both food and non-food. It looks as if the milk, wheat or whatever was creating some serious underlying problem which made the body vulnerable to any external change. Thus bright lights, stress, the flickering of a television screen, or the drug-like substances in chocolate could upset the delicate balance and tip the whole system into a migraine attack. Once the underlying food intolerance has been sorted out, the system is far more stable and can better cope with external circumstances.

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