Migraine

I think whole milk may be a trigger for me. I have figured out other triggers that account for roughly half of my migraines.

We went on a trip to another city for a week, and it was great, no migraines the whole time.

We came back from the trip, and I had a migraine the next day.

When thinking about what was different on the trip vs. at home, I realized we didn't have any milk. My first day back I had cereal with whole milk for breakfast.

I realize that most days I have dairy in some form- whether it is milk, cheese, or chocolate.

What is the best way to figure out if this is a trigger? Is it the whole milk products I need to cut out or all dairy?

For me, what I do, is look at the ingredients in things.

For you, maybe regular whole milk is a trigger, but organic whole milk may not be?

Food triggers are a tough one for me personally sometimes, because there can be so many things in what we eat.

Were you having milk on a regular basis before?

We have this link on the board: Migraine food triggers it also has a downloadable workbook with it as well. Maybe this will be helpful?

quote:

Originally posted by EileenHOST:
For you, maybe regular whole milk is a trigger, but organic whole milk may not be?

Were you having milk on a regular basis before?

Thanks for the link.

It was organic whole milk, I usually have it for breakfast with whole grain cereal. Another breakfast I like is low fat ricotta with fruit and a sprinkling of cheddar cheese or low fat yoghurt. If I have a sandwich for lunch I usually add cheese. For dessert I love chocolate milk or hot chocolate. If I go out for coffee I usually enjoy a latte.

So until the past couple of weeks there has definitely a lot of dairy in my diet. If it will help with my migraines I'm willing to cut out dairy but I don't want to eliminate more than I have to.

Hi alanna,

Yogart, cheddar cheese and whole milk can trigger a Migraine attack in some people.

One approach would be to cut out the dairy, but just for a couple of weeks. Then add dairy products back in, one at a time. If one type of dairy appears to be a trigger, you can eliminate it again, and then give it a second trial. That's probably a more sensible approach than eliminating all dairy forever, especially since you enjoy it so much.

Thanks for the advice.

So far it seems I need to avoid whole milk, yoghurt, and ranch dressing (w/ buttermilk). Since each one the previous triggered a migraine for me in the past couple of weeks.

A little American cheese or dark chocolate doesn't seem to affect me. And I've also tried goat's milk without problems.

So maybe it is the full fat cow's milk or fermented stuff I need to avoid. I'm thinking it may be a stackable trigger.

I found out my sister is mildly allergic to milk (though she drinks it anyway). I'm going to see an allergist to see if I can find out more.

Hi Alanna -

I have one client for whom dairy is her only trigger - if she avoids the dairy, no migraines. But for her it is all dairy - whole, skim, organic or not, cow, goat, etc. I have a colleague who had the same thing (no dairy, no migraines) - but for her it was only cow milk dairy and she could drink goat's milk.

For me, I have an allergy to cow's milk dairy - though yogurt and cheese seem to be okay for me. I have no problem at all with goat or sheep milk products. The allergy makes me stuffed up - getting stuffed up makes me more prone to migraines. Never noticed the dairy as a stand-alone trigger, but it seems to add to my trigger stack.

Anyway, all that just to say you're on the right track experimenting with it - and triggers can be complicated!

- Megs