Fasting and Eating for Health (13 page)

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Headaches can worsen around menses, and have a tendency to run in families.

Sometimes headaches are caused by food allergies, and anyone with severe migraines should avoid foods that have been noted to trigger headaches.

Salted foods are frequently noted as a trigger, as are chocolate, cheese, ice cream, nuts, eggs, banana, herring, fatty foods, citrus fruits, NutraSweet (aspartame), MSG (monosodium glutamate), nitrates (often present in processed meats), and concentrated sweets. MSG and aspartame have similar chemical structures, and frequently those who react to one also react to the other. Alcohol is a frequent offender, not only because it can act directly to trigger headaches but also because it contains chemical amines added as flavorings that are potent migraine producers.

Since MSG can cause severe headaches and migraines,8,9 as well as other symptoms, foods containing this ingredient should be totally avoided by headache sufferers and possibly challenged (reintroduced as a test) at a later date when the person is doing well and is headache-free. Delayed symptoms may occur even 72 hours after MSG is ingested, so it is sometimes difficult to trace the symptoms back to the offending substance. Some researchers estimate that only 1 to 2 percent of the population is sensitive to MSG, while others believe the figure is closer to 25 percent.10,11

Unfortunately, if you are trying to rely on food labels to disclose the presence of a substance that you wish to avoid, you will frequently be deceived. Since MSG and other food additives can sneak into so many processed and packaged foods, it is best to avoid all such food items completely if you are a chronic headache sufferer. Since such avoidance is extremely difficult for most people, the table below may be helpful for those sensitive to MSG.

Food Additives That Always Contain MSG12

Monosodium glutamate

Yeast nutrient

Hydrolyzed protein

Autolyzed yeast

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

Sodium caseinate

Textured vegetable protein

Yeast extract

Calcium caseinate

Yeast food

Hydrolyzed oat flour

Food Additives That Often Contain MSG

Malt extract

Malt flavoring Natural

Bouillon

flavoring Natural beef

Barley malt

flavoring

Broth

Natural chicken flavoring

Stock

Natural pork flavoring

Flavoring

Seasonings

A high-protein diet is one of the most common reasons people suffer from chronic migraines. Protein breakdown and digestion causes the production of multiple toxins, especially nitrogenous wastes, many of which easily cross the blood–brain barrier. Humans are designed by nature to consume a low-protein diet; they lack the equipment of a large liver to detoxify uric acid and other 69

proteinaceous wastes. We frequently suffer unknowingly from our modern dietary practices because our bodies are not adapted to handle the foods we eat.

A basic plan to rid one's life of headaches is to start a low-protein, plant-based diet specifically designed to avoid the foods listed below, as well as all caffeine-containing products. The severe migraine sufferer should strictly adhere to the food plan described here until a definite recovery is achieved.

Later, when the individual has fully recovered, the diet can be expanded to include some of the prohibited fruits and vegetables to see whether or not they cause a problem.

To start, headache sufferers should withhold all medication, including oral contraceptive pills (utilizing another method to prevent pregnancy). They must stop consuming all herbal preparations, food supplements, tea, soft drinks, coffee, and all caffeinated beverages. Once these steps have been accomplished, it is time to follow the rest of the program: 1. Avoid all salt and MSG, including soy sauce, oriental foods, canned soups, sauerkraut, pickles, and sauces or processed foods that may contain salt or other preservatives and artificial flavorings.

2. Avoid all sweets, including honey, maple syrup, dried fruit, or sweet fruit juice.

3. Eat no animal foods, including beef, pork, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy food. If you add a small amount of animal food on occasion after a recovery has been achieved, keep the portion size down to less than 4

ounces (the size of a deck of cards) and stick to chicken, turkey, or beef, avoiding fish, ham, and all canned, cured, or processed meats, or meat prepared with tenderizer.

4. At the beginning, avoid most fruits and all fruit juices. Bananas, citrus fruit, pineapple, apples, applesauce, pears, apricots, avocados, cherries, figs, fruit cocktails, papaya, passion fruit, peaches, plums, and raisins should all be avoided. Melon and grapes are the only fruits allowed. These may be eaten in a small amount before breakfast or as a snack. Once a recovery is achieved, more fruits may gradually be included in the diet.

Bananas and citrus fruits should be saved for last.

5. Avoid nuts, seeds, and all legumes, including pole or broad beans, lima or fave beans, lentils, snow peas, navy beans, pea pods, garbanzo beans, onions, or olives. Once a recovery has been achieved, a small amount of beans—less than 4 ounces daily—can usually be tolerated.

6. Avoid all dairy products, especially cheese sauce and salad dressings containing milk derivatives such as whey.

7. Avoid all yeast-containing products, including brewer's yeast.

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Here is a sample diet for migraine patients in the first phase (Phase I) of their recovery.

Breakfast

Small piece of melon

Oatmeal or other whole grain hot cereal or yeast-free whole grain bread
Lunch

Large green salad (no dressing except 1 teaspoon olive oil permitted) Corn, sweet potato, white potato, brown rice, steamed carrots Bunch of grapes

Dinner

Small salad

Steamed green vegetable such as broccoli, artichoke, kale, cabbage, or asparagus

Starchy vegetable or grain such as butternut or acorn squash, potato, corn, millet, quinoa, rice, or pasta. Tomato sauce made without salt is OK.

As stated earlier, sometimes headaches continue for a few days while the body is still eliminating retained wastes, but usually this diet results in the quick elimination of the patient's problems.

Once a definite recovery has been achieved and the patient is free of headaches for one month, some of the prohibited foods may be added back to the diet. Add one food every few days, particularly avoiding any food that clearly precipitates an attack.

Start with fresh fruits, reintroducing them into the diet a little at a time. Then begin to include legumes, and then a small amount of nuts or seeds. If the person swings back to his or her former eating habits and begins consuming a significant quantity of animal-based, high-protein foods or highly salted processed foods, the headaches invariably return.

Headache Sufferers Easily Recover

Taking care of patients with recurrent headaches or migraines is probably the most rewarding patient interaction I experience on close to a daily basis because these patients typically recover very quickly. A couple of examples will suffice, as there is not much to say about headache case histories, except that if the patients do what I tell them to do, their headaches quickly disappear. So often, before the patients have been referred to me, they have seen a neurologist or other physician, who besides treating them with the typical drugs has ordered or recommended an MRI scan of the brain. I typically tell patients to hold off on these expensive tests for a few days while they follow my program and, invariably, they feel well in a short period of time.

Kate was a 42-year-old woman with a 20-year history of severe and frequent migraine headaches. When she first came to see me she was taking Fiorinal and Repan on a regular basis as prescribed for her condition. She was also 71

taking Deconsal for sinusitis and allergic rhinitis.

Kate started the migraine-reversal diet, and at the next visit three weeks later reported that her headaches as well as her chronic sinus condition had completely cleared. She no longer needed medications. She experienced only one further episode, the day after the first visit, and has had no further symptoms.

Kate later told me that for the first time in her life she was able to fast during Yom Kippur (the Jewish holiday of atonement). Prior to this year she experienced an excruciating headache and other hypoglycemic symptoms whenever she attempted to fast.

Nancy, a 34-year-old woman, also had recurrent migraine headaches. They were especially troublesome and severe around her menstrual periods. Her headaches were accompanied by nausea and a desire to vomit. She was using Xanax, and Repan as prescribed by her former physician. Nancy started a Phase I diet and was tapered off the medications. Her headaches quickly disappeared, and she has not had another problem with headaches since instigating this program. An added benefit was that her periods were no longer painful.

These patients did not need to stay on the Phase I diet for long. Other foods were quickly introduced, and they remained symptom-free.

Occasionally when people's symptoms are very severe and they wish to accelerate their recovery, they can begin with a two-to three-day fast, followed by the recommended diet. If the headaches do not resolve completely from their lives after following the plan described here, a longer, medically supervised fast for a more adequate detoxification must be considered.

Occasionally a patient with a severe condition may require a more prolonged fast to clear out the retained wastes that are causing the problem. For example, when Gordon came to see me he had already consulted with dozens of renowned physicians for his severe headaches and facial pain. He was taking 16 Percocet tablets (a powerful narcotic) and 2 Klonopin tablets (a tranquilizer) daily. His headache, accompanied by piercing pain, never left him for a minute.

If he did not take high doses of narcotics, the pain was unbearable and he had no normal existence. Because of his severe problem, he was forced to leave his job. He and his family were in financial distress. Besides unsuccessfully trying every headache medication in the book, he had undergone facial and sinus surgery, temporal artery bypass, and injections with nerve-blocking medications, all without improvement to his excruciating condition.

After starting a simple plant-based diet, I slowly weaned Gordon off his medications over a month-long period. His facial pain was very severe without the narcotics and I placed him on a fast as soon as possible. Within a few days of fasting all his pain resolved. So that he could more completely detoxify, I extended his fast for an additional two weeks. He is now back working and for the first time in 20 years is pain-free.

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Our bodies try hard to keep us healthy. When disease-causing .stresses are removed, the natural healing and self-repairing powers of the body begin to work unhindered. This self-repair and self-cleansing occurs most efficiently in sleep and when the body is no longer working hard or digesting food. During these times, the system can more effectively devote its efforts to housecleaning and the elimination of retained wastes.

Conventional Thinking Often Results in an Oversimplified
Diagnosis of Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia
means low blood Sugar (the terms "blood glucose" and "blood sugar" are equivalent). Frequently, I encounter patients who are convinced, based either on their own interpretation of their symptoms or on the diagnosis of a physician, that they have a disorder caused by swings in blood sugar levels.

Their complaints usually include one or more of the following: weakness, fatigue, headaches, abdominal pain, mental confusion, clouded vision, rapid heart beat, anxiety, sweating, shaking, and incoordination. These symptoms typically appear three to four hours after eating, especially when eating has been delayed or a meal has been skipped. Since these symptoms occur at the time when one's glucose level is at its lowest, the patient or physician attributes the problem to low blood sugar—thus the diagnosis of hypoglycemia.

There are two basic types of hypoclycemia:
fasting hypoglycemia and
reactive or functional hypoglycemia.

Fasting hypoglycemia
is generally due to serious and potentially life-threatening disorders such as insulin-secreting tumors or advanced liver dysfunction. Other causes of fasting hypoglycemia include drugs used for diabetes, alcohol, advanced renal failure, and hormonal deficits. All these conditions are relatively rare. In them, blood sugar levels can plummet dangerously, resulting in profound weakness and even coma and death.

Obviously, individuals with this condition require urgent medical care.

Reactive
or
functional hypoglycemia
is the second type of hypoglycemia and the common type that is the focus of this chapter. This type of hypoglycemia results in problematic symptoms, though the blood sugar levels do
not
drop to dangerously low levels. The prevalence of this condition is unknown, largely because there is no widely accepted criteria for its diagnosis.

Some physicians have taken the position that reactive hypoglycemia is very common and is the cause of innumerable ills. When encountering patients with symptoms suggestive of reactive hypoglycemia, many of these physicians advise them to eat frequent meals of high-protein foods. This is usually effective at reducing or controlling the symptoms.

Are these common symptoms, experienced by many, caused by low blood sugar? Is a high-protein diet the best way to control this troublesome condition? My answer to both these questions is an emphatic
no.

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There is much misinformation that surrounds the issue of hypoglycemia. As with many other health ailments, health professionals tend to lump patients with many different medical problems they can't solve into a convenient diagnosis. I will attempt to help clarify this confusing issue.