Towards Ending Migraines

Blossom

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sueq said:
so it's the usual catch 22 - in this case, needing T3 to improve glycogen, but T3 makes you need glycogen. a few things have been like this - eg needing to be strong enough to improve your health, which you want to improve in order to feel stronger! must be really confusing and superficially confusing to newcomers, which is why I seriously doubt that this could ever reach large numbers of people - have you noticed how their eyes glaze over? to me, nothing could be more interesting than fixing your health as all else comes from that, but i'm astonished how many really sick people are still bored by the topic! thanks for this.I increased my sugar today by adding it to OJ every glass I had, feeling fine this evening.
When I first started a Peat inspired approach I would carry sugar packets in my pocket just to make it through certain work situations like long meetings where I really couldn't excuse myself for any length of time. It wasn't perfect but it worked. If I had it to do over I would probably carry some homemade gummy candy. It's been nearly 8 months now and I can easily eat breakfast and be fine for 4-5 hours until lunch. I haven't tried to push it too see how long I can make it without eating because I really see no point in that but it is nice to finally not have to be conscious about refueling at all times. For me there was a major improvement at about 4 months with a steady and continued improvement since then. I know we are all different but I think it can be helpful and encouraging to hear others experiences. Hang in there sueq.
 
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tara

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himsahimsa said:
Vacuum cleaner might work well to suck out the last bit of air but even if some air is left, the bag must be mostly CO[sub]2[/sub] so the partial pressure is going from almost noting to almost everything.
It might make the difference between c. 60% and c. 80% - the bag is a bit stiff, so there will be some air left in there. In the institutional setups I think they aim for over 95%. I'm hoping what I can get is enough to get in through the skin.
himsahimsa said:
Peat said bone can store some huge amount of CO[sub]2[/sub] so maybe it will take a long time to make a dent.
I'd forgotten that.
himsahimsa said:
I've been thinking putting a block of dry ice wrapped in a towel under the sheets with me nightly to get a long exposure could be practical. Normal air at sea level is 0.0397% CO[sub]2[/sub] by volume so any increase is a big increase.
If you try the dry ice in bed, please report. It sounds cold to me.
himsahimsa said:
I think a better device might be a hyperbaric or decompression chamber loaded with 25% O[sub]2[/sub], 5% CO[sub]2[/sub] and 70% N[sub]2[/sub] (about). Then holding just under one atmosphere. You wouldn't want to induce CO[sub]2[/sub] embolism. Probably best to try it on someone you don't like first.
Got a hyperbaric chamber to play with?
 
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tara

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Mittir said:
Now i can go without food for 10-12 hours and not feeling surge of cortisol and adrenaline.
In the past after 7-8 of hours of sleep i would wake up . Now i can restfully sleep 10-12 hours,
which i used to do on weekends.
This is encouraging. Did this improvement happen with or without supplementing thyroid hormones?
 
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tara

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sueq said:
Never had migraine in my life till I low carbed that's why I agree it's about the blood sugar and glycogen. Was not headache prone at all. Boy did I mess myself up!
Bad luck!
 
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tara

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sueq said:
so it's the usual catch 22 - in this case, needing T3 to improve glycogen, but T3 makes you need glycogen.
This rings a bell. I've had more migraines the last month than usual - one to two days each week, plus the day before when I'm fighting it with everything I can remember/manage. The triptans were less effective than usual (this is scary). The last month what I have done differently is:
  • lots of cheap sweet milky chocolate most mornings
  • sweet milky coffee every day - 2-4 cups mostly decaf - a heaped tsp instant but with about 1/8 tsp caffeine coffee added
  • more home made cottage cheese
After three weeks, I was saying I only got the migraines whenI missed my chocolate. So this week I made sure not to miss it, and had two days of migraine anyway.
I know lots of people say avoid chocolate with migraines, but I've gone months at a time with little or no choc, and still got just as many. Its great for calorie dense portable rations, and more protein in 100g choc than in an egg. Don't know if this was one of the culprits this month. Maybe there's too much soy in it for me.
The coffee tastes and feels great with a bit of caffeine in it, but the migraines seem worse.
Did someone (Haidut?) quote a study showing caffeine increased the T4 to T3 conversion rate? If T4 production is sluggish, and it's getting converted to T3 and used faster, could this result in a greater T4 and T3 deficit after a few days? Could this be a way for caffeine to contribute to problems while recovering? As well as the caffeine increasing metabolism quickly and burning through glycogen stores faster - so harder to keep the sugar supply up especially at night. And caffeine's effect of reducing appetite, so less hunger not prompting enough eating.
I think I'll reluctantly cut or cut back on the caffeine and chocolate for a bit, and see if I can get more fuel into me by other means.
sueq said:
- have you noticed how their eyes glaze over? to me, nothing could be more interesting than fixing your health as all else comes from that, but i'm astonished how many really sick people are still bored by the topic!
Yes, I'm finding it hard not to bore everyone I know with this most fascinating topic :) When so much mainstream health advice sounds so intuitively unappealling and counterproductive (eat less, more salads, exercise more, ...), maybe it's not surprising lots of people don't want to hear any more advice. I'm certainly not much of an advertisement for this approach yet. I wasn't very interested in learning all the very long lists of foods various people suggested avoiding for migraines (I was always hungry - telling me to eat less was never going to sound attractive to me). My current strong interest in reading Peat's writing etc comes partly from the intellectual stimulation( as well as hoping it will help me get my life back, and liking the foods he recommends). Not everyone gets their kicks from nerdy intellectual interests, I guess.
sueq said:
I increased my sugar today by adding it to OJ every glass I had, feeling fine this evening.
Yay - hope this continues.

Days are shortening, lots of rain, not much sun. Sitting close in front of 1000 watt halogen lights for warmth and light.
 
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tara

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Blossom said:
When I first started a Peat inspired approach I would carry sugar packets in my pocket just to make it through certain work situations like long meetings where I really couldn't excuse myself for any length of time. It wasn't perfect but it worked. If I had it to do over I would probably carry some homemade gummy candy. It's been nearly 8 months now and I can easily eat breakfast and be fine for 4-5 hours until lunch.
I like this story. Reminds me what a pleasure it was several months after birth of son to be able to briefly have an empty stomach and not be nauseous.
 
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tara

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Mittir said:
I read some part of your post. I am curious about your thyroid numbers.
Reference range of thyroid numbers often are quite high compared to
what RP recommends.
Found old (Jan 2013) lab report. Here's the Thyroid Function Tests section:
'Free T4: 14pmol/L (10 - 24)
TSH 2.3 mIU/L (0.40 - 4.00)
Consistent with euthyroidism.'
No T3 data
Not sure how these units relate to other units I've seen on this forum. But I'm guessing that this TSH is 'normal' (ie common), but significantly higher than optimal. Is it high enough to justify low dose thyroid supplement if I can get any?

Also, Iron:
Serum iron: 13 umol/L (10 - 30)
Transferrin: 2.8 g/L (2.0 - 3.5)
Transferrin Saturation: 18% (16 - 50)
Ferritin: 33ug/L (20 - 200)
Not too bad? Any comment?
I've noticed quite a few age spots in the last year or two - that's the accumulation of excessive endotoxin + iron + PUFA, right? I should keep drinking coffee with my meat when I can, not orange juice, right?

Reproductive hormones: (taken c. day 14 of ~23-27 day cycle, I think)
FSH: 12.6 IU/L
LH: 8.8 IU/L
Normal enough?

Also:
Testosterone: 1.2 nmol/L (0.5 - 2.7)
Free Testosterone: 9 pmol/L (<50) (This one had measured high several years ago.)
SHBG 114 nmol/L (20 - 90)
Free Androgen index: 11 (<80)
SHGB was marked as High, but GP didn't comment to me about it. I was not supplementing any hormones, nor pregnant at the time. Does this mean anything to anyone?

In Complete Bld Count, all in range except
eosinophils a bit high - probably fighting mild infection or allergy, right?
There's no prolactin test that I can see.
 

Mittir

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Since RP has never seen a comfortably healthy person with TSH above 2,
i think lowering that number should be a main focus.
High estrogen and low progesterone are the main reason for
hypothyroidism in female. You can try fixing the problem with diet
and if necessary you can try some progesterone. I think most female here
have good result with progesterone. Diet is the core, especially
80 grams protein, all the required vitamins and minerals and steady blood sugar.
If you can avoid PUFA for 3-4 years then many health issues will resolve on it's own.
Daily carrot salad is very effective at lowering estrogen.
You can also experiment with very small dose thyroid and see how it feels.
Chicken neck soup or fish head soup are good trial food.
There is a lot of thyroid in those soups. When i eat soup of 5 chicken necks
i can feel my whole body warms up like i am in a sauna.
Most females have problem converting T4 to T3 due to sluggish liver.
If you can not convert T4 to T3 then thyroid supplement can make things worse.
Your iron saturation index looks quite good.
I do not have idea about LH FSH hormones.
RP did not talk much about SHGB either.
 
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tara

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Thanks Mittir.
Mittir said:
Since RP has never seen a comfortably healthy person with TSH above 2,
i think lowering that number should be a main focus.
So these are the same units? He has suggested under 1, or even under 0.4 (below our local current ref range) as ideal , right?

Mittir said:
You can try fixing the problem with diet
and if necessary you can try some progesterone. I think most female here
have good result with progesterone. Diet is the core, especially
80 grams protein, all the required vitamins and minerals and steady blood sugar.
If you can avoid PUFA for 3-4 years then many health issues will resolve on it's own.
Daily carrot salad is very effective at lowering estrogen.

I've been using progest-e and like the effects. I struggle to keep blood sugar stable - presumably poor glycogen storage. Trying to meet the nutrient reqirements, but not tracking closely, so I may not meet them consistently. I've been low PUFA for c. 1 yr. I really hope another 2-3 will help. I do the carrot salad most days.

Mittir said:
You can also experiment with very small dose thyroid and see how it feels.
Chicken neck soup or fish head soup are good trial food.
There is a lot of thyroid in those soups. When i eat soup of 5 chicken necks
i can feel my whole body warms up like i am in a sauna.
I have made chicken neck soup a couple of times. Tasted good. (Cooked but couldn't eat the fish head soup.) Not sure that I could tell the difference - certainly no sauna effect. Got some more necks thawing now. I'll try to pay more attention to effects. I was wondering whether it would make sense to freeze small portions of the stock so I get a little more often, rather than lots seldom.
 

Mittir

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I make a large batch of chicken neck soup and freeze it in small containers.
I use it occasionally. You can increase the number of
necks and see where you get the instant warming feelings, that is the T3 effect.
You can add some supplements to increase your metabolism.
What are the supplements you are currently taking?
Coffee helps a lot with liver function and tons of other health benefits.
 
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tara

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Hi Mittir,
I'll try to find more containers and make space in my freezer for multiple portions of stock. Do you eat it every day, or how often? Do you make a point of eating as much of the neck meat as possible, or just use the stock?

I supplement daily: calcium carbonate (1/2 tsp oyster shell x2/day), magnesium glycinate (1/4tsp x2/day), magnesium carbonate (1/4tsp x1-2/day), niacinamide (~90mg x2/day), progest-e (3-5 drops x 5/day, sometimes more).
Intermittently: Aspirin 500-1000mg, B-complex, E
I have started using decaf coffee regularly, with lots of milk and sugar. For a few weeks I tried to include a little caffeine coffee (1/8 tsp x2-4/day). I really like the way it makes me feel when I drink it, but then I had a worse run of migraines. My experience with full caffeine coffee is that it feels great, that it can sometimes interupt early migraine (especially with aspirin) but the withdrawal migraines are even worse. And I can't avoid withdrawal at night. And I suspect that my glycogen storage iis so poor that anything that raises my metabolism, like coffee can make it run out quicker in the night. I always have snacks (currently dates) by bed for when I wake up in the night.
I salt food generously, and add baking soda, salt, sugar to OJ. I sometimes crave more salt and haven't figured out a convenient portable salty snack.
 

Mittir

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I only use the stock and i cook for 3-4 hours until all the necks break up.
It is my back up source for thyroid. It was very helpful during winter.
If you drink a considerable amount of soup it would be a good idea to do
it everyday. Jenn, who originally started this chicken neck soup idea here,
used it regularly during winter.
I think PTH is a very important number. You can test your PTH to see if you
are absorbing calcium properly. It should be at the low end of normal range.
Vitamin D status plays a big role in calcium absorption. RP also recommends
vitamin K to reverse calcification of soft tissue and strengthening bones.
Have you noticed any big improvement with niacinamide?
B complex can be source of allergen, RP thinks synthetic riboflavin and folic acid
often are allergenic. You can try single B vitamins,B1,B5 and B6 are usually safer.
I think non-caffeine part of the coffee improves liver function.
There is a folk medicine idea that bitter foods stimulates liver.
If orange is not sweet and ripe then OJ can be a gut irritant.
Liver is a rich source of vitamin B and RP recommends 3-6 oz liver every week.
You can try eating small amount of sugary food every 2-3 hours to increase
liver glycogen. Protein is very important and i think farmer's cheese is
the best kind of protein .
 
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tara

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Mittir said:
I only use the stock and i cook for 3-4 hours until all the necks break up.
It is my back up source for thyroid. It was very helpful during winter.
If you drink a considerable amount of soup it would be a good idea to do
it everyday. Jenn, who originally started this chicken neck soup idea here,
used it regularly during winter.
Hmm. Maybe I'll try to cook bigger batches and have a little every day.


Mittir said:
I think PTH is a very important number. You can test your PTH to see if you
are absorbing calcium properly. It should be at the low end of normal range.
Vitamin D status plays a big role in calcium absorption. RP also recommends
vitamin K to reverse calcification of soft tissue and strengthening bones.
Have you noticed any big improvement with niacinamide?
B complex can be source of allergen, RP thinks synthetic riboflavin and folic acid
often are allergenic. You can try single B vitamins,B1,B5 and B6 are usually safer.
Maybe I can get doctor to order PTH test. And prolactin while I'm at it.
I did supplement D for a bit last year, but haven't been over the summer - just trying to get outside a bit every day. Now that days are shortening, I guess I could resume.
I do supplement K - forgot to mention. I have Thorne K2, 2-3 drops x3-4/wk.
I can't tell if the niacinamide helps. I have it with or after breakfast and dinner. I accidentally took 4x this much a couple of times. It was followed by migraine, but I don't assume it was the cause - making the mistake was possibly a symptom of my brain already malfunctioning.


Mittir said:
B complex can be source of allergen, RP thinks synthetic riboflavin and folic acid
often are allergenic. You can try single B vitamins,B1,B5 and B6 are usually safer.
I think non-caffeine part of the coffee improves liver function.
There is a folk medicine idea that bitter foods stimulates liver.
If orange is not sweet and ripe then OJ can be a gut irritant.
Liver is a rich source of vitamin B and RP recommends 3-6 oz liver every week.
You can try eating small amount of sugary food every 2-3 hours to increase
liver glycogen. Protein is very important and i think farmer's cheese is
the best kind of protein .
I have read reports of improvements with some of the Bs, but haven't acquired a suitable source yet.
I do eat liver - usu lamb, occasionally beef c. 200g x1/week, but thinking I might change to 100g x2/week to even it out. Sometimes my soups include dandelion.
I never go anywhere without food, and seldom go a waking hour without sugar (oj/coffee/dates/...). I've just started making farmers cheese regularly, and eat it with my evening soup. Still not sure if I'm handling all that casein, though.
I really appreciate your thoughts on all this.
 

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tara said:
I can't tell if the niacinamide helps. I have it with or after breakfast and dinner. I accidentally took 4x this much a couple of times. It was followed by migraine, but I don't assume it was the cause - making the mistake was possibly a symptom of my brain already malfunctioning.

Niacinamide increases use of sugar and this can result in low blood sugar if
you are not eating enough sugar. Large dose of Niacinamide possibly caused the
migraine as lowered blood sugar is a major trigger for migraine.
I started with 50 mg and slowly increased to now 100 mg 3 times a day.
It did cause sleep problem for me when i tried to increase the dose quickly.
But, i think Nianciamide has greatly improved my liver function and now
i can go longer hours without food. Niacinamide lowers PUFA release that
helps the liver to heal. Once the liver is healed it can store more glycogen than before.
 

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Mittir said:
You can try single B vitamins,B1,B5 and B6 are usually safer.
Mittir, did you mean B3 here instead of B5?
 

Mittir

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@Charlie
I meant B5. She is already taking B3 , I was talking about other safe B vitamins.
 

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Mittir said:
@Charlie
I meant B5. She is already taking B3 , I was talking about other safe B vitamins.
Aaah ok. Thanks Mittir. :hattip
 
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tara

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Cyproheptadine not available here :(
 

Mittir

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You can use some B6 supplement to lower the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin.
Females often are B6 deficient due to high estrogen. RP thinks 10 mg of B6 is a big dose.
I know one migrainer who is very particular about getting her B6 from foods.
Her migraine is much better now. I did not ask if B6 improved her migraines or not.
 

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