Prevent Your Headache

I read a great book several years ago called “Heal Your Headaches” by David Buchholz, M.D. 

My headaches had gotten longer and stronger and it was making it hard to do everyday things like work productively, drive and care for my son.

The book says that an increase in the amount of prescription headache medicine can make you more immune to the medicine.

The book says that even worse, when you take more and more headache meds, you will likely get longer and stronger headaches.  

Additionally, although caffeine can temporarily get rid of a headache, it will make your headaches worse in the long run and too much at a time flat out will cause a headache.

Did you know that caffeine is in several headache medicines?

Everyone knows that most medicine causes side effects so the best goal is to prevent the problem in the first place. That was my goal.

The first thing I did was to take caffeine out of my diet. This was tricky because caffeine gave me energy. But I figured out that exercising more, napping and eating things like apples gives you energy as well.

I also like Nature Made brand VitaMelts Vitamin E tablets that melt on your mouth. Now I eat one if I’m super tired and can’t take a nap. They work well especially when you are driving a long distance like between Phoenix airport and the Grand Canyon, which we did recently.

Taking caffeine out of my diet made a huge impact in curing me of headaches. I still get them but they are rare and short-lived.

In addition, I make sure I do not have too much of the following dietary triggers. Here’s the book’s list that I follow for the most part:

• Caffeine
• Chocolate
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
• Processed meats and fish, especially pepperoni and salami
• Certain cheese and other dairy products, yogurt, buttermilk, especially highly aged cheese
• Nuts, avoid all nuts but seeds are okay
• Alcohol and vinegar, especially red wine and champagne; however clear distilled vinegar is okay, as is vodka
• Certain fruits and juices, especially bananas and citrus
• Certain vegetables, especially raw onions
• Fresh yeast-risen baked goods
• Asparatame (Nutrasweet), the author says that there’s no proof that Splenda or sucralose is a trigger.

In addition to dietary triggers, I noticed that very little sleep gives me a wicked headache. Also, the usual triggers need to be avoided like screaming children, too much screen time and stress.

By the way, I still eat bananas and yogurt. I don't follow the list 100 percent.

The headache book was published in 2002, which is more than a decade ago so you could probably get it for a low price used. Owning the book is best because you can use it as a reference when you need it.