Eliminating Headaches & Migraines with Whole Food Nutritional Supplements

Headaches are tops on the list of health concerns for most people. There are many possible causes for a headache or migraine headache, including:

Drug side effects (check with your medical doctor)
Hormonal fluctuations
Improper diet; reactions to foods (eg. Coffee, eggs, etc.)
Sinus conditions
Eye Strain
Low blood sugar
Stress
Neck/spinal problems
Muscle tension
Head trauma, including car accidents, blows to the head, etc.
Toxins in foods (MSG, aspartame, etc.)
Cold and flu
Reactions to inhaling chemicals
High blood pressure
Lack of minerals in your diet (especially magnesium)
Dehydration
Loud noises
More serious conditions
Detoxification
Combination of the above

Keeping so many causes in mind it may take a little detective work to determine the cause of your particular headache. But regardless of the cause, there are several helpful nutrients you should utilize:

Adjunctive Nutritional Schedule
* Anti Inflammation: 4 capsules every other hour for 6 hours
* Whole Calcium Supplement: 8 tablets a day
* Super Green Food powder: 1-2 tbl a day

With hormonal imbalances; menstrual problems (females over age 13), add
* Women’s Health: 4 per tablets per day

With blood pressure problems, add
* Healthy Heart: 4 tablets per day

With blood sugar imbalances, add
* Blood Sugar Nutrients: 6 tablets

Your Nutrition
There are many more headaches caused by your diet than you may realize. First, there are common allergies and reactions to foods that are known to cause headaches. However, headaches are not always immediate; they may come to you in a day or more after having eaten an offending food. For instance, you may eat a block of cheese on Wednesday and end up with a headache on Friday. And if you eat all kinds of offending foods all the time, then it’s nearly impossible to figure out what’s causing the problem. This is why an elimination diet is so helpful in determining the cause. We use the Alkaline Diet in our clinic.

Next, you should know that most commonly eaten foods today contain loads of toxins — poisons that get into your bloodstream and affect your liver and other organs and can give you headaches. These toxins include MSG, aspartame, artificial sugars, refined sugars, food dyes, food colorings, food flavorings, emulsifiers, dioxins, heavy metals, and loads more. Some of this is discussed in Dr Vic Shayne's Evil Genius in the Garden of Eden. Coffee very commonly gives people headaches, often from withdrawal. Oddly enough, however, coffee can also be a cure for a headache, with three cups of strong organic coffee taking away the headache in minutes. However, it only works sometimes on the types of headaches by problems with blood flow to the head:

“According to an article on caffeine in National Geographic magazine, ‘coffee withdrawals’ occur from increased blood pressure in the head when the blood vessels return to normal size after being restricted from prior coffee/caffeine consumption. While ingesting coffee for headaches may help in the short run, coffee lowers magnesium levels, so in the long run this solution may do more harm than good.” (“Migraine Headaches Overlooked Causes and Possible Treatments,” 2006, http://www.ctds.info/migraine-headaches.html)

Headaches also can be caused by hormonal imbalances, which is very common with females and their menstrual cycles. (See Women's Health)
Headache woman
“Seventy percent of women with migraines experience them during their menstrual cycles. Since women make up 75 percent of migraine sufferers, the female hormone estrogen is thought to play a certain role in triggering the condition. Too much estrogen relative to progesterone (estrogen dominance) can lead to the vessels in the brain to dilate. This dilation of vessel in the brain is thought to be related to estrogen dominance. For example, the estrogen in birth control pills can trigger a migraine headache. This is a known listed side effect of birth control pills. Now, recent research since the 1990's has found that some of the 85,000 chemicals in use in the United States also have hormonal effects that happen to imitate estrogen. In other words, chemicals previously thought to be inert, have hormonal effects. These effects are largely unknown and currently unmeasured.

“Time magazine has cited the landmark study of 17,000 girls aged 8. 15% of these girls are going through early puberty and sprouting breast buds and pubic hair. The Time magazine cover story, October 30, 2000, cites that some chemicals mimic estrogen and blames these chemicals for the early growth spurt of girls and early puberty.

“Ranchers also give estrogen to cattle and farmers give estrogen to chicken with the full knowledge that the estrogen will cause the animal to grow and mature faster. The chemical manufacturers and ranchers claim that the estrogen will wash out of the animals system in 3 days. However, estrogen is fat soluble and some scientists feel that it may take as long as a year for the synthetic estrogen to wash out of the animal's system. The European Union claims that giving estrogen to animals and then eating the meat may increase the breast cancer rate and refuses to buy Canadian and United States meat.” (Smith, M.D., Elizabeth, “Migraine Headaches Associated with the Menstrual Cycle usually Preceeding Menstruation,” migraine101.com)

Headaches can also be caused by sinus conditions. Many foods can cause sinus problems, including eggs, cheese, milk, margarine, bad oils, hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated oils, fried foods, soy, cream, refined sugar, beer, wine and more. The bottom line is that there is no better way to start looking for the cause of your headache than by straightening out your diet and going from there. (See Alkaline Diet).

Other natural solutions
Some other solutions, depending on the particular headache may include:
Diet changes
Acupuncture
Chiropractic
Massage
Chelation therapy
Hot showers or steam baths
Eye glasses or vision therapy
Meditation
Oxygen therapy
Yoga or Tai Chi
Exercise (sometimes vigorous exercise can get rid of a headache, but check with your doctor first!)
Breathing exercises
Enemas (4 quarts of pure water followed by 4 quarts of organic coffee solution)

Disclaimer
Always coordinate your health program with a qualified health care practitioner. The nutrients in each Adjunctive Nutritional Schedule are not meant to treat or cure disease or headaches or even migraine headaches, but rather to support health. The FDA has not evaluated any statements made herein. All products have been formulated based on sound scientific and medical research. No artificial ingredients are used.