Migraine and Weight Loss

[rockford]

Hi Guys. I have suffered from non-aura migraine for the past 25 years and I find that the low blood sugar that can help bring a migraine on sometimes slows my weight loss down as I feel I always have to have something in my stomach at all times. I can't get hungry otherwise I start to feel the stiffness in my neck and I begin to panic and get a headache (and yes, I know that this is partly physical and partly phychosomatic).

At times when I have lots of migraines in a row, I find it very difficult to keep on a straight eating plan - I seem to kybosh all my efforts.
It sometimes seems like a viscious circle of lowering my consumption of calories but having to keep eating all the time to prevent the migraines.

Does anyone else suffer from migs and low blood suger and how do they cope on mig days?

 

[Plumfoodie]

How you tried eating low GI? It keeps your blood sugar more stable and might therefore help prevent some migraines? I do suffer low blood sugar but it's much better since I switched, and I did used to get migraines but haven't had one for ages - hadn't put the two things together but maybe they are linked. I eat 3 meals plus 2-3 small snacks per day.

If you think this might help you, why not pop over to the low GI section and have a look around? There are some helpful stickies.

ps have you tried meditation or yoga for stress? I have problems with anxiety and improving that also seemed to help my migraines.

As to what you eat when you feel unwell, you can only eat what you have in the house, so try making it easier for yourself to eat to plan than to eat naughty things when yuckiness strikes. If you freeze some portions then you have something easy to turn to when you feel rotten!

 

[oasis6918]

Hi Guys. I have suffered from non-aura migraine for the past 25 years and I find that the low blood sugar that can help bring a migraine on sometimes slows my weight loss down as I feel I always have to have something in my stomach at all times. I can't get hungry otherwise I start to feel the stiffness in my neck and I begin to panic and get a headache (and yes, I know that this is partly physical and partly phychosomatic).

At times when I have lots of migraines in a row, I find it very difficult to keep on a straight eating plan - I seem to kybosh all my efforts.
It sometimes seems like a viscious circle of lowering my consumption of calories but having to keep eating all the time to prevent the migraines.

Does anyone else suffer from migs and low blood suger and how do they cope on mig days?

I suffer terrible migraine's and I get paralysis down half my body so I have to go to bed and try and sleep it off, it wears me down for days. I also have to make sure I don't go to long without food - and I also tend to 'panic' if I get the slightest sense I'm getting a migraine. I just make sure I snack in between meals, fruit and cereal bars so they have sugars and I always go out with a drink of water or something, something to eat and some paracetamol. I've suffered for the last 15 or so years so its just routine now x

 

[mantha16]

tbh I'm lucky in tht food doesnt trigger migraines for me (altho cheese and choccy can make an attack worse) altho sadly stress and the hot weather do trigger attacks drugs and a darkened room are my only solutions unfortunately

you know after 30 odd years of migraines and persistant headaches I've never made a connection between low blood sugar and attacks it would be interesting to know if there is a correlation

sorry I cant be of any help other than to say otc or pescription drugs, 4head stick, 4head or migraleve gel pads

 

[TTfan]

Yes, this happened to me a lot during the middle of my diet and it nearly stopped me from carrying on so many times. Every time I had any kind of weightloss at all it'd be accompanied by a migraine. It's stopped happening so much now, and I'm not really sure why, but I drink a lot less coffee (I guess if you eat less food then a cup of coffee makes up a higher percentage of your overall daily consumption so you are more likely to feel effects from it?) and tend to eat salads for lunch rather than what I ate before. My doctor also put me on magnesium supplements which seem to have helped, maybe you could ask your doctor about those? The other thing I thought about was re-hydrating after exercise, when you sweat you lose a lot of salt, so maybe drinking back water was making the balance of electrolytes in my body wrong, so I tried drinking juice or squash after exercise, and that also seemed to help.

I'm sorry I have no science or evidence to back any of that up, it's just what helped me, but it's miserable so I really hope you find a solution. I also found that when it got too bad I'd just have to stop dieting for a little while, try to maintain and come back to it later which was horribly frustrating but better than being sick. I'd also recommend not dieting through a migraine, as when I do I find that they last longer, go to maintenance cals when you have one.

Maybe try asking your doctor for advice? Or try asking for a referral to a migraine specialist? The migraine trust has some information about exercise and migraines here Exercise and Migraine | The Migraine Trust and it says on that sheet that a new healthy eating regime combined with exercise is often a trigger, so maybe if you try contacting them they'll have some good advice? Maybe it's just your body adjusting to a lifestyle it's not used to and it'll ease off soon?

Good luck and let us know if it improves.