A book that changed my life

Sunday school answer would be: The Bible. While that is a true statement, that's not the book I'm talking about. A book that changed my life is called Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain by David Buchholz, M.D. Book I'm not kidding when I call this life-changing!

I've been a migraine sufferer for 10 years now. I've gone the route of trying multiple prevention meds, only to find they don't work, and most had really bad side effects. (The worst was a drug called Topomax. It made me paranoid. Very scary stuff!) I got fed up with all the drugs and refused to let my neurologist prescribe any more for me.

My mom's best friend told my mother about this book. She said it worked for her. As I was desperate by this time, I was willing to give the book a try. I won't lie to you; this is a difficult program. You have to go off your drugs, including pain meds (eek!) and birth control. You also have to cut out a lot of foods from your diet. A lot. It will make grocery shopping a bit of a challenge for a few weeks. Eventually, you can start adding things back in.

Let me just say that I was shocked when I found my food triggers! There were the more obvious culprits such as chocolate and hard cheeses (parmesan in particular), but there were also some serious surprises. I can't eat pineapple, blueberries, and even bananas seem to be a problem for me. Unfortunately, vile things like broccoli and brussels sprouts are not on my must-avoid list (at least not for pain reasons!).

Yes, it's a pain having to avoid yummy foods I really love. I had 6 pounds of fresh blueberries I'd picked that I had to give away. :-( Sometimes it makes eating at restaurants or potlucks a bit of a challenge, but it's well worth it. I went from having 5-6 migraines a week to about 2 a month! (Admittedly, the migraines have worsened recently, but that's mostly because I can't control the weather! Barometric pressure changes are something I can't avoid.)

I just wanted to recommend this book for any other headache sufferers out there! It just might make the difference you're desperately searching for!