Migraine Headaches

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

I've never, thankfully, suffered from migraines myself, but am now convinced of one particular culprit due to having seen how its omission from a diet eliminated migraines completely.

The partner's 11-year-old girl had been plagued with them for years: excruciating head pain, accompanied by continual convulsive vomiting. To cut a long story short the cause of her woes was the 'flavour enhancer' Monosodium Glutamate, aka MSG, aka E621, aka sodium glutamate.

Since identifying it as a potential cause and avoiding it the wee lass's migraines ceased, completely, except when she took it again unawares, e.g., a bag of Tayto... Removing it from the diet completely is not easy: it's one pervasive sonofabitch, found in a whole range of foods from ordinary crisps, i.e., not wholly natural crisps, to Paxo to Chinese takeaways, and most other savoury concoctions (Chinese ready meals, in ASDA for example, are MSG-free).

It's possible to eliminate 99% of MSG foods from the diet quite easily – organic foodstuffs, for example, won't contain any additives like that; it's probably possible to ask your Chinese takeaway not to add MSG to your meal (Indian meals, and probably Thais, etc., never use such crap to 'enhance' flavours); curiously, usually the cheaper supermarket's own-brand stuff too will be clear (it represents an avoidable cost).

Here's decent link outlining the difficulties: http://www.ukhippy.com/stuff/showthread.php?10726-MSG-free-shopping-list

It necessitates, however, eternal vigilance, though it's notable how many run-of-the-mill foodstuffs now explicitly state that they're MSG-free, and it's a growing number.

Although, where MSG is concerned it seems to be the younger folk who are particularly susceptible, it might nonetheless be worth a try if you're an (adult) sufferer yourself; can do no harm.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

An update: the wee lass began to suffer badly again very recently with migraines without having taken MSG explicitly.

Turns out her (growing) fondness for Subway's subs is to blame, where although they don't use MSG itself they do use related glutamate products.

From their own website:

The SUBWAY® brand does not add MSG to any of the standard menu items. However, other ingredients such as hydrolyzed or textured vegetable proteins and/or autolyzed yeast are used in our products. These ingredients contain glutamates that may cause similar sensitivities that MSG causes.

It turns out that the glutamates in their hydrolyzed or textured vegetable proteins and/or autolyzed yeast are every bit as bad.

Hard to be too careful.

[Cold tea]

Hard to be too careful.

Feel your pain - my young daughter 2 and 4 months is totally Diary intolerant, trying to navigate the products to avoid all things diary is a bit of a minefield, it also means if we ever go out she has to have chips as all potatoes in restaurants will have butter or milk bate into them!  To some degree the whole family is without the Diary as we all use Diary free butter to avoid any accidents and most snacks are now diary free in the home!

[gerrykeegan]

Hard to be too careful.

Feel your pain - my young daughter 2 and 4 months is totally Diary intolerant, trying to navigate the products to avoid all things diary is a bit of a minefield, it also means if we ever go out she has to have chips as all potatoes in restaurants will have butter or milk bate into them!  To some degree the whole family is without the Diary as we all use Diary free butter to avoid any accidents and most snacks are now diary free in the home!

My young lad is the same dairy and egg. Don't know if you have been advised but the professor that deals with our lad has said that in the last while they have changed how the deal with the whole issue. We have began to give him baked forms of those products, they say the raw form is the hardest for them to deal with. You are trying to build up their tolerance to the products. If he has a reaction give him some Zirtek and try again another day. Our lad is now able to eat home made chicken nuggets, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs. He also loves the dairy free chocolate and I love it as well.

[Tony Baloney]

Hard to be too careful.

Feel your pain - my young daughter 2 and 4 months is totally Diary intolerant, trying to navigate the products to avoid all things diary is a bit of a minefield, it also means if we ever go out she has to have chips as all potatoes in restaurants will have butter or milk bate into them!  To some degree the whole family is without the Diary as we all use Diary free butter to avoid any accidents and most snacks are now diary free in the home!

Try a calendar as an alternative or maybe just a run of the mill notebook.

[Cold tea]

Hard to be too careful.

Feel your pain - my young daughter 2 and 4 months is totally Diary intolerant, trying to navigate the products to avoid all things diary is a bit of a minefield, it also means if we ever go out she has to have chips as all potatoes in restaurants will have butter or milk bate into them!  To some degree the whole family is without the Diary as we all use Diary free butter to avoid any accidents and most snacks are now diary free in the home!

Try a calendar as an alternative or maybe just a run of the mill notebook.

Sorry is giving the age of my daughter causing you some pain, she is 2 and 4 months, what's your point?

[Cold tea]

Hard to be too careful.

Feel your pain - my young daughter 2 and 4 months is totally Diary intolerant, trying to navigate the products to avoid all things diary is a bit of a minefield, it also means if we ever go out she has to have chips as all potatoes in restaurants will have butter or milk bate into them!  To some degree the whole family is without the Diary as we all use Diary free butter to avoid any accidents and most snacks are now diary free in the home!

My young lad is the same dairy and egg. Don't know if you have been advised but the professor that deals with our lad has said that in the last while they have changed how the deal with the whole issue. We have began to give him baked forms of those products, they say the raw form is the hardest for them to deal with. You are trying to build up their tolerance to the products. If he has a reaction give him some Zirtek and try again another day. Our lad is now able to eat home made chicken nuggets, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs. He also loves the dairy free chocolate and I love it as well.

Unfortunately they tried and she was extremely ill so much so they advised against trying for the forseeable future.

[LeoMc]

Hard to be too careful.

Feel your pain - my young daughter 2 and 4 months is totally Diary intolerant, trying to navigate the products to avoid all things diary is a bit of a minefield, it also means if we ever go out she has to have chips as all potatoes in restaurants will have butter or milk bate into them!  To some degree the whole family is without the Diary as we all use Diary free butter to avoid any accidents and most snacks are now diary free in the home!

Try a calendar as an alternative or maybe just a run of the mill notebook.

Sorry is giving the age of my daughter causing you some pain, she is 2 and 4 months, what's your point?

I think your spelling is giving him some pain.

[Hardy]

Or some pian.

[ONeill]

Adrian Mole did the same to me.

[maggie]

Eating a diary couldn't be good for you.

[Cold tea]

I forgot Tony is the grammar police of the board, probably whacks one off for each mistake, surprised he can see the board to read it at this stage.  By the way it is a message forum not an English exam. 

[Cold tea]

Eating a diary couldn't be good for you.

Good of you to join in Maggie belittling a very serious condition that caused my daughter to be in the children's hospital for weeks on end in the first few months of her life whilst they discovered why she was skin and bone and couldn't gain weight.    But sure you endeared yourself to dicks like Hardy and ONeill so I suppose that was fine. 

[ONeill]

Here's a lesson or two - learn to laugh at yourself. It's good for you. Try not to take things personally. You're probably a capable fellow.

Secondly, don't use an illness to attempt to score points afterwards. It's pathetic, predictable and cold.

My partner is a sufferer. Although  I think she uses it to ward me off at times.

[Cold tea]

And a lesson for yourself don't try to be sanctimonious to me, the illness was what you were berating or maybe you thought someone not being to eat some cheese or drink milk was an innocuous aliment, not so innocuous when the sufferer is a baby whos whole diet is milk.