Sandy C.
What I like about Sandy’s store is the role her husband’s aunt played. On both social media and this website, I always talk about the important of sharing this information with others. The reason why is because I want to facilitate more stories like Sandy’s. – Dr. Perlmutter
I am listening right now to your talk on The Gluten Summit; at around minute 35 you talk about the 66 year-old man who eliminated the migraines he had suffered from his entire adult life. I just turned 60 this month. I want to tell you I’ve had a similar success over the past 18 months after deciding to quit carbs.
I recall having headaches as early as 6th grade: I got in the car after school and my head was hurting, and I can still hear my mother saying “You shouldn’t be having these headaches this young.” My dad really suffered from headaches, and I believe now that he had migraines. We just assumed that I inherited the tendency to have headaches from him; my mother and brother didn’t have them.
I was probably early 20s when I realized that my headaches fit the description of migraines. The left side of my head would just feel like it was exploding, I couldn’t see out of my left eye, sick to my stomach…light, sound, movement, made it worse, etc. Me being me, I would always try to tough it out rather than go from doctor to doctor in a search of pills to take (perhaps because I thought I had inherited this problem and just had to put up with it). So, for many years, I took extra-strength Excedrin hoping it would help (usually it didn’t) with ice packs or massage. I worked as a computer programmer for 7 years after college when I finally had to quit; I just could not get through the day and suffer through the headaches. I eventually went to several doctors and tried various drugs, which only helped sometimes, but usually the headache came back in about 12 hours. Given the cost and the fact that they often didn’t work, I gave up the drugs. Not once did any doctor ask what I was eating.
To get to the happy ending quickly, I will just summarize by saying that headaches have run and almost ruined my day-to-day life and greatly affected the life of my family.
In February 2012, my husband’s aunt asked him if I’d ever considered removing gluten to see if it would help. I started searching the internet for this connection, and came across Wheat Belly and The Primal Blueprint at our library. I quickly read them, plus many articles on the internet. On March 5, 2012, I started on the primal way of eating and quit grains and most carbs. The improvement was noticeable right away. No longer was I waking up at 3am with a splitting head, instead I woke up and felt “normal”. After a few weeks, I asked my husband: “Do you notice how I’m not having headaches?” and he replied emphatically: “Oh YES!” I am continuing to learn about the benefits of a high-fat low-carb life.
I’ve had about 5 headaches in the last 18 months, and every one has occurred the day after I ate something I shouldn’t have — like a roll at a restaurant. Mark Sisson (Primal Blueprint) says 80/20 compliance is ok, but for me, the “cheats” bring on headaches, and let me tell you, a hot buttered roll is not worth a headache for 4 or 5 days!
What else has low-carb high-fat done? Spring and fall allergies are gone now. Hypoglycemia is over; now if I am an hour late eating I don’t get shaky and weak. (That used to trigger a migraine too.) I lost 20 pounds in 3 months so easily. I was thin until my mid-50s when I started gaining weight. I am 5’8″ and went from weighing 120 in 2000 to 150 in 2012, now I am at 130. My husband has also always been thin (he is 6’4″) yet he too had gained weight in his 50s and was up to 204 pounds. He now weighs 179, and wears his old size 33 pants again. The weight loss is a nice benefit, but the health gains will keep us eating this way for life!
Next March 5, I am going to send my husband’s aunt some flowers on the anniversary of being almost migraine-free — all because of her question, “Has Sandy ever considered removing gluten?”