Henry Bieler, M.D., in my opinion, presented the best logical explanation to migraines and headaches in his book, Food Is Your Best Medicine. I say the best, because I applied many of his recommendations with my mother who suffered from migraines for years and her migraines did go away. Dr. Bieler believes that the best way to prevent migraines is to reduce exposure to toxic substances and improve your body's ability to detoxify substances in your intestinal tract and liver.

Here's how Dr. Bieler explains a migraine headache:

"Food eaten today is about as far removed from the natural diet of man as man is from his primitive jungles. Man, however, still has approximately the same digestive apparatus and liver as his remote ancestors. If he lives on natural food, his liver remains efficient; if he fills his stomach with breads, hot dogs, chili, doughnuts washed down with coffee, his outraged liver cannot do its work. Whether his liver breaks down early or late depends upon how good an organ it was at birth. But break down it will, and when it fails to filter and neutralize toxins from the blood, an extra line of defense must come into play. This defense is carried on by the endocrine glands, which try to direct these toxins into other eliminative organs. The principal endocrine glands called upon for this effort are the pituitary which lies at the base of the brain, the thyroid, situated in the neck, and the adrenals, which fit like a cap over each kidney.

Glands of internal secretion then are pressed into hyperfunction, forced to manufacture more of their secretion. However, since the amount of gland's secretion is in exact ratio to the volume of blood entering it, the gland is enlarged by this extra blood supply, which often can have disastrous physical consequences.

The pituitary gland, for example, does not have much room in which to swell, encased as it is in a bony cup at the base of the skull....very little swelling can take place without creating a pressure on a gland within its box. This pressure can cause alarming symptoms. Four different diseased states, all arising from a toxemia of the blood, can result from the pressure: migraine headache, the common types of epilepsy, acromegaly and blindness.

There are many cases in my files of migraine and epilepsy-cases in which the distressing symptoms have been arrested and the body restored to health. This was accomplished by taking the excessive dietary burden off the liver, which then was able to cleanse the blood stream and restore a balance between the pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands." (pp. 44-45)

The worst toxins leading to migraine headaches are simple sugars. Dr. Bieler calls it "alcoholic type of headache". The alcohol does not come from drinking alcoholic beverages. It is manufactured in the person's own stomach. It results from the fermentation of the sugars and starches in that person's diet. This alcohol is more harmful than bottled spirits. "Alcohol made in the intestines has among its ingredients sour mash and other products very toxic to the body." (p. 45)

A migraine sufferer should remove all breads, starches (rice and pasta), cookies, chocolate....etc. Eat vegetables, low glycemic fruits (apples, oranges, cherries, peaches, berries and pears), fish, nuts, seeds, brown rice and yams. This diet will eliminate the surplus of poisons and migraines will simply not come back.

Beneficial nutritional support:

To help with digestion and assimilation:

• Acidophilus and bifidus micro-blended with blue green algae.
• Plant based enzymes micro-blended with blue green algae. (Use them with cooked foods to properly digest meals and in between meals to help with cleansing).

To help with nourishing the body:

• Wild-crafted blue green algae.
• Organically grown sprouted grains and grasses - a green mix powder.

To reduce oxidative stress:

• Coenzyme Q10 micro-blended with organic flax oil.
• Wheat sprouts micro-blended with red algae and wild-crafted blue green algae.

Drink 8 to 12 glasses of spring water daily. Take small and frequent sips to prevent your cells from shrinking as a result of dehydration. Avoid large amounts of fluid with meals (liquid with meals dilutes digestive enzymes which are designed to work without dilution from liquids).

Migraines and headaches are preventable. Just treat the body right by giving it the right foods.

References:
Bieler, Henry, M.D. (1965). Food Is Your Best Medicine. New York: Ballantine Books.

Use our special Google search box below to research more about natural headache relief: