Mary's Mini + Headache

[Amy13]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new on these boards but not new to McDougall. I have been pretty much vegetarian and flirting with vegan quite a bit, and then started eating a bit of cheese here and there. I also started eating a lot of snack foods like chips and drinking beer or wine almost nightly. I'm in my mid-40s and decided I was getting too fat and unhealthy and addicted to bad foods (the cravings are crazy), so I decided to do Mary's Mini, then transition to either MWL or just the normal McD plan.

Anyway, I'm on day 3, and I have had a bad headache. alllll day and night. I was worried perhaps I wasn't getting enough calories. I have a pretty sensitive system, I eat lots of small meals, and do not do well with hunger. I have been eating potatoes, squash, spinach, green beans, leafy greens (salad), tomatoes, bananas, apples, figs, grapes (trying to only do 2 servings of fruit a day). Tonight I gave in and added quinoa to my green salad because I was worried the headache was due to lack of nutrients and calories. I've stopped alcohol. I drank plain coffee today because I thought it might help the headache, but it only seemed to help a little.

Another theory is that I am detoxing? Does anyone have any input? Thanks!

PS - One reason I am concerned about calories is that I am already experiencing early satiety. I was worried I'd feel I was starving, but I find I have to eat dinner in 2 phases. I am trying to fill my plate with potatoes and green veggies so that I eat enough. I just can't eat it in one sitting because my stomach seems to shut down. I read elsewhere that when you're on a monotonous diet like this, especially with potatoes, you will fill full sooner. I forget the term that was used.

[colonyofcells]

I am not aware of headaches being caused by lack of micronutrients. The only supplement recommended is b12. If really worried, can take daily b12 supplement, get some sun for vitamin d, a tiny amount of seaweed for iodine, some flax powder for omega 3. I also enjoy eating cooked mushrooms every day if I can. To avoid monotony, can also try some sweet potato. If headache persists, can try the elimination diet.

[barryoilbegone]

It's a bit hard to tell, as we get a skimover of your previous diet and lifestyle habits, and not a breakdown of all of it yet (and your headache history/meds beforehand aren't mentioned). My bet though would be if you've given up all alcohol from drinking it regularly,and giving up foods like the chips and cheese, that the headache is withdrawal symptoms (aye, aye, the detox). Caffeine withdrawal could also precipipate this, although note you've just added some back. If no coexisting health problems prior, keep at it, it'll pass in the coming days!

You're actually eating quiet a lot of different foods under Mary's Mini, so this is the faint possibility you could be sensitive to one or two on the list you've given. Good old sweet potatoes and water is the cited place to start from Dr McD on this, then try adding foods from there after you've done that for a few days, and see if there's any reaction.

Great stuff by the way for trying this, don't forget you're a star for trying to invest in your health

[Chumly]

If it is withdrawal from alcohol and unhealthy food, you will likely have discomfort until you get through the first week. It has been my experience the worst of it ends in the first 3-4 days. Just keep eating healthfully and it should get much better soon.

Michael

[Lesliec1]

I'm very certain that it is withdrawal from something. It happens to me (all my life) when I "start" a new healthy diet. I bet you anything that is withdrawal from caffeine, sugar or something like that. For me it's usually caffeine withdrawal, which is fierce and lasts for days! Once you get that headache, drinking caffeine won't even stop it. After all these years I have learned to wean off coffee. I also get withdrawal headaches from sugar though not quite as bad. Of course the good news is that it will go away.

edited to add: I've never been a drinker but I imagine that withdrawal can be very bad too.

[Partly Cloudy]

Yes, I agree. You very well could be experiencing some withdrawal symptoms.

I didn't believe such a thing existed until I'd experienced it myself. My husband has, too. It's really kind of frightening. But it does end, and when your body normalizes you will feel SO much better eating this way.

From what I understand it's a brain chemistry thing, that some (especially highly processed) foods can have low-level drug-like affects on your serotonin and dopamine levels (those are the only two I know about), and when you stop eating/drinking them all of a sudden you feel some ill effects for a few of days while your brain adjusts.

The early satiety thing will most likely go away, too, as your taste buds become more sensitized to the more subtle flavors of whole natural food. Try not to worry about it. You'll find foods on this plan that you really enjoy. Just trust your body and give it some time.

I hope you're feeling better soon! Keep us posted.

[katgirl55]

From what I understand it's a brain chemistry thing, that some (especially highly processed) foods can have low-level drug-like affects on your serotonin and dopamine levels (those are the only two I know about), and when you stop eating/drinking them all of a sudden you feel some ill effects for a few of days while your brain adjusts.

I was going to say something like this: your brain is no longer getting its fix from the hyperpalatable foods, and that has to have an effect on things. I usually get headaches and a really foul mood for a bit because my drug of choice is gone. It goes away but takes time. Good luck!

[Amy13]

I thought I just posted a reply, but now I don't see it. Hopefully this is not a duplicate.

Thank you ALL for your thoughtful responses! It feels so nice to have your support. I am thinking it is detox after reading all of your input. I will carry on, and if there is no improvement, I will try the elimination diet. I have had migraines in the past, though not nearly as many since I have cut out meat, interestingly enough. This headache is different from a migraine. I really haven't been on meds, only a rare Imitrex for bad migraines. My medical history is pretty clean - most doctors would consider me healthy, but I know I'm not. Looking forward to making this lifestyle stick this time. Interesting how your health becomes more of a priority as you age!

Oh, the first time I did McDougall was almost 20 years ago, and I remember to this day how my joints ached for a couple days, and I wasn't drinking coffee or alcohol. I also feel foods didn't have as many bad additives back then as they do now. So, I definitely have a system that is sensitive to change, now that I am reflecting on it.

[patty]

I thought I just posted a reply, but now I don't see it. Hopefully this is not a duplicate.

Thank you ALL for your thoughtful responses! It feels so nice to have your support. I am thinking it is detox after reading all of your input. I will carry on, and if there is no improvement, I will try the elimination diet. I have had migraines in the past, though not nearly as many since I have cut out meat, interestingly enough. This headache is different from a migraine. I really haven't been on meds, only a rare Imitrex for bad migraines. My medical history is pretty clean - most doctors would consider me healthy, but I know I'm not. Looking forward to making this lifestyle stick this time. Interesting how your health becomes more of a priority as you age!

Oh, the first time I did McDougall was almost 20 years ago, and I remember to this day how my joints ached for a couple days, and I wasn't drinking coffee or alcohol. I also feel foods didn't have as many bad additives back then as they do now. So, I definitely have a system that is sensitive to change, now that I am reflecting on it.

It sounds like you are detoxing.. the body is amazing as whenever you go off.. no matter how many years, it will snap you back to begin tweaking again:) The body doesn't lie, it is our best ally, as we reside in the best lab. I love how Dr. McDougall shares it is always trying to heal.

I was listening to Dr. Greger's "How Not to Die" and my grandson has been having headaches and this about ginger jumped out at me. I have the kindle and audio book:) I quickly looked ginger up and messaged to my daughter and thought about your post. She has had headaches in the past from MSG .

Ginger Many successful natural treatments start like this: Some doctor learns that a plant has been used in some ancient medical tradition and figures, “Why not try it in my practice?” Ginger has been used for centuries for headaches, and so a group of Danish physicians advised one of their migraine patients to give it a go. At the first sign of a migraine coming on, the patient mixed a quarter teaspoon of powdered ginger in some water and drank it. Within thirty minutes, the migraine disappeared. And it worked every time for her, with no apparent side effects. 55 This is what’s called a case report. Though they’re really just glorified anecdotes, case reports have played an important role in the history of just as well and just as fast as the drug (and costs less than a penny). Most migraine sufferers started with moderate or severe pain, but after taking the drug or the ginger, ended up in mild pain or were entirely pain-free. The same proportion of migraine sufferers reported satisfaction with the results either way.

As far as I’m concerned, ginger won. Not only is ginger a few billion dollars cheaper, but it caused significantly fewer side effects. While on the drug, people reported dizziness, a sedative effect, vertigo, and heartburn, but the only side effect reported for ginger was an upset stomach in about one out of twenty-five people. 59 (A whole tablespoon of ginger powder at one time on an empty stomach could irritate anyone, though, 60 so don’t overdo it.) Sticking to one-eighth of a teaspoon is not only up to three thousand times cheaper than taking the drug, you’re probably less likely to end up as a case report yourself, like the people who have had a heart attack after taking sumatriptan for a migraine, 61 or have died. 62

Migraines are described as “one of the most common” pain syndromes, affecting as much as 12 percent of the population. 63 That’s common? How about menstrual cramps, which plague up to 90 percent of younger women? 64 Can ginger help? Even just one-eighth of a teaspoon of ginger powder three times a day dropped pain from an eight to a six on a scale of one to ten, and down further to a three in the second month. 65 And these women hadn’t been taking ginger all month; they started the day before their periods began, suggesting that even if it doesn’t seem to help much the first month, women should try sticking with it.

What about the duration of pain? A quarter teaspoon of ginger powder three times a day was found to not only drop the severity of menstrual pain from about seven down to five but decrease the duration from a total of nineteen hours in pain down to about fifteen hours, 66 significantly better than the placebo, which were capsules filled with powdered toast. But women don’t take bread crumbs for their cramps. How does ginger compare to ibuprofen? Researchers pitted one-eighth of a teaspoon of powdered ginger head-to-head against 400 mg of ibuprofen, and the ginger worked just as effectively as this leading drug. 67 Unlike the drug, ginger can also reduce the amount of menstrual bleeding, from around a half cup per period down to a quarter cup. 68 What’s more, ginger intake of one-eighth of a teaspoon twice daily started a week before your period can yield a significant drop in premenstrual mood, physical, and behavioral symptoms. 69

I like sprinkling powdered ginger on sweet potatoes or using it fresh to make lemon-ginger apple chews as an antinausea remedy. (Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve suffered from motion sickness.) There is an array of powerful antinausea drugs, but they come with a nausea-inducing list of side effects, so I’ve always striven to find natural remedies whenever possible for myself and for my patients.

Ginger has been used for thousands of years in traditional healing systems. In India, it’s known as maha-aushadhi, meaning “the great medicine.” However, it wasn’t proven to reduce nausea until 1982, when it beat out Dramamine in a head-to-head test in blindfolded volunteers who were spun around in a tilted, rotating chair. 70 Ginger is now considered a nontoxic, broad-spectrum antiemetic (antivomiting agent) effective in countering nausea during motion sickness, pregnancy, chemotherapy, and radiation, and after surgery. 71

Try making my lemon-ginger apple chews: In a blender, liquefy one peeled lemon with a palm-sized “hand” of fresh gingerroot. Use the mixture to coat thin slices of four apples, and then place them in a dehydrator until they reach desired chewiness. I like them a little moist, but you can dehydrate them further to make lemon-ginger apple chips, which store longer than the chews. For me, a few pieces eaten about twenty minutes before travel works wonders.

Note: Ginger is generally considered safe during pregnancy, but the maximum recommended daily dose of fresh ginger while pregnant is 20 grams (about four teaspoons of freshly grated gingerroot). 72 Any more may have uterus-stimulating effects. Women using my apple chews recipe to combat morning sickness should spread out the four apples’ worth of chews or chips over several days.

Greger, Michael, MD; Stone, Gene (2015-12-08). How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease (pp. 361-362). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.

Aloha, patty

[Amy13]

Oh, thank you, Patty! I do like ginger. I wonder if raw ginger works as well as powdered. I like to put it in tea. For your daughter, if the ginger doesn't work, I had a neurologist suggest Feverfew; however, I had read about Butterbur, and I had a thunderclap migraine which stayed with me for 2 weeks, and I tried Butterbur, and it helped a lot. (I've had MRIs and CTs, and they haven't found anything).

I may go get some ginger tonight, but I am happy to report, my headache seems to be subsiding already! I'm so happy!

[Amy13]

I just have to say THANK YOU again for getting me through, you guys!

When I got up this morning, I didn't know how I was going to make it. With the headache finally, gone I was able to eat more simply today. Just potatoes, a banana, a fig, and zucchini.

I'm amazed at day 4, I have no cravings for chips or alcohol tonight. Amazing.

No weight loss yet, but I'll let you know. Six more days!

[patty]

Oh, thank you, Patty! I do like ginger. I wonder if raw ginger works as well as powdered. I like to put it in tea. For your daughter, if the ginger doesn't work, I had a neurologist suggest Feverfew; however, I had read about Butterbur, and I had a thunderclap migraine which stayed with me for 2 weeks, and I tried Butterbur, and it helped a lot. (I've had MRIs and CTs, and they haven't found anything).

I may go get some ginger tonight, but I am happy to report, my headache seems to be subsiding already! I'm so happy!

I will let her know... food addiction is the hardest addiction.. Once you get clean, you can't deny the effects of processed food. Don't eat anything with a face. And I have to say Thank You.. as you reminded me of Dr. Baylock along and with your replay, I am going to send Mike Adams interview with Dr. Baylock from "The Truth About Aspartame, MSG and Excitotoxins, there are other parts of the book where Dr. Baylock correlates exictotoixns to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's etc. In AA they tell you to pray for a boring life:)

from Mike Adams: "The Truth About Aspartame, MSG and Excitotoxins

Dr. Russell Blaylock: I have three books. The first one is the excitotoxin book, "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills," and the latest one is and updated paperback reprint of "Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life." The third one is "Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients," which is directed at nutritional treatments for cancer. It contains some material about aspartame and MSG.

Excitotoxins have been found to dramatically promote cancer growth and metastasis. In fact, one excitotoxin researcher noticed that, when cancer cells were exposed to glutamate, they became more mobile, and you see the same effect with MSG. It also causes a cancer cell to become more mobile, and that enhances metastasis, or spread. These MSG-exposed cancer cells developed all of these pseudopodia and started moving through tissues, which is one of the earlier observations from cancer.

When you increase the glutamate level, cancer just grows like wildfire, and then when you block glutamate, it dramatically slows the growth of the cancer.

Researchers have done some experiments in which they looked at using glutamate blockers in combination with conventional drugs, like chemotherapy, and it worked very well. It significantly enhanced the effectiveness of these cancer drugs.

Mike: Wasn't there some research that came out recently that supports all this by establishing a correlation between leukemia and aspartame?

Dr. Blaylock: Yes. This Italian study was very well done. It was a lifetime study, which is very important with these toxins. They fed animals aspartame throughout their lives and let them die a natural death. They found a dramatic and statistically significant increase in the related cancers of lymphoma and leukemia, along with several histological types of lymphomas, which is of interest because H.J. Roberts had written an article saying that there was a significant increase in the primary lymphoma of the brain.

When you look it up in the neurosurgical literature, there is a rather significant rise in the incidence of what used to be a rare tumor. We're seeing a lot more of the primary lymphoma of the brain, which is a little different than lymphomas you see elsewhere. When you look back at the original studies done by the G.D. Searle company, they found lymphomas as well as primary brain tumors and tumors of multiple organs. All of this correlation shows that we've got a powerful carcinogenic substance here. It is either acting as a co-carcinogen or a primary carcinogen. Most likely, it's the formaldehyde breakdown product.

What the Italian study found is that if you take these same animals and expose them to formaldehyde in the same doses, they developed the same leukemias and lymphomas. If you look back at the Trocho Study conducted in Spain a couple of years ago, what they found was when they radiolabeled the aspartame, they could actually see formaldehyde binding to the DNA, and it produced both single and double strand DNA breakage.

We know that when formaldehyde binds to DNA, it's very difficult to remove it. It will stay there for long periods of time. What that means is if you just drink a single diet cola today, or sweeten something with NutraSweet, you're accumulating damage every day. Eventually, you're going to produce this necessary pattern of DNA damage to initiate the cancer, and once you develop the cancer, the aspartic acid component of aspartame will make the cancer grow very rapidly. You've got a double effect; it's causing the cancer, and it's making the cancer multiply very rapidly.

Mike: Given all this evidence, how has the industry managed to suppress this information and keep this chemical legal in the food supply?

Dr. Blaylock: Donald Rumsfeld was the one who pushed a lot of this through, when he was in the chairmanship of the G.D. Searle company, NutraSweet division. He got it approved through the regulatory process, but once it was approved, the government didn't want to admit that they had made a mistake. They just continued to cover it up, like the fluoride thing and the milk industry.

You're not going to criticize milk, or these other food-based problems in the media, because they are smart enough to advertise in newspapers, magazines, health magazines and journals. They have all the media outlets covered. The only place that they don't have covered is talk radio and the internet. The health blogs can tell the truth. No matter how much a newspaper wants to tell the truth.

No matter how much a newspaper wants to tell the truth, they’re not going to do it. This is the kind of pressure these people are under. Even if you have a good writer who wants to the story, his editor is going to override him and prevent it or water it down considerably. You see this in journals like the Journal of Clinical Nutrition or Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Look at who funds them: The Monsanto Company, and they used to be sponsored by G.D. Seattle. They’re not going to want to put articles in their journal that will infuriate their primary source of income. Even medical and nutrition journals are controlled by these people.

Mike: It’s the unholy alliance between the scientific community and big business.

Aloha, patty

[Amy13]

Patty, yes, I have read about MSG and excitotoxins as well. Scary stuff! I try to avoid MSG, and I've even read that foods that list "natural flavors" may be hiding MSG behind that ambiguous term.

Well, I'm on day 9, and the cravings are totally under control.

I'm a little disappointed I've only lost 2 lbs. I do wonder about my intake. I hope I am not in starvation mode. I am not trying to starve myself at all, but I get full very quickly. I am grazing throughout the day.

[patty]

Don't worry about the weight it will fall off. When close to your goal weight it gets slower but that is ok because you are recreating lifelong habits. Remember the best revenge in life is to be happy and healthy.

Aloha, patty