Hi everyone this is Monica Reinagle the nutrition diva and today we're talking

about nutrition and headaches

so last So last week I shared some tips for getting rid of a headache without resorting to drugs

and today I have some tips that might be even more useful for those of you who suffer from frequent

headaches, how to prevent those headaches before they start.

Now if you have a lot of headaches, I bet you've already come across lists of foods that are said to trigger headaches.

Caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, cheese, and artificial sweeteners are among the most common ones.

And sure enough, patients report that when they avoid these foods, it seems to reduce the frequency of their headaches.

Yet when researchers have attempted to confirm this, They usually fail to find strong evidence

that these foods are actually linked to headaches in any statistically

measurable way. It could be that foods are a factor for some but not all migraine sufferers.

As I talked about in a recent show, there are a small number of people who seem to be sensitive to histamines. This is a naturally occurring

compound found in certain foods. And for these folks, eating foods that are high in histamines

can cause a number of symptoms, including headaches. and other people appear to have similar sensitivities to the amino acid tyramine or to

nitrites in foods.

Now perhaps not coincidentally most of the commonly cited

headache triggering foods are high in histamines, tyramine, nitrites, or all three.

And the fact is, if you were to follow a low histamine diet,

such as the one I described in episode number 295,

you would effectively reduce your intake of all three of these suspected compounds.

And not surprisingly, this approach has been helpful for some, but not all, chronic headache sufferers.

If eliminating common trigger foods or following a low histamine diet reduces your headaches,

...