It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written publicly about my health journey, which took a different turn when I divorced and moved from the Pacific Northwest to Tennessee in 2022. My seasonal allergies became a lot less seasonal after I moved to Tennessee…and more intense to boot. Last year, they got bad enough I needed to visit the ER. I also started getting migraines again, which hadn’t occured since 2017 after I cleaned up my diet.
Earlier this year, I had a few incidents where I could literally feel a histamine response occur in reaction to various things I ate. This is in addition to the reaction I had to something I had eaten in Austria. As miserable as my allergies can make me, this gave me the signal I needed to figure out whether something should go in my mouth or not.
This really became obvious when, a few weeks ago, I did something really dumb and ate a bunch of white Walmart bread. A day later, I got the worst migraine I’ve ever had. To make matters worse, I vomited so hard because of that migrated, the muscles in my back seized. I had random aches and pains also.
I couldn’t take it anymore. Once I was able to, I did a bit of research and discovered that…wait for it, y’all…GRAINS can cause migraines. Further, the effects in grain intolerant individuals can last for a couple weeks! And yes, I had on and off headaches for a couple weeks after eating grains.
Fake sweeteners may also be involved. I started consuming sparkling water that had a little in it. Apparently, it’s also a trigger for headaches and migraines. I’ve since stopped.
As I started clearing the dust away from my diet (i.e. removing the sugars and grains) and inside my home, my allergies…got much manageable. This morning might be the first morning in ages I didn’t wake up having to sneeze within the first, say, 5 minutes of waking up. My sleep has improved also.
Not claiming victory over it just yet, but it’s all steps in the right direction. I do need to lose a few pounds now. Most importantly, I don’t want another migraine. Ever.
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