UHAM066

THE CAUSES OF HEADACHE AND MIGRAINE ^ U9

Two of the most common headache-causing foods are chocolate and cheese. Cheese contains a substance kno wn as ty raminę, which is believed to be the reason for its headache-producing ąualities. It is a Chemical that acts upon blood vessels, causing them to change in diameter, which we know is directly related to migraine specifically. If you suspect th at cheese may be responsible for your migraines, try cottage cheese instead, which does not contain tyramine.

The tyramine present in cheese belongs to a family of Chemicals known as amines. These are ąuite natural substances that are present in most things, but some people can be particularly sensitive to them, especially in larger doses. Chocolate contains a number of amines. However, although chocolate can be a trigger for migraines, itcan also be a scapegoatfor other, less easily identifiable causes. As a psychologist, I am only too aware that often what people perceive is ąuite different from the reality of a situation. It is, therefore, ąuite easy to blame chocolate for your migraines. Just before a migraine, people commonly crave sugar because the blood-sugar levels in the body are lo wer than usual. Of course, chocolate is a common source of sugar, so it is the first port of cali. Then the migraine tak es effect, and people ąuite logically assume that the chocolate caused the migraine. Actually, in such cases it is morę likely to be what we would cali a ‘coincident factor’. Let us take a slightly morę obvious example: if you noticed that every time it rained you had sore feet, you might think that the rain was causing the soreness. However, people would not jump to this conclusion. They might simply work out that in the rain they wore a particular pair of shoes which they did not wear at any other time. Therefore, the shoes cause the soreness, but the rain triggers the wearing of the shoes.

Now we can return to another source of confusion, related to the first issue. Women may experience migraines related to their menstrual cycle. As you may be aware, craving sugary foods like chocolate is very common when women are premenstrual and again this is related to Iow blood-sugar levels. It is possible then for a premenstrual woman to identify the chocolate as a cause of her migraine, when actually it is really related to her period.

Caffeine is another potential trigger for headaches and migraines. It is possible to consume a large amount of caffeine because it is present in such common foodstuffs as tea, coffee, cola drinks and chocolate. If you drink tea or coffee throughout the day, have one or two caffeine-rich soft drinks, and eat chocolate for your dessert, you may be overdosing on caffeine. Apart from headaches, you may experience problems with your digestive system. The best thing to do is to avoid these things altogether. Some people may recommend switching to decaffeinated drinks, but this does not