In my effort to save articles and links to information I’m interested in and may want to look up later, this time I’m looking at one of those “fluffy” list-driven articles-
The Best (and Worst) Foods for Headaches
I’m not a fan of list articles because they so often tend to be more click-bait than substance and yet, at the same time, I have to admit that the reason they’re so successful as click-bait is because they provide information can be scanned quickly and, honestly, discarded just as quickly. For me, a lot of them are discarded because they’re just regurgiated, obvious information that everyone already knows and was just published to get your eyeballs, and possibly mouse, to click on ads.
BUT… occasionally somthing in list articles will jump out at me. In this case, the author listed almonds and milk as potentially good foods for headache sufferers. Okay, good news for me, I like both. More interesting though, is that they give some small amount of information about why almonds and milk might be beneficial.
Almonds, it turns out, are high in serum magnesium. From the article-
While research specifically looking at the impact of magnesium-rich foods (like almonds) on headaches is scarce, studies suggest that supplementing with 600 mg of magnesium each day reduces the frequency of migraines. While you may need a supplement, we suggest trying a food-first approach, and if you’re not into almonds, try leafy greens, seafood, pulses, and other nuts and seeds.
Okay, let’s look at milk-
Like magnesium, the other two major bone-building nutrients, calcium and vitamin D, seem to play a role in headache prevention. One study found that a combination of calcium and vitamin D supplements significantly reduced migraine attacks, while patients in another study saw significant improvements in just 4 to 6 weeks. Vitamin D does seem to play a bigger role than calcium, but you can get your fix of both from fortified products like dairy, soy milk, eggs, and orange juice.
What’s interesting for me personally is that I not only have suffered from headaches and migraines, I also sometimes get terrible cramps in my feet, and we’ve relatively recently found that chugging a bit of Cal-Mag liquid calcium and magnesium supplement alleviates the cramped muscles right away.
Could it be that my life would have been body-ache and headache free if I would have had a better balance of calcium, magnesium and vitamin D? Possibly. Now is a good to find out, right? 🙂
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”