Caffeine, Headaches and Multiple Sclerosis

Stuart SchlossmanMultiple Sclerosis, News from MS.About.com, Symptoms

Stuart Says: and GOLLY – do I know about Headaches.. I am so glad to have found this:


By Julie Stachowiak, Ph.D., About.com Guide   November 30, 2011



About a week and a half ago, I eliminated caffeine from my world. That’s right, I stopped drinking my beloved coffee.


I took such a drastic step because I have been getting migraine headaches – sometimes full-blown, grit-your-teeth-in-pain ones, and other times, just really uncomfortable ones. All of these headaches were combined with nausea and many of them also came with sensitivity to light. People with multiple sclerosis are much more prone to migraines and headaches in general, than the rest of the population, but they are usually treated the same way. I have tried migraine meds before. While they did work, they knocked me out or made me feel “off.”


I also knew that these headaches were directly related to something I was eating or drinking. I would be fine until I ate something or drank anything besides water. About 75% of the time, as soon as I consumed something, I would have a major headache. I made an appointment with an allergist, who told me that my symptoms were not those of an allergy and that he couldn’t help me (besides telling me not to eat things that seemed to bother me).


One night, I decided to do a little digging around and found the book by David Buchholz, Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain. Sure enough, Dr. Buchholz, a Johns Hopkins physician, says that many migraines are caused by food triggers. He presents a diet plan to follow that eliminates all triggers for 4 months (then you can add them back in if they don’t bother you). Caffeine is number one on his list of triggers and he does say that people with migraines should NEVER add caffeine back to their diet.



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