Migraine Headache Diet

Simple Guidelines to Lower Chronic Inflammation and Avoid Pain

If I stick to this Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Lifestyle, I don’t get migraine headaches any more. I can still get a migraine, if I let myself get very dehydrated or drift into carbohydrate excess, but I am shocked when it happens. I can still enjoy chocolate and coffee. Avoiding the headaches is under my control and the diet is healthy and easy to follow.

Chronic Inflammation Is the Foundation for Migraine Headaches

The details and rationale for the Basic Anti-inflammatory Diet and Lifestyle are discussed in many articles on this blog. The guiding logic is that migraine headaches are based on chronic inflammation, although in each individual case there may be specific health problems that contribute and trigger migraines. If the chronic inflammation is removed, then migraines can’t happen or are reduced in frequency and/or severity.

Common Migraine Guidelines Point to Inflammation as the Problem

Feverfew is present on all of the lists of traditional treatments to avoid migraines. Extracts of feverfew contain parthenolide, a sesquiterpene lactone, that has been shown in mouse studies to inhibit activation of NFkB, the inflammation transcription factor. Stress reduction, acupuncture, etc. all point to vagal stimulation to reduce chronic inflammation. I would also recommend that migraine sufferers investigate vagal stimulation exercises to augment the basic diet and exercise to eliminate chronic inflammation.

Anti-inflammatory Diet in a Nutshell

1. Vitamin D -- deficiency is common... even with adequate sun exposure
2. Low carbs -- starch is hyperglycemic, grain gluten intolerance is very common
3. Vegetable oils -- only olive oil is safe (trans fats are dangerous), butter is better
4. Fish oil -- omega-3 oils can reduce chronic inflammation
5. High fructose corn syrup -- eliminate all sources
6. Saturated Fats -- safer than polyunsaturated fats, major source of calories

Typical Meals for a Healthy Head

• Breakfast -- eggs, bacon, sausage, stewed tomatoes, cottage cheese, coffee, yogurt (low sugar, no HFCS) (avoid cereal, pancakes, waffles, toast, etc.)

example: scrambled eggs with sausage, yogurt (unsweetened, blended with fresh raspberries, strawberries or blueberries, sweetened with honey) coffee mocha

• Lunch -- soup, salad, chicken, ham, tuna, vegetables, modest amounts of fruit, etc. (avoid bread, buns, potatoes, pasta, rice), keep the carbs to less than 50 grams

example: homemade chili with extra ham; thin sliver of toast loaded with feta cheese, broiled and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil; salad with peppers, tomatoes and cubes of jalapeno cheese, olive oil/vinegar, herbs/spices

• Dinner -- fish, meat, vegetables, 50 grams of carbs (avoid grains)

example: broiled salmon with crushed pinenuts, garlic, butter and lemon; sauteed sliced zucchini/miniature squashes; wedges of small potatoes, microwaved ‘till soft and fried in light olive oil and butter; strawberries painted with melted dark chocolate

Why Conventional Diet Wisdom Gives You a Headache

The government food pyramid was designed by the food industry and was never supported by evidence from the biomedical literature. Research shows that saturated fats actually lower heart disease. Polyunsaturated fats in common vegetable oils are a major source of chronic diet-based inflammation. Starch/sugar raises triglycerides, not dietary fats. Grains are a major source of inflammation, because of the high incidence of gluten intolerance, the high content of hyperglycemic starch (even in whole grain breads, etc.) and in the support of gut biofilms based on Klebsiella, a contributor to Crohn’s and other autoimmune diseases. Blood lipid levels were not associated with heart disease and lowering these levels with statins does not improve health. Lowering inflammation uniformly improves health, as well as eliminating migraines.

Biofilm Transformation, Helicobacter, Klebsiella

Helicobacter pylori causes stomach cancer, but it feeds on hydrogen gas produced by Klebsiella pneumoniae in gut biofilms. DNA released by biofilm bacteria not only transfers antibiotic resistance, but it also provides protection against host antibacterial peptides, such a cathelicidins and defensins.

Exploding Labs

When I was working on host/pathogen interactions and plant disease resistance, I also became familiar with research on the formation of the plant equivalent of cancer, crown galls, and symbiotic bacterial nitrogen fixation. I mention this, because this also exposed me to the free-living bacterial nitrogen fixing system in Klebsiella and to the memorable urban legion of exploding labs. As the story goes, as bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen gas into ammonia, nitrogen fixation, they use high energy electrons, e.g. from ferrodoxin, and lots of ATP, but they also produce hydrogen gas. In labs where they are researching nitrogen fixation, the excess hydrogen gas would accumulate on the ceiling until... boom! Now those labs are properly vented.

Helicobacter Uses Hydrogen as an Energy Source

Helicobacter pylori is considered the most common bacterial pathogen of humans and is the primary cause of ulcers and stomach cancer. H. pylori lives in the stomach by neutralizing stomach acid with ammonia. Another interesting ability of this bacterium is its ability to use hydrogen dissolved in circulating blood as an energy source. The high energy electrons from molecular hydrogen are transported to its electron transport chain, and the energy is used in membrane transport and ATP production. The circulating hydrogen is produced by gut bacteria.

Klebsiella Is not just a Soil Bacterium, Gut Gases

Klebsiella pneumonia is a lung pathogen and it also forms gut biofilms. Presence in the gut and the ability to produce hydrogen gas has some implications for hydrogen utilizing bacteria like H. pylori. Clearly, the stomach of someone with an abundant source of hydrogen fuel in their blood is a better target for H. pylori colonization. This explains why even at age 50, individuals who were exclusively breastfed have a lower incidence of H. pylori and stomach cancer, since even a single bottle of formula can shift an infant to adult, i.e. Klebsiella gut flora.

Klebsiella Needs Carbs to Produce Hydrogen

K. pneumoniae has been associated with Crohn’s Disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis. It grows in gut biofilms and produces pullulanase, an enzyme that can utilize the branched glucosides left over from the action of amylase on plant starch. So K.p. has an untapped food source and it needs lots of ATP to produce hydrogen gas. The nitrogenase needed for nitrogen fixation and hydrogen production is very sensitive to oxygen, so this means that K.p. needs a partially anaerobic environment and must get its energy from fermentation. Fermentation yields much less ATP than respiration using oxygen, which means that K.p. can only produce hydrogen with lots of glucose from starch.

Low Carb Diet Cures Crohn’s Disease

It turns out that the antigen causing Crohn’s disease is the pullulanse (with collagen mimetics.) As you should expect, it has a basic triplet. Eating a low carb diet reduces the flareups of Crohn’s disease, presumably by starving out the K.p.. It is interesting that nitrogenase is the antigen involved in Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Biofilms Promote Transformation and Antibiotic Resistance

Just as a footnote to the benefit of K.p. as a citizen of a biofilm community, H.p. should also live in those biofilms, since that is the source of the hydrogen it uses. Biofilms also stimulate the exchange of DNA, because the quorum sensing chemical signals trigger the release of DNA. The DNA is a component in the matrix that binds bacteria in the biofilm and can work in conjunction with bacterial acidic polysaccharides and host heparan sulfate. These acidic polymers tend to bind the basic antimicrobial peptides, e.g. defensins and cathecidins produced as a major non-adaptive defense against bacteria. Thus, the release of DNA triggered by quorum sensing, builds matrix, facilitates DNA transformation that is the foundation for the spread of antibiotic resistance in gut biofilms and provides resistance against antimicrobial peptides.

Cure for Inflammatory Diseases

Destabilizing Gut Biofilms by Simple Remedies

The intercommunication between the gut flora biofilms, the cells of the immune system juxtaposed with the intestinal endothelium and cryptic bacteria/tissue biofilms produces stable chronic inflammatory disease. Disrupting the gut biofilms may permit a resumption of effective immunity and remission.

Disrupting Biofilms to Treat ASDs

Cristian Stremiz brought to my attention the work of Dr. Anju Usman on the treatment of autism spectrum diseases by attacking inflammatory gut biofilms.

A Panacea

This approach, based on the use of common food components, to attack the gut biofilm matrix of acid polysaccharides, cations and proteins, should be generalizable to most inflammatory diseases. The interventions also provide facile explanations for the utility of numerous traditional cures such as vinegar, fiber, glucosamine, pectin, whey, proteases and probiotics.

Cures Act via Gut Flora Biofilms

There are numerous anecdotal reports of traditional, simple remedies working for essentially all diseases. Tantalizingly, many of these diseases are also occasionally successfully treated with antibiotics. The common thread seems to be the involvement of inflammatory gut flora and perhaps cryptic bacteria residing in the tissues displaying symptoms. Glucosamine works sometimes for arthritis, but little of the glucosamine that is eaten reaches the blood stream and the aching joints that seem to become less inflamed. Vinegar, pectin, and fiber have also been attributed with curative powers, yet none is likely to impact inflamed joints directly. Impacting gut biofilms is much easier to explain.

Biofilms of Bacteria Attached to Acidic Polysaccharides and Divalent Cations

Acidic polysaccharides are produced by bacteria and divalent cations cross-link the polysaccharides into a matrix. The bacteria have agglutinins to attach to the matrix. Gut pathogens produce agglutinins that they use to attach to the heparan sulfate (HS), the predominant acid polysaccharide of the intestinal epithelium. Mast cells of the intestines normally release heparin, which is a mixture of HS fragments, to stick to the agglutinins and block attachment to the HS of the epithelium. Numerous bacterial species form complex communities on the polysaccharide matrix and prevent access by antibiotics. Biofilms require 100X the antibiotic concentrations and a cocktail of different antibiotics to eradicate the bacteria.

Biofilms Disrupted by Competing Acid Polysaccharide Fragments and Cation Chelators

The Achille’s heal of biofilms is the ionic interaction between the acidic polysaccharide and divalent cations. This interaction can be attacked by both small fragments of similar acid oligosaccharides, by organic acids that can solubilize the cations, e.g. acidic acid in vinegar, or by chelators, such as EDTA. All of these treatments can remove the calcium, magnesium and iron that is essential to the matrix. Small molecules, such as glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate fragments, heparin, and pectin, can disrupt biofilms. Molecules that bind to heparin or nucleic acids, e.g. berberine, quinine (tonic), methylene blue, should also be effective in disrupting biofilms. [Note that the similarity between amyloid production and biofilms, means that treatments should overlap.] Lactoferrin is effective, since it both binds iron and binds to acidic polysaccharides via its heparin-binding domains.

Proteases Cleave Agglutinins

Stomach proteases, e.g. pepsin, specifically cleave proteins to release heparin-binding, acidic polysaccharide-binding domains that inhibit biofilm production in the stomach. Subsequently, the basic, antimicrobial peptides and agglutinins are cleaved by proteases, e.g. trypsin, that hydrolyze the binding domains. Eating proteases, such as nattokinase present in fermented soybeans, dissolves intestinal biofilms by attacking the agglutinins. The pathogenic E. coli and avian H5N1 also have these agglutinins. It is, therefore, wise to avoid establishing gut biofilms that can immobilize pathogens.

Probiotics Protect Against Biofilms

Resident gut bacteria that produce organic acids, e.g. lactic acid or acetic acid, provide protection against biofilm formation. Examples are the bacteria present in common forms of fermentation and food preservation, e.g. Lactobacillus sp., and the bacterium present in exclusively breastfed babies, Bifidobacter sp. Formula fed babies rapidly develop inflammatory biofilms, which explains their high rates of intestinal and respiratory diseases, as well as increased rates of inflammatory diseases.

Biofilm Inflammation Results in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, etc.

Gut biofilms support system-wide chronic inflammation that leads to allergies, autoimmune diseases, degenerative diseases and probably cancers. This attach on the gut also produces a leaky gut that supplies the bacteria that a moved by macrophages of the gut to all parts of the body. This may be how Chlamydia pneumoniae colonizes sites of inflammation throughout the body.

Attacking Gut Biofilms Is the First Step in the Treatment of All Inflammatory Diseases

Many inflammtory diseases, e.g. chronic lyme disease, rosacea, may be refractory to treatment with antibiotics, because of the reservoir of bacteria in gut biofilms. Attacks on gut biofilms with relatively non-intrusive treatments, such as vinegar, EDTA, lactoferrin and proteases, may lower the total resident pathogen load and make subsequent antibiotic treatment more effective.