Re: How could an egg yolk trigger a migraine headache?

Hello Libby!

Sorry about the delay in replying,  Here's an answer I got off the web--of course, the best advice you'll
get is still from your doctor, who will know your condition the best.

Foods do not cause migraine

This response submitted by Barry Spencer on 10/25/96.

Author's Email: neurowebforum@spencer.batnet.com

The notion that foods cause or precipitate ("trigger") migraine is a very old and well-established and prevalent myth. Many people are
absolutely convinced certain foods give them migraines and are encouraged in their belief by their physicians. There are many self-help
books about migraine that endorse the food trigger theory and there is a constant bombardment of newspaper and magazine articles, radio
shows, etc., based on these books that present the food trigger theory as fact.

Yet no food has been demonstrated in a controlled, double-blind trial to cause or precipitate ("trigger") migraine.

It is only natural to assume foods cause migraine, since nausea and even vomiting often accompany a migraine attack. It only makes
sense that it must have been 'something you ate.'

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence foods cause migraine: many migraine sufferers insist this is the case. But because foods cannot be
shown to increase headache frequency or severity over placebo in carefully-controlled scientific trials, those who think foods cause their
migraines must be mistaking a coincidental association for a causal association - an easy error to make. The logical error all these many
people make is called post hoc ergo propter hoc - "it happened before the event therefore it must have caused the event."

I know it is not easy for most people to understand that they are relying on a logical fallacy when they blame their migraines on various
foods, especially when the notion of food triggers is backed up by supposedly authoritative physicians and authors, and seems to jibe with
personal experience. I understand also that it is hard to give up an idea that promises at least some degree of control over your migraines.

But that's what headache sufferers are eventually going to have to do if they want to eradicate their headaches. We have to abandon our
sometimes deeply-held but erroneous notions about the nature of headache and migraine.

The trigger theory is wrong. Foods do not cause or precipitate headache - that is folklore. Officially approved folklore, perhaps, but
folklore nonetheless.

If anyone is interested I can send them or post the abstracts of four scientific trials in which it was shown, respectively, that tyramine,
chocolate, MSG, and aspartame do not cause headache. The results of these carefully designed and performed trials leave no doubt about
it.

Science is making great strides and researchers are homing in on the specific neurochemical cause of migraine. The neurochemistry of
migraine, it turns out, has nothing to do with "trigger" foods. I strongly urge every "migrainaut" to leave folklore behind and learn about
the very latest scientific advances regarding benign headache including migraine. I will try to do everything I can to translate the
incomprehensible science-speak into English and make it available to every migrainaut. 

I know this can become a very emotional issue, with people seemingly willing to fight to the death to defend "food trigger" dogma. One
man wrote me: "I don't care what those studies say! I KNOW MSG causes my migraines!" When I read that, what I saw was: "I don't
care what reality is! I'm going to believe what I WANT to believe!" Unfortunatly, believing what you want to believe is an excruciatingly
costly luxury for migrainauts. 

We don't need emotion now; instead, we need cold-blooded, scalpel-sharp reasoning and science to understand and finally eradicate
migraine.

It's time to dump the food trigger myth. 

Sincerely,
Barry Spencer
http://www.batnet.com/spencer/purine3.html