La Dolce Vita
It appears that I have discovered the culprit behind the evil migraines. Pain, thy name is aspartame. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, I've been keeping a headache diary, as suggested by my doctor. And I've been thinking about anything that might have changed since September, which was when the migraines went from once every few months to once every few weeks.
And in the end, I narrowed it down to the Crystal Light Raspberry Tea I started drinking last September and usually had 2 or 3 glasses of every night. And the nights I had more of the tea were the nights before I had evil migraines. So I did a little google (very scientific, I know) and came up with link after link after link that aspartame is a very common migraine trigger, and of course, several links stating that it isn't.
So I am now on day 12 of no more Crystal Light and guess what? No more migraines. I am constantly going nuts finding more things I love that have aspartame in them. I was happy to discover that the Crystal Light bottled drinks (I was using the powdered mix before) are sweetened with Splenda, which doesn't bother me. I bought a case.
I guess the truly scientific thing to do would be to drink 4 glasses of the tea and see if it gives me a migraine, but for now, I am cautiously optimistic I've found a possible culprit. But damn, I miss my Coke Zero. I guess water is probably better for me anyhow.
4 Comments:
No way in hell I'd try doing it to BRING ON a migraine! Just trust that you're right and enjoy life without. Awesome discovery!
I had a migraine in November that hit me while I was walking home, about 3 doors away in fact. Usually my migraines come on progressively and I can read the symptoms and prepare myself for drugs and sleep. This time it hit me suddenly and the pain was instant. It was like the very worst pain of a migraine came all at once and didn't leave. My vision was wavy, ears ringing, nausea. It's never hit me like that so I had a panic attack as well. Couldn't breathe, thought I was going to have a heart attack as well. Had to go to the ER. Stayed there for 7 hours. Good times, good times.
Glad you found out what was giving you your migraines. I rarely drink things with artifical sweetners so that can't be it for me. I think the biggie in Nov was from stress. Bleah.
I have never had a migraine, (that I know of and, from the sounds of it I would probably know if I had) but I know how much I hate headaches when I get them. So I am glad to hear you probably found the source of most of yours. Watch your yogurts, too, if you eat them, they often have aspartame as well.
I'm so glad you found your trigger. One of my triggers is chewing gum. BUT! only gum with aspartame. However, I can drink diet coke like it is going out of style.
Post a Comment
<< Home