True Stories: Fran
"I began having severe headaches about 15 years ago and discovered I had hypertension. I was treated with a calcium channel blocker for my blood pressure but the drug made my headaches worse. They were almost constant because once one started it could last 2 or three days.
One day I was in a food line at a gathering and the man in front of me in line mentioned that he had to be careful about what he chose because certain foods caused him to have headaches! That was the first time I had ever heard of that. I was very intrigued and started thinking about the relation of my headaches to the food I ingested.
To make a long story short, it was a difficult puzzle, because the headaches sometimes didn't start for hours or even until the morning after, but through sheer doggedness I finally figured out that citrus, especially lemon juice, and to a lesser extent, chocolate, tomatoes, raspberries, cranberries, apricots, and pineapples, were the culprits.
I remember especially being sensitive to lemon juice as it seemed everything I bought had it added, such as mayonnaise, salad dressing, sauces, fruit juices, etc. I eliminated them from my diet and my headaches became noticeably less severe and frequent. Then with the substitution of propanolol for calcium channel blocker, on the advise of a doctor friend of mine, they went away completely.
After about 4 or 5 years I started to introduce some of these things back into my diet and found that I could tolerate tomatoes, raspberries, cranberries and chocolate in small amounts, but remained very sensitive to oranges and lemons as long as I didn't forget to take the propanolol everyday. I have not had the nerve to try any other citrus fruits yet, but may in the future."
For more information on the links between Migraine and Food Intolerance see Migraine and Food Intolerance or Change Your Diet and Change Your Life.