I have struggled with headaches for YEARS. Probably since at least 2009 when I was diagnosed with TMJ Disorder. I have had a lot of tension in my jaw and my neck and I always assumed that I was having tension headaches, but finally figured out in 2018 (sort of by accident) that I was actually having migraines.
Anyway, the Wahls Protocol has a lot of benefits, and one of those could be less migraines. So I was excited for that.
But then at some point, I think early November, I was having EVEN MORE headaches. It was getting ridiculous. When I have a migraine, it can last 4-5 days, but about the time one was gone, I’d have another one, so every week I had a headache at least half the days probably.
My medication helped a LOT, but also made me really tired, so I felt “off” for a few weeks. I finally Googled “Wahls Protocol migraines” because I wanted to see *why* it was supposed to help, and read more about it.
I found this post which was a game changer (Leah, if you ever read this, THANK YOU!). The post tells the story of a woman who had also had migraines for years, but then suddenly was having them more often than usual, and finally figured out it was a medication rebound headache.
I think I had *heard* about rebound headaches before, but didn’t really know much about them. So, I looked those up. 🙂
The Mayo Clinic is my resource of choice, so I read this on their site.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE!! PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PERSONAL PHYSICIAN.
In addition to taking my migraine medication so often, I had also been taking WAY more ibuprofen and acetaminophen than I should have been (not like enough to kill my liver, 😉 just more than I needed).
So, I decided to try going off my medication. It’s just “as needed” medication, so it’s not like I was really “going off” of it in the same sense as if my doctor had told me to take it every day.
I still wasn’t completely convinced that was going to fix anything, and I wanted to have my medication on hand just in case since this was the day before Thanksgiving and the pharmacy was closed, but it turned out that I had used my medication SO fast, I couldn’t even pick up a refill because it was too soon.
So, that was both a sign that I was using my medication more than I realized, AND gave me little choice about taking a break from it.
Wednesday the 25th I had a bit of a headache, but it wasn’t too bad. Thursday, Thanksgiving, my headache was pretty awful and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through a week of that (my research said it could take a while for the headache to go away). But it was a low-key, Covid Thanksgiving, and the next day my headache was a LOT better. Over the weekend it went away.
I just took a migraine pill this morning, so we’ll see how many days this migraine lasts, but it’s been NINETEEN days since I’ve had a migraine. That might not sound like a long time to you, but it is for me. 🙂 I also have not taken a single ibuprofen or acetaminophen since before Thanksgiving.
Now, it might not have been a medication rebound headache (again, don’t do what I did, please talk to your doctor!), because other people have told me that detoxing from gluten can cause a similar reaction, so maybe it was a coincidence.
Either way, I feel SO much better. In fact, I feel great. 🙂
Amanda's Journey with MS 