“…When I am overwhelmed by the complexity of human existence, may I find solace -if only for a moment- in your excellent simplicity.”
Worry Lines, This Book is for You, from a comic about potatoes
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I got my blood test results. I have a folate deficiency, which is likely what’s causing my symptoms. Probably caused by my diet as I have so many food intolerances now as a result of my cancer treatment that there are very few things I can eat without getting ill. Combined with eating less of the things I can eat because I’m always trying to make the food vouchers people give me last as long as possible as it often takes many attempts to get a response. The problem is, vitamin pills are migraine triggers for me, and the pills the doctor prescribed have given me a headache so I don’t think i can take them. Everything is impossible. I guess I’ll just have to try and eat more of the things I can eat after all.
Do you know which ingredients in the vitamin pills trigger your migraines? Is there a migraine-safe meal replacement beverage? I’ve had bad luck with such things, too, and going through trial-and-error when the “error” leads to a day or more of excruciating pain is … well, you know how it is.
There are so many Catch-22s and minefields to navigate when trying to avoid migraine triggers, and most doctors who aren’t headache specialists simply refuse to understand.
They do refuse. I spoke with the GP a few days ago when she was telling me my blood test results and telling me she was prescribing me a folate supplement. I told her about how vitamin supplements trigger my migraines and she said “Well, that’s multivitamins. This is something specific that you need.” I tried explaining that it’s not multivitamins that trigger migraines, it’s everything, even prescribed ones for specific issues but she just refused to listen. I think the only migraine safe thing is to trial and error a supplement-free diet that pretty much hits all nutritional requirements. Of course this totally depends on mutual aid continuing to come to my rescue with supermarket gift cards because even aside from the difficulties in accessing the food bank, I’ll never be able to get the items I need from the food bank. There are always so many challenges to overcome for every little thing, it’s just exhausting.
The reason she said something like that is because multivitamins specifically are a known migraine trigger, (especially for people who have moh I think) and she thinks “Oh well this is an easy water soluble one”. If the problem is specifically that they are in pill form, there are a bunch of folate supplements out there that aren’t in pill form… although I’ll be real I don’t know how good they are. She should probably know though, and it’s not great she didn’t at least air the possibility.
Like what? I know there is injectable folate but even injectable B12 gives me migraines.
I think you can get it as a liquid drop that you put in your mouth, and as a sublingual tablet (You put in under your tongue and let it dissolve). Again I don’t know the efficacy of either.
I think I’ll see if I can get an acceptable amount food wise first. Pretty much every supplement gives me a migraine.
I know a couple of good spinach recipes if you’re ever in need.
Thanks. I like spinach enough to just eat it as it is plain after a few minutes steaming. And it doesn’t seem to trouble me. The only problem is I read that if you eat spinach twice a week or more you can get kidney stones. With my low kidney function already, that’s a worry. Otherwise I’d gladly eat it every day.
Does MOH = medicinal overuse headache here, or something else? Whoa. I never considered that and thought that the supplements that give me problems were due to other factors.
Also moh might not be your problem. It is just a thing that happens and is related to the subject. I am not saying your problem is moh.
Understood, but thanks for the disclaimer.
yep, sorry for not elaborating.
Is it crass to say I called a deficiency? (Although I think I got the specific deficiency super wrong. I think I guessed b12 or b5 or something else equally wrong) They should have looked at this forever ago. You have a super restricted diet and cancer. I want to hit your doctor sometimes. But it’s nice to know that they finally did, and you now have a suspect. You should mention which pills in specific trigger migraines, if it’s a specific filler substance there might be an alternative. But you want to talk to a pharmacist about that because a doctor is unlikely to know.
I was found to have a B12 deficiency years ago, I’ve been getting B12 shots for ages. They did check my B12 level anyway and it’s really high now, 1077. So I think I’ll take a break from the B12 for a while since that gives me migraines too.
I know it seems like I ghost you a bit in some responses, but I am super duper not allowed to tell you anything that could be interpreted as encouraging you to not take a prescription so I can’t really continue down this conversational path, sorry. Even if it’s unlikely that anyone ever looks at my posts, it’s just a good habit to keep.
It’s good to know that you finally have an answer to what’s missing. Will a heightened folate intake help your hair grow back? And, do you know which foods have a high folate level?
I don’t know about the hair, but we’ll see. I know my vitamin D is also low - and that can cause hair loss - because I stopped taking the vitamin D pills I was prescribed as they were giving me headaches. These folate pills are giving me horrible headaches too, so I think I need to stop. Folate is in green veg, which tends to give me gastric disturbances, so I’ll experiment and see how much more I can eat without getting too much wind or diarrhoea. Why can’t anything just be easy? I love veg and would gladly eat a lot if it didn’t affect me badly.
Maybe the electroshock therapy can eventually help with vitamin D - seeing as it’s supposed to help you get back to walking outside. As for the green veggies, I think any mild side effect like farting might just be an acceptable trade off, but that’s something you have to know. If it leads to constipation or diarrhea, it’s no good obviously. You could (for mitigating these side effects) try to take psyllium but you need to be careful with the dosage and times of day you take it. It worked for a lot of my digestive issues, that’s why I’m recommending it.
The digestive issues depend on the amount I eat. A handful of greens, no problem. 100 grams, mild wind and slight diarrhoea. A larger amount, all night endless wind and worse diarrhoea. And mushrooms are pretty much a no-go. I’ll just try slightly increasing my veg intake until I find an acceptable amount.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll look into it.
Damn, it’s good to have some answers but the solution isn’t as simple as the doc sees it, huh? I really hope you can find a way to get the nutrients you need on a regular basis. Vitamin supplements always made me unbearably nauseous so I couldn’t take them either. Hope you can find a good solution for it soon, love.
Thanks.
It does all seem so overwhelming.