It did make me thankful that this sort of thing is now an oddity and not a regular occurrence as it used to be. I often have people ask me how I have managed to go from 3-4 headaches per month to 3-4 per year, and I promise I'll write a long post about it soon.
Anyhow, part of the whole migraine thing is the nausea, and a while back I read something that speculated that the nausea associated with morning sickness was really extreme hunger triggered by the body's increased demand for calories. I've never been pregnant (and God willing, never will be) but it made sense to me. So this time, instead of shunning food like I generally do when I've got a headache, I decided to try eating.
HOLY MOLY! As soon as I started eating, the nausea morphed into extreme, ravenous hunger! It was really rather incredible. And on day three, when I finally managed to drag myself to the grocery store, I actually came home with a "nasty rotisserie chicken." A friend of mine used to call them "nasty" because of all of the grease, and the name stuck. I actually rarely eat meat, but my body was screaming for it, so I decided to let my body win, and consumed the entire thing in a matter of a day or two.
Of course, since my defenses were down, I also ended up bringing home a box of Girl Scout Cookies... Samoas, my absolute favorites.
Anyhow, I'm not sure what to make of the whole thing. It makes me wonder if there's some metabolism component to migraines that isn't currently recognized. I swear, I probably ate double my normal calories last week. It didn't make the headache go away, but it sure made it much easier to tolerate! I do think I'll skip the Girl Scout cookies next time though...
I did a Google search and found a few other people reporting ravenous hunger with migraines. Has anybody else out there ever experienced this sort of thing?
Ah, I'd been wondering where you went. Glad to hear you're feeling better -- rotisserie chicken and Samoas, huh?
ReplyDeletei would assume it's malnutrition! and perhaps candida overgrowth... most likely a combination of both! not that im an expert, but im getting into it on my own account, and its makes total sense
ReplyDeleteI get migraines, too. And they often start when I have gone too many hours without having eaten. And even though I don't "feel" hungry, I KNOW I need to eat. It usually does help or even eventually (within a few hours) stop the migraine progression, IF I eat quickly enough. I also take 3 Excedring and 2 Ibuprofin at the onset, and this too helps, but ONLY if I take them at or near the onset.
ReplyDeleteYou choose strange visuals, EcoCatLady. The chicken grossed me out (I'm a veg), the cookie triggered me (eating disorder tendency) and the burnt diva cup on a previous post made me queasy.
Ha! The scary part is that I'm also a vegetarian - at least most of the time I am. I do confess though, that the idea of rotisserie chicken and Samoas sort of makes me sick to my stomach at the moment... I think that's a good sign.
ReplyDeleteI'm also very interested to learn that I'm not the only person who gets headaches from lack of food. I used to take Excederin, but I can't handle that much caffeine anymore. So now I find that I can usually knock it out with a couple of either Tylenol of Ibuprofen and a cup of green tea.
Oh man. I just wanted to say thanks for posting this, because it is SO nice to know my post-migraine hunger insanity is normal! It's so weird. When the migraine's attacking, I never want to eat again, and then as soon as it lifts, BAM: CAKE CAKE CAKE, NOW NOW NOW. I literally can't stop myself, and the idea of anything but sugary and/or starchy stuff sends me queasy again. Just now for the first time in over a year I drank a couple of glasses of cow's milk. It felt sooooo goooooooooood. Haha. Sorry, thighs!
ReplyDeleteAnon - Well... I don't believe in name calling, so I'd never call you "normal" :~)
ReplyDeleteSeriously... I don't know if we're "normal" or not... but at least we're not alone!