Tag: peanut butter

Diet, News & Research, Resources, Treatment, Triggers

This Time Last Year, March 3-10

Kerrie Smyres

Posts from The Daily Headache, March 3-10, 2006

Nerve Stimulator-Imposed Restrictions
According to Medtronic’s Living Well newsletter, these activities might be harmful for people with nerve stimulators: using an electric blanket, skiing, sledding, golfing, amusement park rides. Would I have still gotten the implant if I knew about all these limitiations?

Woman Heartbroken After Ending Love Affair
After years of agony, I finally say goodbye to one of the great loves of my life.

Getting the Attention We Deserve
ABC News aired a piece on new treatments for migraine, the first of a three-part series on migraine. It appears to be a good step toward reducing the stigma of migraine.

Acupuncture & Birth Control Deja Vu
Results of new studies on these migraine topics were released.

Pain Resource: Doctors for Pain
Get a glimpse of this excellent website on treating and coping with chronic pain.

The Ultimate Question
I finally try to answer the question about my occipital nerve stimulator that I’m asked the most: How much does it help? Since I had my stimulator removed in September, this post now seems quaint.

News From Annual Pain Meeting
Studies discussed at the American Academy of Pain Medicine‘s meeting included nerve stimulation and opioid levels in the blood of chronic pain patients.

Coping, Diet, Resources, Triggers

Peanut Butter & Chocolate

Kerrie Smyres

I don’t care if it’s a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup or the Trader Joe’s version of this popular candy, peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle, or a spoonful of Jif with chocolate chips stuck on top, any combination of peanut butter and chocolate is divine.

Last week I almost admitted that peanut butter and chocolate are triggers for me. Instead of accepting my fate, I say that I think that they could maybe be triggers.

I can do this because the medical jury is still out on whether foods are migraine triggers. Some believe that chocolate might be food people crave right before a migraine, but that it’s not the actual trigger. Or maybe a patient ate peanut butter and got a migraine, but stress and weather changes really triggered the headache. An ACHE newsletter article called The Trigger Quagmire explores this point of view.

Of course other articles deflate the argument, but I’m sticking with this one for right now. I’ll ignore that my husband is sure that peanut butter and chocolate are among my triggers. He doesn’t love peanut butter like I do. I’m skeptical that anyone loves peanut butter as much as I do. Add chocolate and I’m a goner.