Headaches Since Going Vegetarian...

I have greatly increased the amount of fresh produce I usually eat. Now, I snack on fresh veggies all day. I've been buying my veggies from the little Chinese produce store, as opposed to the chain grocery store.

I wonder if my headaches are a combination of a few things......

 

Ash was it you who got headaches when you stopped washing your hair every day? I mentioned maybe you missed your scalp massage then.

Are your shoulder and neck muscles tight?


Hunger Headaches are discussed here http://headachemd.net/types-of-headaches/hunger-headaches/

 

Yeah, that was me. I was my hair every other day now.

My neck muscles ARE tight, now that you mention it. Really tight. I'll ask James to give me a massage...that might help.

Thanks!

 

You're welcome, Ash.

You sound like you are in spasms. Put a wet towel in the microwave, wrap around neck and shoulders, reheat when it starts to cool off.

 

I don't have a microwave anymore. Got rid of the thing a few months ago because it was just taking up space and never being used.

 

Do you have a heating pad? Moist heat is good. You can put down a warm, wet towel, then some saran wrap, then the heating pad. That's really old school.

 

I have a hot water bottle. No heating pad though.

 

That will stay warm a long time if you put a towel over top of it.

 

Oh yeah...Preheat the bottle with hot water for a few minutes. After the rubber is warmed up you can refill it and it will stay hot longer.

 

Cool, thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to try that right now.

 

You're welcome. Nothing worse than a persistent headache.

 

Drink a cup of coffee....or tea with caffeine. When I got pregnant with my first kidling, I cut our coffee as well as other things . But I had a constant headache until the ObGyn said to drink some coffee!! So I drank 2 cups per day when pregnant, no more headaches.

If you feel tight neck muscles that could be it also, massage would work wonders as well as warming up then slow stretching.

 

Welcome to my world, almost two years of constant headaches now.

 

That's terrible!

 

A vegetarian diet is quite low in iron compared to a non-vegetarian one. The iron in vegetarian food is also pretty harder for the body to assimilate. You have to take in vegetarian foods like spinach,tofu and others rich in iron, along with vitamin c rich foods such as orange juice, that help in better assimilation of iron in the body.

The lack of adequate iron can lead to fatigue issues, anaemia and so on. The headaches perhaps may be resulting from this.

Proper intake of iron and vitamin c rich vegetarian food, can solve this problem.

Vegetarian diet have issues of this sort, which can be sorted out through intelliigent nutrition intake. Non-vegetarian food, though rich in iron, have its negatives in the sense that a substantially higher incidence of various cancers and heart disease have been found amongst non-vegetarians as compared to vegetarians among whom it was quite low.

 

It could be this. I carry all my tension in my neck and shoulders plus I have TMJs and I pretty much live with a perpetual headache.

 

Do you need glasses?

 

I'll pick up some coffee from the market today......

 

So here is the update - I had James give me a hard neck and shoulder massage last night, and I also put a hot water bottle on my neck and shoulders once he was finished. I found a multi vitamin in my cupboard (for women) that has iron and other things in it, and I've started taking that. I will get some oranges from the market today, to increase my vitamin C intake.

I also started my day with a protein shake today. I wonder if I am not getting enough protein in my diet, among other minerals that come with eating steak, beef, meat, ect.

My headache is still there, but it is much lighter now. Yesterday it was quite bad - I woke up and took two Advil instantly, and then took another two in the evening, and I could still feel my head aching.

Frustrating, but I am determined to figure out what is going on here. I am pretty sure it has to do with the diet change and converting to vegetarian, and my body not getting certain things absorbed into its system as it usually does from meat. Or it could be this, and a combination of other things.

Also, I've been drinking so much fucking water, that I have to go pee at least twice an hour. So much water that, I have stopped drinking water a few hours before bed, because otherwise I am up several times in the night to drain my bladder.

Oh, and tonight I am going to have a glass of red wine with a girlfriend, so we will see if this whole thing has been caused by alcohol withdrawal. I was drinking a fair amount in Mexico, and haven't had a drop of alcohol since I've been home.