Archive for headaches

“My life was managed from headache to headache.”

By Jane Birch · Comments (3)
Saturday, November 19th, 2022

By Ray Roberts

When I turned 40, migraine headaches entered my life. At first, I did not know that I had a migraine, as I had never experienced headaches. They were always on the same side of my head and lasted 36 to 48 hours, and they were devastating. They recurred about every 3 to 4 weeks. After each headache there was a two-week window where I was good and then I would start to worry.

I saw multiple doctors, had a cat scan, and started to take drugs for the pain, oral and then injections that I would self-administer. My life was managed from headache to headache.

I hated the drugs and was desperate to get off them. I scoured libraries and book sources for help and read and studied everything I could find. I tried various strategies, such as no sugar for a month (negative result) and exercising during a headache—I once went for a two-hour jog in the middle of the night (did not help).

Although there seemed to be various triggers, the only one that I could really control was what I put into my mouth, and so I would unsuccessfully change this or that in my diet. My weight started to drop from a high of 190 lb (I am 6‘1” with a medium build) to 175 lb.

After many years, a breakthrough came when I discovered a book titled Fasting and Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman. This book was my introduction to therapeutic fasting. I had done many 24-hour fasts as an active Church member, but that was the extent of my fasting experience.

I fasted for 72 hours and then went on a strict elimination diet for 30 days, followed by another 72-hour fast. The elimination diet consisted of a limited number of foods, all whole food, plant based, although at the time I knew nothing of this type of diet. There was no headache during this period, and I was euphoric. I intended to fast for a week after the 30 days of the elimination diet, but my work was very physical, and I was forced to break the fast after 3 days.

I went 7 weeks without a headache, an amazing exhilarating experience. The headaches did return, but this success told me I was on to something. Something changed in my metabolism after this experience, and my weight dropped at one point to 144 lb within a few weeks. I started to eat differently realizing that this made a huge difference in my health and especially my battle with migraines. I felt amazing. My weight has now settled around 155 lb for last 18 or so years.

I started to study nutrition, physiology and fasting. I experimented briefly with keto diets on two different occasions, and both times had a very negative experience and felt ill. As my research broadened, whole food, plant-based (WFPB) eating came into my purview, and I spent many hours learning with diet gurus such as Michael Gregor (nutritionfacts.org), John McDougall, T. Colin Campbell (The China Study) and others.

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB, Stories
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“The Word of Wisdom has never been more important than it is right now”

By Jane Birch · Comments (8)
Saturday, November 9th, 2019

By Michael Crowley

My journey into the plant-based lifestyle seems trivial in light of many other stories I’ve read about here. Still I hope it’s one that gives encouragement to those just starting out like I was not so long ago. I am very motivated and excited about sharing the benefits I’ve experienced with others.

I remember reading about Jane Birch’s experience where she said something like, “Some people get an answer about the Word of Wisdom before even praying about it.” That was pretty much my experience in a nutshell. My wife and I had been going through some challenges. On the evening of Sunday, April 14, 2019, I prayed not for help but to recommit myself to the Lord. Then something miraculous happened. Later that evening, while scrolling on social media, I came across a friend’s post with a link to a video on Netflix called What the Health. Usually I would have just kept scrolling, but I felt for some reason I should check it out. As I watched the video, things started to click for me. The Word of Wisdom was suddenly front and center in my thoughts to the extent that it felt as if God was suddenly speaking to me.

Even though I had not been in good health, I really had not even been thinking about the Word of Wisdom at all. While watching the video, the beam in my eye of “vegans being strange” was removed, and my mind was suddenly open to the message being shared. I clearly recognized the health issues presented as the same ones I had previously thought of as the normal effects of aging or bad luck. I now understood what was causing them, and I was impressed at how many of the chronic diseases that had impacted my extended family over the years were being addressed.

Again the Word of Wisdom had not even been on my thought horizon that evening, but the Lord was mindful of me. He surely knew where I was headed health wise and the negative impact it would have had on both my family and me. I marveled that the Lord was so quick to enlighten me on his law of health that very same evening.

To describe my situation: at 6 feet tall and weighing 220+ lbs, I was heading towards 230 lbs with no indication of stopping there. I had horrible sinus problems, migraine headaches, poor focus, and low energy. Terrible pain in my lower back had me in physical therapy and chiropractic care and was again threatening to put me back there, no pun intended. The flare-ups would often last for months at a time. Getting out of bed meant literally rolling out. Putting on my socks was near impossible due to my limited range of motion and the sharpness of the pain. Driving was unbearable during those times. There were also multiple skin issues, including a rather large and painful boils on my back that had to be surgically removed. There were infections and sickness that just repeated over and over again. There was increasing soreness and fatigue that left me depressed and feeling useless. I had become an unbearable version of myself.

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB, Stories
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“Our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health improved so suddenly and drastically that we didn’t want to go back”

By Jane Birch · Comments (2)
Saturday, September 28th, 2019

By: Cassidy Gundersen

Starting at age 12 I began to experience a variety of concerning health conditions such as chronic kidney stones, debilitating PMS and menstrual cramps, migraines that would cause me to throw up in pain, and twice monthly bowel movements. The doctors assured me that I was in good health and “these things just happened to people,” so I was convinced that I was healthy (despite all of my pain) and continued eating like it. My staples were Oreos, Dr. Pepper, and Snickers. You couldn’t have paid me to eat fruit or vegetables other than perhaps potatoes, raspberries, and peaches. But I was extremely thin, and that was all that mattered to me at the time.

As I grew up, I lived a busy and active life and was very involved. My health began to take a turn for the worst when I was Miss Idaho in 2012. I was on the road a lot and began eating worse than I already had been. I noticed that my mental and physical health were waning, but I was determined to serve a full-time mission.

After leaving to Canada in 2013 for my mission, the complications only worsened. I was barely able to get out of bed after 12 hours of sleep, and I was in the hospital more times than I can count. I had MRI’s, ultrasounds, colonoscopies, and countless blood samples drawn in an attempt to get to the core of the issue. More than one time the mission doctor and my mission president tried to send me home to get better, but I was more stubborn than I was sick, and I refused!

It was on my mission that I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a diagnosis that would change my life. After my diagnosis, I was downhearted and began reading my Patriarchal blessing. I became angry as I read it because my blessing spoke of the Word of Wisdom and the health I would have by obedience to it. I was confused because I never smoked, I never drank tea, coffee or alcohol, nor did I do drugs, yet I wasn’t seeing any of the blessings I was promised. I had given some thought to the Word of Wisdom since one of my companions informed me that she didn’t eat meat because of the Doctrine and Covenants 89. However, I was convinced she was extreme and was sure that I knew better.

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“I have discovered the Fountain of Youth”

By Jane Birch · Comments (11)
Saturday, February 3rd, 2018

By: Jamie Douglass

My whole life, since I was 16, I have yo-yo dieted. I had a boyfriend tell me that I could lose a hundred pounds and I would still be fat. Even though I knew he was exaggerating on the amount, his message was very clear to me, you will never be skinny enough. So, I turned to the world in telling me how I should eat to look good and feel good. I have tried every diet out there, and I could never stick with any of them.

This last summer, I ordered a new diet supplement. I felt so crummy and was desperate to try anything. I had been dealing with years of chronic fatigue, chronic sinus infections, and chronic headaches. My new supplement came in the mail on a Thursday but on Friday I was starting a fast over a personal struggle and decided to wait to start the new supplement.

During my fast, I became surprised when I got an overwhelming feeling that I should not start the new diet supplement. Confused as to why I was getting these feelings when I wasn’t even thinking about that, the words entered my mind, “Jamie, the Lord has provided a Law of Health.” It was if a light bulb when on in my head, and I remember thinking, “Duh, the Word of Wisdom.” I went to D&C 89 and immediately gained greater insight into the diet portion of the Word of Wisdom and specifically the instruction on the use of meat. I was blown away that this portion of the Word of Wisdom has never really been discussed or talked about.

I grew up on a dairy farm and meat was a staple in our home. I love my parents, they are wonderful examples to me and I wouldn’t trade anything for my upbringing. There are so many benefits to growing up on a farm. Learning hard work was one of them. Anyway, two days later I was at a good friend’s home and as I was walking out the door she said, “I feel you need to read this book” and gave me the book Discovering the Word of Wisdom. I got halfway through the book and didn’t even finish it. I knew it was true and immediately transitioned over to a plant based diet. I have since been on a journey of diving deep into the doctrines and teachings of this part of the Word of Wisdom. I am a nurse and so I have also been studying the science side of a whole food, plant-based diet, as well as the benefits.

Six months later here are the results Read More→

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“This diet allows my body to function at its highest capacity”

By Jane Birch · Comments (9)
Saturday, February 18th, 2017

Gwyneth AllenBy: Gwyneth Allen

I have pretty much grown up being vegetarian/vegan. My mom always hated the idea of meat, so from the very beginning there was no meat in our house. When my twin sister and I were three, our mom discovered that our little sister, who she was nursing at the time, reacted badly to the milk my mom would drink. This prompted my mom to become vegan, and our household became free of dairy and cheese. We have also always eaten really healthy, with very little processed foods. Snacks in our house consist of bananas or apples.

The surprise when people find out I have been vegan for most of my life is normally followed up with, “But don’t you want bacon?” Well, Morning Star makes some dang good vegan sausages so that pretty much fills my bacon void!

Before middle school, and really up until high school, I never appreciated the way we ate. I ate a whole food, plant-based diet because it was the way I had always eaten. In high school I consistently began to work out and started swimming year round for the varsity swim team. I realized the way I ate impacted how I felt and how well I was able to compete. On the days when I had dairy, I felt sluggish in the water and not prepared to swim. I also discovered that when I ate dairy, I would feel sick and get headaches. On the other hand, when I ate healthy and had lots of fruits and vegetables, I felt strong and had more energy. For me, living a whole food, plant-based lifestyle is the best option because it allows my body to function at its highest capacity.

For my first three years of high school, I lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In some ways living in Southeast Asia was accommodating to a vegan lifestyle. Indian and Thai food were readily available when we wanted to go out to eat. However, the lack of Costco really put a damper on how much fresh fruit and vegetables we had. Malaysia has plenty of fruits and vegetables, but not always the kinds we wanted to buy, and we had to bleach the produce before eating it.

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“I had the good fortune to get food poisoning”

By Jane Birch · Comments (17)
Saturday, September 24th, 2016

claron-twitchellBy: Claron Jon Twitchell, Sr.

I grew up with a standard American diet typical of the 1950s and 60s—certainly better than what most people eat today. It was home cooking, not fast food. There was not a focus though on how to apply the Word of Wisdom to our diet.

I remember when I first read Doctrine and Covenants Section 89, probably when I was a twelve-year-old deacon, I thought, “We have bacon for breakfast, sandwiches with lunch meat for lunch, and chicken or beef for supper. That doesn’t seem like eating meat sparingly to me. Where is the famine?” That was in the back of my mind, but I didn’t do anything about it until I was in my forties.

When I was in my mid-forties, my main fitness activity was riding my bicycle. I commuted to work two or three times a week when the weather was okay, which gave me a baseline of four to six hours of vigorous activity each week. I threw in some recreational basketball, yard work and a little hiking and such. I still had a standard American diet: meat, a little fast food, dairy, eggs, and so forth.

I felt fairly healthy, however, I was still gaining a few pounds each year after age 37. I started thinking, “I need to do something different or I am going to soon pass 200 pounds.” I drew a line in the sand to stay under 200 pounds and started thinking, “What should I do?” With a job, a family, and church responsibilities, I just didn’t want to spend more time exercising.

I started thinking that I might need to change my diet some way. My diet tended toward a “see food diet.” I pretty much ate whatever was in front of me until I was full. It occurred to me that there were a fair amount of calories in the meat that I ate. Then there was that thought in the back of my mind since my youth, that we weren’t really following the Word of Wisdom with eating meat. Now the stage was set.

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB, Stories
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“I haven’t had a single migraine headache in years”

By Jane Birch · Comments (7)
Saturday, September 3rd, 2016

Stacey PetersonBy: Stacey Peterson

My journey to a whole food, plant based diet was a gradual process that began in 2010 and took six years to fully implement. Nights home alone plus a Netflix subscription led me to watch several food and diet-related documentaries over the years such as Hungry For Change, Fed Up, Food, Inc., and one of my favorites, Forks Over Knives. For the first time in my life I started to actually think about what I was putting into my body and how it was affecting me. I’d never struggled with my weight, but I knew that weight wasn’t the only indicator of health, and I did suffer with frequent and debilitating sinus infections and migraine headaches. I didn’t feel right about the powerful medications and their frightening side effects that doctors were prescribing for me. I really felt strongly that my body wasn’t designed to be sick and that my ailments would benefit more from prevention than from questionable medications to mask the symptoms.

As I read and researched for my own health, I couldn’t help but think about my babies—the loves of my life who I would do anything and everything to protect. When I set plates of food in front of them, I wondered if what I was putting into their bodies was helping or hurting them. What was I teaching them that “food” is? How was I training their taste buds? Since I was choosing their food, did that mean I was also choosing health consequences for their little bodies that could possibly last a lifetime, without their say in the matter?

I continued reading books on nutrition, studying, learning, and gradually replacing harmful ingredients with better choices one at a time as my knowledge increased. I think high fructose corn syrup was the first thing to go. Hey, we all have to start somewhere! One change led to another, and by the time 2016 rolled around, I couldn’t remember the last time the inside of our fridge had seen a gallon of cow’s milk, a carton of eggs, a block of cheese, or a piece of meat. They had been replaced by a wide variety of whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, and we were enjoying our meals more than ever before. We sure had come a long way since the high fructose corn syrup ban!

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“Multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (33)
Saturday, March 12th, 2016
Around age 10 when the light sensitivity started

Around age 10 when the light sensitivity started

By: Emily

I’ve always had a love for food (who doesn’t?), but my love affair with food really started in junior high when I was old enough that my mom would let me plan and prepare family dinner. My mom is a fabulous cook, and she always fed our family traditional, “healthy” meals: chicken and rice casseroles, lasagna, turkey sandwiches, spaghetti and meatballs, eggs and toast, etc. We ate basically the standard American diet and what every health professional would say is a normal diet. She fed us the healthiest she knew how. We also had a green salad every night, and in the summer we would eat tons of veggies from our garden.

I remember my health issues starting when I was around 6 (that’s about as far as I can remember—I might have had other issues when I was younger, I just don’t remember). I would get strep throat and really bad earaches about 3-4 times a year, and I would get the flu every couple of months. When I was around 10 or 11 I started developing intense sensitivity to light and the back of my eyes would ache, which would turn into massive headaches. I felt like a vampire, always shutting the curtains, never turning on the lights. These episodes weren’t constant. They would come and go, so it wasn’t predictable. They eventually started going away, and I forgot about them.

Around age 15, very thin

Around age 15, very thin

Throughout junior high and high school, I started having fatigue issues and near the end of my senior year in high school, I developed the chronic headaches and sensitivity to light again, but this time they also came with numbness and tingling in my limbs, adrenal fatigue and a few other nasty symptoms. I was in all the school plays and was always dancing and exerting a lot of physical effort so I just blamed these symptoms on being tired.

Looking back on my high school days, I realized that I didn’t eat very much at all. I was very thin. I never really thought about food and just ate when my mom made meals, and I grabbed an apple for lunch. 

After high school, I tried out for our city’s Miss America Organization pageant and won. I started eating “healthy.” I added more greens and fruits, planned my meals, exercised regularly, and made sure I ate enough to give me the energy I needed. I actually started feeling better. Read More→

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“Eating the way I do brings me joy”

By Jane Birch · Comments (16)
Saturday, November 7th, 2015

Manda Dangerfield FamilyBy: Manda Dangerfield

Growing up and into in my late twenties, I ate what the USDA food pyramid said I needed to eat daily: grains, milk and other dairy, meat, fruits, and vegetables. I really liked ice cream, milk chocolate, and other candy and processed foods. Grains were cold cereal, bread, and pasta that wasn’t whole grain.

My journey to a whole foods plant-based diet probably began in 2007. My husband and I had been married for three years and were new parents. Our baby girl was ready, at five months, to eat “solids.” My stepmom had given me a recipe book for baby food, and I liked it. I understood that we would save money by not buying baby food if possible. I made our daughter a variety of foods by steaming foods and using a mini food processor, or just mashing if it was banana. Some of the foods were vegetables that I personally didn’t grow up eating, or didn’t remember enjoying, including spinach and some kinds of squash. I know I had tasted cooked spinach but didn’t like it. I discovered that I didn’t hate cabbage, I only hated the ingredients in coleslaw sauce! I loved the ratatouille, other simple combinations, and the plain steamed cauliflower that I made for her. I did get pre-made jars or containers sometimes for convenience. The ones with meat in them didn’t smell so good, and I knew there was a difference between the pre-made veggies and my freshly-made veggies. I remember thinking one day, “Why am I feeding her a jar of lamb? We don’t eat lamb.” (And now I wonder why anyone would want to eat a baby sheep.) But we did eat a pretty typical American diet with other meat in it.

When our daughter was almost a year old, and not quite done breastfeeding, we started having her drink whole cow’s milk, like we thought we were supposed to in order for her to be healthy. By the time I took her for her twelve-month doctor appointment she had pretty bad eczema. Eventually — I wish I would have kept a journal of all this! — I read that dairy has been shown to be connected to skin problems, and I realized that her eczema had started at the same time as her introduction to cow’s milk. However, the doctor had said nothing about diet, only to bathe our daughter in plain water and put a specific ointment on her skin. Later, when I stopped giving her cow’s milk, cheese, and yogurt, the eczema went away. A few times it seems that her arms have gotten a little eczema again, after she has chosen to eat some dairy when away from home.

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“I intend to stay on this path for the rest of my hopefully long and healthy life!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (8)
Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

Carolyn CooperBy: Carolyn Cooper

I LOVE using the fresh food that the Lord has provided for my body’s fuel. Here’s my story:

I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s in a family who ate the standard American diet, albeit a little bit more healthy than most. For example, my parents never bought “store milk.” We were in a co-op that went out to the dairy every week to get the “real milk” (unpasteurized) from the “real cows.” I used to hate being the one to go help my mom pick the milk when it was our turn because of the smell. To this day, all milk smells ‘cow-y’ like that to me.

My dad was a chiropractor who would say things like “sugar is a poison to your body” and “the whiter the bread, the sooner you’re dead.” So although we knew this, and we maybe ate a little bit healthier than some families, it was still the standard American diet. In fact, every Sunday we would have a roast, potatoes, gravy, etc. From the time I was 13 years old, my bedroom was directly below the kitchen so Sundays always smelled like a beef-fest down in my room, which got to be nauseating for me. I remember being about 15 years old in my room one Sunday and saying out loud to myself, “I can’t take this, I’m going to be vegetarian when I’m older!” I don’t know that I was actually serious at the time, but it surely must have planted the seed!

Fast forward several years to 1988: I read Diet for a New America by John Robbins and loved it! It validated so many things for me, and made perfect sense. It also matched up perfectly with the Word of Wisdom. I had always believed that when the Word of Wisdom says to “eat meat sparingly . . . ” and “it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine” that it means exactly that. I’ve never understood any other way that could be interpreted; it’s very clear.

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