4 ms·

>I’ve personally found that an anti-inflammatory diet that eliminates caffeine, dairy, grains, and sugar Me too! I don't (think I) have Lyme though. I had sinu

>I’ve personally found that an anti-inflammatory diet that eliminates caffeine, dairy, grains, and sugar Me too! I don't (think I) have Lyme though. I had sinus headaches my whole life as well as an array of digestion issues. Cutting out gluten helped a ton, but I kept getting sinus headaches, so I kept identifying and cutting out food. These days I don't eat gluten, sugar, caffeine, sodium nitrites, and msg. My brother is diagnosed with celiac disease. I cut out gluten before going to the doctor, so I couldn't be diagnosed easily. I feel largely the same way as OP though. The medical system doesn't know jack about this disease. There are no studies about sinus headaches and celiacs, even though there are plenty of reports pairing the two. My doctors never suggested this. They would give me Flonase (treat the symptom!). I told them I had issues with xyz foods and would be told to not eat those (thanks, duh). Never an attempt to figure things out with me. I've met other people with weird auto immune issues. They're really mysteries. Lyme is actually a big fear of mine. I hear some people develop a meat allergy and that is a major part of my diet right now.

officialjunk 7y ago
see if cutting out corn has any benefit for you
- TACIXAT 7y ago
  I'm fine eating corn flour and corn chips.
dvschramm 7y ago
Did you follow an elimination diet to find out what you were sensitive to, or was it obvious? I'm considering an elimination diet but everything I read about a diet plan are different.
- TACIXAT 7y ago
  Initially, yes. You're supposed to eat only chicken and rice for a month or two, see how you feel, then add things back in. I was a broke college student at the time, so I did a deli meat and rice diet. I felt a lot better. In hindsight it was kind of stupid since deli meats have sodium nitrites which is a trigger for me, but I still felt scores better. It took me about 5 years, from 23 to 28 to identify everything. It was a lot of "I got a headache, what did I eat, what were the ingredients", then correlating that over a long period, then testing what ingredient I isolated. For sugar and caffeine it was also a conscious choice to try cutting them out, I think those were more withdrawal situations than the other ones. An example, I was eating at a gluten free restaurant regularly. No gluten means I'm good, yea? Still getting sinus headaches though. Maybe I'm going crazy, so I ask them what they think. He points out the sodium nitrite in the pepperoni. Correlated that with bacon, other deli meats, "uncured" things that have celery powder instead (contains sodium nitrite!). Then there is the sauce, tomato has glutamate, also tomato sauce often has sugar, these were a different time scale of headache though. Cutting out sugar was by far the hardest. I went back and forth on it many times. I eventually got sick of the full withdrawal when cutting it out fully and decided to not start again. Most people asking about this have digestion issues. These are usually caused by FODMAPs [1]. I had digestion issues with gluten and high fructose foods (fructose malabsorption). My brother is lactose intolerant. If that's what you're looking to isolate I would start with those. Good luck! I highly recommend giving it a shot. Changing my diet changed my life. It's not true for everyone but all of my health issues were coming from what I was eating. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP#Sources_in_the_diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP#Sources_in_the_diet
  - davej 7y ago
    Issues with deli meats could also point to histamine issues and mast cell activation syndrome. I'm not saying it applied to your case but perhaps it's something for others to be aware of.
oblib 7y ago
Perfumes and industrial solvents are the worst for me. I was about 30 before I figured that out. I'd go out on a date with a woman and end up feeling like pure crap from all the scented stuff they and I slathered on before the date. And I'd get sick feeling at work where we used solvents like paint thinners. For years I thought I must have some weird psychosomatic bullshit going on. The one thing that made be feel better was taking a walk in the forest and that added to psychosomatic theory I worried about because I felt like I was convincing myself that work and socializing were making me sick. When I was around 30 years old I told my mother about it and she offered I might be "chemically sensitive". So I started paying attention to my exposure to solvents, perfumes, etc and sure enough there was an absolute connection. And the hikes in the forest with fresh air helped clear that crap out of my system. Since then I've avoided people and places where I'll get exposed to that stuff and I've felt great for the past 30 years. I can actually endure a bit of exposure now without getting sickened, whereas before it only took a few minutes for headaches and nausea to start kicking in.

officialjunk 7y ago

see if cutting out corn has any benefit for you

TACIXAT 7y ago
I'm fine eating corn flour and corn chips.

dvschramm 7y ago

Did you follow an elimination diet to find out what you were sensitive to, or was it obvious? I'm considering an elimination diet but everything I read about a diet plan are different.

TACIXAT 7y ago
Initially, yes. You're supposed to eat only chicken and rice for a month or two, see how you feel, then add things back in. I was a broke college student at the time, so I did a deli meat and rice diet. I felt a lot better. In hindsight it was kind of stupid since deli meats have sodium nitrites which is a trigger for me, but I still felt scores better. It took me about 5 years, from 23 to 28 to identify everything. It was a lot of "I got a headache, what did I eat, what were the ingredients", then correlating that over a long period, then testing what ingredient I isolated. For sugar and caffeine it was also a conscious choice to try cutting them out, I think those were more withdrawal situations than the other ones. An example, I was eating at a gluten free restaurant regularly. No gluten means I'm good, yea? Still getting sinus headaches though. Maybe I'm going crazy, so I ask them what they think. He points out the sodium nitrite in the pepperoni. Correlated that with bacon, other deli meats, "uncured" things that have celery powder instead (contains sodium nitrite!). Then there is the sauce, tomato has glutamate, also tomato sauce often has sugar, these were a different time scale of headache though. Cutting out sugar was by far the hardest. I went back and forth on it many times. I eventually got sick of the full withdrawal when cutting it out fully and decided to not start again. Most people asking about this have digestion issues. These are usually caused by FODMAPs [1]. I had digestion issues with gluten and high fructose foods (fructose malabsorption). My brother is lactose intolerant. If that's what you're looking to isolate I would start with those. Good luck! I highly recommend giving it a shot. Changing my diet changed my life. It's not true for everyone but all of my health issues were coming from what I was eating. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP#Sources_in_the_diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP#Sources_in_the_diet
- davej 7y ago
  Issues with deli meats could also point to histamine issues and mast cell activation syndrome. I'm not saying it applied to your case but perhaps it's something for others to be aware of.

oblib 7y ago

Perfumes and industrial solvents are the worst for me. I was about 30 before I figured that out. I'd go out on a date with a woman and end up feeling like pure crap from all the scented stuff they and I slathered on before the date. And I'd get sick feeling at work where we used solvents like paint thinners. For years I thought I must have some weird psychosomatic bullshit going on. The one thing that made be feel better was taking a walk in the forest and that added to psychosomatic theory I worried about because I felt like I was convincing myself that work and socializing were making me sick. When I was around 30 years old I told my mother about it and she offered I might be "chemically sensitive". So I started paying attention to my exposure to solvents, perfumes, etc and sure enough there was an absolute connection. And the hikes in the forest with fresh air helped clear that crap out of my system. Since then I've avoided people and places where I'll get exposed to that stuff and I've felt great for the past 30 years. I can actually endure a bit of exposure now without getting sickened, whereas before it only took a few minutes for headaches and nausea to start kicking in.