Food Alergies, Migraines & 2 Ingredient Bread

Yes that's TWO ingredients to make a loaf of bread.  And YES it tastes, um, well we'll get to that bit later.  Let's start at the beginning.

After the woeful, pitiful let down of Botox and the inherent fear of taking any more preventatives, I decided to see if there was the vague possibility that food might be triggering my migraines.  Yes, yes, I know, "keep a food diary" you all cry!  That's all well and good for those of you who get the odd migraine every now and then, but when you get 3 or 4 per week, the foods and triggers kind of merge into each other and start to overlap and it gets really messy and...  Look, just take my work for it, it just doesn't plain work for me.

So another method is required.  I phoned my local helpful doctors (actually mine are quite helpful as long as I tell them what I want and they don't have to think too much themselves and it is legal, then they will let me try it).  I asked them about having some food allergy tests.  Um, ok this is where my previous comment falls down slightly as this is not something that they let me do.  They can offer individual tests for individual food types, but not a catch all solution.  I know that I am intolerant to lactose and that was though the docs - yay the docs apart from having to swallow a cup full of pure lactose and then suffer the consequences for the rest of the day.  My Rabbi has a wonderful way with words and referred to this as being "rather turbulent down there".  As it happens, and this is a little aside, I have found a wonder cure which lets me eat cheese again (ahh the joys) and it does really 100% work.  It's called Prolactazyme Forte and is available on-line.  Pop one tablet 10 minutes before consuming any type of lactose and you can gobble up as much as you like.

Anyhoo, I digress.  Searching on-line brings up a scary number of backyard tests.  You send all sorts of bodily parts for them to sample, like hair and stuff but it all sounded a bit strange to me.  So on a recommendation, I decided to try the York Test.  The ladies in my life (wife & mum) were not convinced until they saw the video on the website by Dr Hilary Jones.  I don't see it myself, but hey ho, it convinced them.

£300 (minus cashback) and 2 days later I got a pack through the post.  Prick your finger and let the blood gently soak into the long cotton bud thing.  Pop in an envelope and there you have it.  What could be simpler than that.  My son is type one diabetic so we are used to pricking fingers and have even tried it on ourselves.  He is a brave little warrior as it does sting a bit, but that's a whole long blog of it's own!  I got the pricker out, selected a finger at random, pushed it up against it, squeezed and %*&£!  OOOOUUUUCCCCHHHHH almost hit the ceiling in pain.  Wow that is harsh harsh harsh.  A little dance around the table holding the bottom of my finger because against the norm, I actually didn't want to stop the bleeding.  Aaaa ok... nope, just one more dance around the table to compose myself, much to my 11 year old daughters amusement, and relax.

The results....  My number one intolerance is yeast so I have to stay off that for 9 months.  Then a whole load of other stuff like sunflowers and milk and egg white (not yolk, I can have as much egg yolk as I want) and some other stuff as well which I won't bore you with here.  See their website for examples of what the form looks like.  It's quite interesting.

I have been on the diet for about 4 months now and can honestly say that it has been the biggest waste of time ever.  No difference to my stomach (which does get a little agitated at times (ok for agitated, read volcanic)) and no difference to my migraines.  Not sure what I was expecting to be honest.  Feeling more alert, less hungry, settled stomach, I dunno, you've got to get something for you money.

BUT, it wasn't all wasted.  Whilst searching for no yeast breads I discovered 2 ingredient bread.  Drum roll please.  Are you ready for the ingredients....

Self raising flour (2 1/2 cups) and pop (1 can).  That's it.  No really that is really it. Any fizzy drink will do but to be honest it doesn't make much difference which you use as they all tast the same.  Mix them together, whack them in a tin and shove in the over gas mark 180 for 45 minutes.  Ok it does taste a little bland, but it's a great base to add things.  My current favourite is honey and fresh ginger and it make a lovely teacake which is nice toasted with butter.  Try it out and let me know your favourite!

Allergy Tests and Diaries

Alternative health expert number one was allergy testing.  Not via the doctors as they don't like providing them.  You are what you eat so I was sure that the pain must be caused by something I was eating. Remember, I still didn't know that they were migraines, just bad headaches.

I was ushered to a low couch in a room behind a chemists and told to undress my left foot. A strange start, but what the hey! I was given a metal bar to hold whilst the specialist, and I use the term sparingly here, held my foot on her lap. The metal bar was connected to a strange contraption containing test tubes of clear liquid. A wire connected this to a metal pen which completed the contraption. Each vial of liquid was in turn placed into the main hole. For each one, she moved the metal pen down the inside of my big toe as if she were drawing a line from top to bottom. Each stroke made the machine emit a whining sound which would progressively get higher. Apparently, the degree of change in sound was dependent on the resistance between my hand, the vial of liquid and my toe. The higher the whine, the less resistance which was good (I think). If the whine petered out before reaching it’s zenith it meant that there was something in my body that blocked the signal. That would be what I was allergic to.  Or it could just mean that she didn't move the pen quite as far, thus giving the impression of an allergy (I know, I must stop being a cynic, but I just can't help myself).

It didn’t go that well and I did feel a little bit sorry for her.  The first item of resistance was pork. That was a bad start as I am Jewish and therefore have never eaten pork. I could see the quizzical look on her face as one eyebrow lifted slightly. however she bravely moved on to the next vial. Lots of high whines ensued until the next low whine which was caffeine. Another problem as I don’t drink coffee, or tea, or coke, or anything with caffeine in .
“Are you sure?” she asked, hoping that I might have forgotten about a recent caffeine binge.
"Nope, not a drop". I answered and added "Sorry," as I felt guilty that I hadn't been drinking coffee by the bucket load. She needed to finish on a high with a safe win whine and got it with grass seeds. I do have hey fever, but then so do a lot of people.

As the test came to an end she seemed to forget the questionable results and advised that I go on a wheat free diet for one month and keep a food diary. I left the little room and entered the chemist on the way out and happened to overhear an older couple chatting about which wheat free items would be best for them. I wonder how many people with many varied ailments were advised to go on this same diet.  I tried the diet and it wasn’t as difficult as it seemed, but it made no difference to the headaches.

The diary was a help though. It identified that I have an intolerance to dairy which I never knew about before. I just thought that I was a naturally flatulent person! Cutting out cheese also seemed to help reduce the frequency of the headaches. So maybe the treatment was worth the money after all!