Headaches & Artificial Sweeteners

[blessedwell]

I came across a blog while researching the negative side effects of artificial sweeteners. I found a lot of great information and wanted to pass it on to everyone. This is NOT my blog.

On Artificial Sweeteners and Migraine Headaches

If you know someone who can’t pinpoint the cause of his migraine headaches, consider my daughter’s story.

Around the time she turned 3 1/2-years old, my daughter suffered from terrible migraine headaches about once per month, with symptoms including severe headaches and high fever, culminating in vomiting anywhere from 2-4 hours after the onset of the headache. On a scale of 1-10 in intensity, some of these headaches were a 10.

Fortunately, we noticed that within minutes of her vomiting, she felt better, her fever dropped and she would ask for food and water. This led us to assume (correctly as it turned out) that the migraines were triggered by certain foods.

We quickly traced the source to ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, specifically anything with Aspartame or Sorbitol. Any food with either ingredient would trigger a migraine within a couple of hours of her digesting it. Other artificial flavorings may also be a problem. We discovered this about 6 months ago, and since eliminating these sweeteners from her diet, she has not had any problems. (About two months ago, I slipped and unknowingly gave her a breakfast bar sweetened with Sorbitol, and sure enough she got a terrible migraine. We now check every label very carefully.)

One doctor was skeptical of the link between the sweeteners and the headaches (although a second doctor believes there is a connection), and I found a couple of medical websites stating that there is no solid link proven between these specific sweeteners and migraines. Still, there’s no doubt in our case: no artificial sweetener equals no attacks.

If you know someone suffering from migraines, you might check this as a possible cause.