Diet Plan for Ending Migraines

Migraine: The Breakthrough Study That Explains What Causes It and How It Can Be Completely Prevented Through Diet by Roldfo Low (Henry Holt: $16.95).

A chemist by profession, Roldfo Low might have suspected sugar as the cause of his headaches, but for years he blithely loaded up on food with a lot of the seductive sweet stuff that’s almost impossible to avoid in the modern diet. His decision to chart the course of his migraine attacks results in a breathtakingly simple theory and cure.

Migraine patients, Low believes, suffer from an overactive pancreas and produce too much insulin. In effect the opposite of the diabetic, they must also watch their sugar intake, he says.

Low says sugar, through a complicated chain reaction, ultimately triggers “vasodilating prostaglandins,” causing the expansion of cranial arteries that press against nerves. The resulting pain, ranging from mild to severe, has been noted since antiquity and, of course, by modern pharmaceutical companies.

Low’s cure, endorsed in a brief introduction by a physician, is to eliminate all sugar and to eat six or more small meals a day. It’s based on a diet of natural foods emphasizing vegetables.