Headaches and Wheat: A Blog Post from Wheat Belly's Author. Intuition, Education, Persistence are Keys to Success

"It took this mother’s instinct and powers of observation to uncover the answer." This is my favorite line in this interesting blog post from Dr Davis, author of Wheat Belly. As advocate for the son, the mother basically assisted him, the YOU! of the Lumigrate foundational/core model.

In reading this, she describes the team that she (and he) built around him to advise, and it describes the same 'run around' that people with other chronic conditions report, over and over again, when they present with their symptoms to various providers. You will see they started with conventional medicine and then went to acupuncture and chiropractics. 

In 1995, with severe headaches as one of the symptoms I had of a sudden change in my health status, I started with acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. While I didn't see any change from the massive herbs I cooked up and terrible tasting tinctures I consumed, I would have a pleasant 'nap' while the needles worked their magic on me.  The L.Ac. had, on my first visit said "I think you have a problem with wheat; it's not that you have to stop eating it totally, just eat less of it."

So after I didn't get any better going to her and doing ALL THAT I did, I appealed to conventional medicine and used my insurance, which I'd gone out of my way to get a certain type due to the new symptoms I had seeming pretty serious.  

This entailed a trip to the GP, then referral to the neurologist, who ordered and had her medical assistant help schedule the MRI they needed for imaging.  I'd go back for her to tell me she was recommending and helping me schedule a lumbar puncture.  So by that point, we came to where the mother in this example started: 

Neurologist: "I don't know what's going on"

Me: "Could it be diet? My whole family has food allergies and I've been scratch tested and they say I'm not allergic to anything, but I suspect this is from foods."

Her/neurologist: "Well, foods can cause headaches." (considering there were lesions showing on the MRI in my brain but nothing she saw in the spinal fluid that clued her -- it turns out today, experts can look at those same results (as I keep copies of things, and always recommend people they do as well, that's a huge part of the YOU! Model in action) and see there were virus' at play in the fluid at that time, which explains the lesions.  

In my case, I remembered what the acupuncturist had said about wheat on that first intake appointment, taking the various pulses at the wrist as TCM does.  So I called her up and asked if she knew of anyone 'outside the box' related to following up about what she'd said about wheat. Turns out she knew of someone.

For a relatively small amount of money and one blood draw from my arm, the results showed a significant IgG reaction to wheat, eggs, and dairy -- AS REACTIVE to dairy as a person can be with that test! Yet the scratch testing my insurance had paid for in the past showed not one thing was I "allergic" to. (My skin reacted to many things, just not into a big enough area to be deemed an 'allergy' in their form of medicine.) 

I had reduced wheat, as the acupuncturist suggested, with no results seen. So with these results, by totally eliminating three things, leaving ALL the other foods under the sun and on Earth to consume, I was markedly better, same as is reported with this boy's example, after one week. Really, in three days I knew I found out what was wrong.

It turns out, it wasn't ALL what was wrong, but by eliminating the CONSTANT bombardment I was giving my body of things bringing it down, I got back to a level of health where I was 'doing well'. 

However, in those days, the advise that came about IgG allergies was that once you went a while without a food, you could start rotating it back in. And I did that, less with dairy because the MD who did the food allergy testing had recommended I stay wary of dairy for the rest of my life because of how extremely allergic I was. Unfortunately, that wasn't taking into account what Dr Davis spells out so clearly about the modern wheat's digested components getting through the blood-brain barrier, and I deeply regret that I returned to eating wheat at all.

I have found that when I get my health returned to a good level, it takes quite a long time after 'going back to things that are 'normal' / average in America before I see the results, and by then you've done a lot of damage again. So in 2013, with the education I got from Wheat Belly, I know I will be consuming products made from modern wheat with this in mind.

And I hope you will consider educating or re-minding yourself as well. I've covered quite a bit about it here at Lumigrate, including merging it as supplemental information on a topic about The UltraMind Solution, by Mark Hyman. These two smart MDs were also 'researchers' and then wanted to be messengers and educators, I think.  They are going to change the health and well-being of people more than anything we've seen in a long time. And I thank them, and I thank YOU for reading.

Now, you're 'aware' or 'somewhat educated', do what you need to do in order to 'take actio'n! I was plagued by headaches from my early 20s until my late 40s, including through the time when I was not eating any wheat, dairy, or eggs, but we have to remember that for many things, it's many contributing factors: Mine, as I understand it presently, were the combination of diet with my neck needing a lot of PT (or surgery, which was also flushed out by the MRIs in 1995), and the hormone system being out of whack, and needing to get thyroid and about a handfull or two of other hormones 'synchronized' again.

Finding that right team of providers is always a challenge, and when it has many reasons for the problems, it takes many providers sometimes to solve the complexities. Stay persistent, don't be discouraged by any "lack of" funding or insurance, find other routes, do more self-study, try other things that you can do on your own until you find a way to fund something.

It's really unfortunate that it has to be that difficult. I'm sorry for all of us who struggle. But that's the way it is, and you'll be a victim of that, unless you find your way to solutions. And something like wheat can be a very simple change that will not change the pocketbook, perhaps. 

Live and Learn! Learn and Live Better!! ~ Mardy

" ......The medical system failed this boy, the doctors failed him, the conventional advice from agencies like the USDA that make NO allowance for such common reactions failed him."  Please go to the link: