A few weeks ago I asked on Facebook and Twitter for your suggestions for those who are thinking about going gluten-free. Here are some of the suggestions you gave, with a few I’ve received from other sources:
Websites
Crazy Gluten Free Lady: I’m certainly going to keep an eye on this blog. The brand new blog from Samantha (her friends call her Sam) is collecting recipes and tips for someone who is not only gluten free but a migraineur. Elana’s Pantry: After her son and herself were diagnosed with celiac disease, Elana went not only gluten-free but grain-free. Her recipes are interspersed with practical tips and real-life stories. Gluten Free Girl and the Chef: Shauna is the gluten free girl, and Danny is the chef. Again, a great variety of resources here. the-gluten-free-chef.com: Carol also has coeliac disease (yes, there are two spellings). This easy-to-navigate site will get you started with quick, accessible information. The Celiac Diva: Lauren-Lucille is the Diva who runs this fun, colourful site which goes far beyond "don’t eat gluten". Lots of resources, videos, and answers to your questions. Udi’s Gluten Free: Udi’s is actually a company in the USA. Their online store features many quality gluten free foods. Real Sustenance: Brittany focuses on recipes that are gluten and dairy free. Great recipes and inspiring photos. Gluten Freely: Another online store in the US from General Mills, Inc. Again, only available in the United States. Easy to use, lots of gluten free products. Trader Joe’s: If you’re in the US and you like Trader Joe’s, you’ll appreciate this gluten free guide.
Actually, I’m not going to list every comment – check out our Facebook page for more. But I have to say the best advice came from Sarah Grizzard: Focus on what you can have instead of what you can’t.
Seriously, there’s so much great food out there. Just because your family and friends may be wheat-a-holics doesn’t mean you have to be. And if you try to go gluten free, you can be sure someone will say,"Oh no, that means you can’t eat __________!"
Let’s face it, even the picture on this post focuses on the negative (I’ll try not to do it again!).
Many people mentioned – keep it simple, stick to unprocessed, fresh foods – yes, that includes fruit and vegies.
Do you have resources and tips you would like to share? Now you have another chance! Leave a comment. 🙂
I love my buckwheat pillow. The most recent one I bought was from Buckwheat Pillow Canada. I even went out on a limb and bought their small travel neck pillow, and it’s fantastic!
Buckwheat Pillow Canada is having a special shipping sale in Canada until the end of this month, so I wanted to share this video from the Ottawa Citizen. I’ve used buckwheat pillows for years, but even I learned something!
Many migraineurs in the USA have expressed the desire to have a patient operated organization focusing on headache and migraine. Well – good news! The dream is becoming a reality!
The American Headache and Migraine Association (AHMA) has been created with the help of the American Headache Society (AHS) as a result of a vote on June 21st. The new organization will have a 10 member board, with 5 patients and 5 AHS members. Long time migraineur advocate and health writer Teri Robert will chair the board, and Dr. Paul Winner, chair of the ACHE (the American Headache Society Committee on Headache Education), will co-chair. It will be a part of ACHE.
This organization is all about patients connecting. More information will be coming soon, but in the meantime we know that a website is going to be up soon, and that you’ll be able to join at a very modest fee ($15 per year), and that the first conference is already planned!
That’s right – write it in red on your calendar (or perhaps a more migraineur-friendly color) – November the 17th 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona! This is actually at the end of the AHS Scottsdale Symposium, which means some of the country’s top specialists will be available to interact with – you!
Great news! Valerie DeLaune, author of Trigger Point Therapy for Headaches and Migraines, will be offering a free webinar on Tuesday, the 10th of July 2012. The topic is "Understanding Trigger Points".
We’ve talked about trigger points here before (see Trigger Points and headache – Fakery or Fact?. I’ve promised to talk about them some more – but it’s been 4 years, and some of you are losing hope!
So while you’re waiting, take in this great seminar and learn more about trigger points and how they impact your overall health.
If you’re a massage therapist or a another type of hands-on health professional, you’ll especially appreciate this seminar, which will help you better understand how to help your patients.
Here’s the official description of the event:
About 75% of the time, pain is caused by trigger points. Pain syndromes cannot be treated effectively without identifying and treating trigger points, since about 74% of trigger points are remote to where your patient feels symptoms. Trigger points usually refer pain in fairly consistent patterns, and you can use "pain guides" to figure out which muscles may potentially harbor trigger points causing pain and other symptoms.
Trigger points are caused and perpetuated by poor ergonomics, injuries, structural problems, and several medical conditions. Resolution of these perpetuating factors is crucial to relieving trigger points. Tips will be given for incorporating trigger point treatments into existing practices.
I really wanted to like the Ubiqi Health app for tracking your migraine attacks. Well actually, I do like it – really with only one exception. And for many users, that exception won’t matter. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
What is the Ubiqi Health Migraine Tracker?
The Ubiqi Health Migraine Tracker is an app for your iPod, iPhone, IPad, Android, Blackberry – well, for your various gadgets – to help you track your migraine attacks. But that’s not all.
The Ubiqi app helps you track things that may be triggering migraine attacks, and also the duration of your attacks, the frequency, and even what treatments work or don’t work.
For many years we’ve talked about the importance of keeping track of your migraine attacks, along with triggers and treatments when possible. Whether you do it electronically or on paper, it’s helpful for you and your health providers as you seek the best treatment.
This app is an excellent way to do that. If you’re a smart phone or iPod user, you’ve got your tracker right with you. You can also use it on your desktop, and even print out reports for a specific time period.
A closer look…
But let’s take a closer look at the app.
First, you’ll need to register. Of course, all your health information is totally private – this allows your information to be backed up so that you can access it in multiple locations and restore it to your app itself.
Then you’ll have the option to track a migraine episode, track potential triggers, or add a note.
The challenge with writing a review like this is that it’s easy to make it sound more complicated than it is. The beauty of this app is that it’s very easy to use.
When you enter a migraine episode, you simply enter the date and time (the app assumes the episode is happening now, but you can change the start and end of the attack any time), then you can also enter pain intensity, treatments, potential triggers and notes.
You can do this all very quickly because you can enter treatments and triggers ahead of time. For example, if your doctor prescribes Frova for your attacks, you can enter that into the app along with the dosage, and you’re good to go.
So usually all you have to do is tap, tap, tap and before you know it you’re done.
Obviously this is a book for migraineurs who don’t want to do anything during a severe attack!
However, during or after an attack you can add notes – which makes this app extremely flexible.
Now, you’ve been using it for a while – what can you do with the information?
You can quickly see all attacks on a calendar, or in a list with more detail. You can view it on your smart phone or online anywhere.
Then – and this is beautiful – you can get a report.
As you can see, you can get a spreadsheet, a pdf file, or a printable report that you can view right in your browser.
The report will show you a chart with dates and pain intensity, so you can see at a glance how you’ve been over that period. Then it will break it down into a table, so you can see what treatments worked or didn’t work, and what migraine triggers were most common.
Of course, you can print this and show it to your doctor – or even a spouse, or friend.
As you can see, this can be a powerful tool!
You’re no longer guessing – you can see at a glance exactly what has worked and what hasn’t.
So what’s the problem?
For some migraineurs, this app would be almost perfect (I hate to call anything 100% perfect!).
But for some – there’s something lacking. And actually, I think it could be implemented into the app, and I’d like to recommend it.
The problem is that the migraine attacks are broken up into "episodes" (fair enough), and these episodes have a level of pain intensity. But you can only choose one level.
(Side note: I prefer to record symptom or discomfort intensity, because migraine symptoms are more than just pain. Some people may find that recording pain is enough, but you can easily use the app to record your symptom level, or disability level. It’s just how you use it.)
The problem comes when an attack lasts for more than one day. The level of pain (or symptoms) may vary quite a bit over the course of a day or two days. That information can be very important.
And when you’re a chronic migraineur, you could possibly have longer bouts with pain – a week, or even constantly.
In this case, the varying level of pain/symptoms becomes a critical thing to record. And this is a key audience who would really appreciate this app.
Now you can work around this somewhat, by simply entering different episodes based on the level of pain. What you’ll do is enter separate episodes one after another. And it works fine, and you may choose to do it that way and have no problem.
But in my opinion it would be better to merge those into one "episode", or into one day, because otherwise it’s a little confusing trying to track the treatments and triggers – because now you may be taking one treatment for multiple episodes in one day, for example. (For constant migraine pain, for example, it might be nice to see morning, afternoon, and night, with different symptom levels, but all together day by day – rather than listing 3 completely separate episodes.)
One reviewer on the app store noticed the same thing from a different standpoint. If a migraine attack lasts for more than one day, there’s only a "dot" on the chart for the first day. Hey, some people would only get dot per year! 🙁
For some, this may make the app unusable. But for many, this won’t be an issue at all.
Still, I think that the designers of this app should be able to make the change to make this app perfect almost perfect for everyone. 😉
Summary
For many migraineurs, this will be just what you need to really take control of your treatment. That may seem like a strong statement, but simple tracking of our treatments, triggers and symptoms is the weakest link for many of us.
For most, it will simply be a matter of preference. Some prefer paper, others prefer to track using their favourite gadget. Whatever makes you actually do it – use that thing!
Thanks to Jacqueline Thong and her team at Ubiqi Health for putting together an easy to use – and still very useful – app.
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