My Chronic Headaches

{Disclaimer; this story is intended for entertainment purposes only and in no way intended to diagnose or to make recommendations for other people's medical conditions}

Forward

The purpose of this story is to share my experiences and frustrations with the pharmaceutical and medical community. And to express my viewpoint that the medical industry needs to rethink itself and start over. I believe that the medical community is responsible for far more deaths and illnesses, than any holistic or homeopathic method. I believe that holistic and homeopathic medicine could be incorporated into the medical industry today but because there is no profit in it, they never will. I believe that obesity and many other major illnesses could be cured by simply changing a person's lifestyle.

Growing up in a small rural community in Nevada I was always taught to be independent and resourceful. I was always taught to question everything and never take anything for face value. My experience with a medical community that was reluctant to give me straight answers or had no answers at all, was beyond frustrating. It has led me to alternative medicines and homeopathic remedies but moreover it has made me a nonuser of modern medicine. It has made me more responsible for my own health as I know my own body better than any doctor ever possibly could. It has always come down to one question when I talked to doctors," does this cure my problem? Does this pill cure my problem?" I either got no answer at all or just a flat no and that did not seem right. The hypocritical oath that they took to do no harm now seemed to be just that, a hypocrite’s oath! We live in a world where we blindly give trust to a medical practitioner. No one ever walks into a doctor's office and asks the doctor what kind of grades they got while they were in school. Yet that very same doctor may have obtained his license with only mediocre grades in school and the average person still treats that doctor as if he were a straight A student. After reading this story it is my hope that you will come away with two things, a desire to ask more questions when visiting a medical practitioner and a curiosity that will entice you to learn more on your own.

My Headaches

By

 Dale Candee

In 2011 after working for Amazon.com for more than 11 years, I began experiencing debilitating headaches and facial swelling. My temples would swell so much that my eyeglasses would cut into my face. Some of the headaches seemed like migraines while still other headaches seem to be related to a sinus infection. Some of the headaches seemed to be triggered by changes in the weather. While still others made me sensitive to light and loud sounds and caused body cramps in the hands and feet. The headaches increased with intensity and duration until I was having headaches 24 hours a day, seven days a week and curled up in a dark bedroom. Taking narcotics that were as debilitating as the headaches themselves, I found myself completely helpless.

Doctors began a regiment of pain pills, muscle relaxants and antibiotics. I was referred to seven different specialists, by four different doctors. I saw general practitioners, ENT(ear nose and throat specialist), chiropractic, arthritic specialists, neurologists, homeopathic, yoga, meditation and acupuncturist. I received MRIs, CAT scans, x-rays, a spinal tap, sinus surgery and over 30 different drugs, some of which the side effects were worse the migraines.

After sinus surgery I was told I was still dealing with an infection. I was told at this point I would have to take Claritin-D for the rest of my life and that I should have a third sinus surgery. Several months later I was told by a pharmacist that I should not take Claritin-D on a regular basis. That it could cause rebound symptoms .That the body can becomes addicted to a drug. That if the body doesn't get the drug, it will simulate the illness in order to trick you into taking more of the drug. Much like painkillers can cause rebound headaches.

Doctors began using me like a guinea pig, asking me to try different drugs to see if they would help. The use of narcotics, debilitated me to the point of not being able to work. I asked about other symptoms that might be related to the headaches and was promptly told that we needed to focus on one problem at a time. I asked about the facial swelling which was more than apparent but doctors did not seem to know what to make of it. One specialist recommended testing for the disease called Giant Cell Arteritis but the only way to test for it was to remove veins in my temple, an irreversible surgery. These Doctors refused to take into account other ailments that might be related. They acted as if they were confused when asked about other symptoms such as hands and feet cramping. I repeatedly asked about nutritionists, allergist and homeopathic remedies, but was always told" you are free to try anything you like but it will be a waste of money and time." I was never referred to any of them until my insurance was about to run out. The allergist could not find any conclusive allergies. The nutritionist would not talk to me unless I was referred to them by a doctor. And the homeopathic doctor tried everything from injecting novocaine into my head, to coffee enemas. I ended up paying thousands of dollars for treatments that never worked and were not covered by insurance. I was told by doctors that I needed to go to the Mayo Clinic, but with no guarantee that I would find an answer different than I already had. After I ran out of insurance, the doctors refused to see me and Amazon.com terminated my employment because I did not have the money to continue seeing the doctors.

At this point I became desperate and began trying alternative medicine, such as homeopathic doctors, acupuncturist, Arovedic doctors and wild home remedies. I spent days on the Internet searching for answers but only finding more questions. I did find a baking soda cure for my sinuses, which seemed to help with the other ailments as well. The recipe calls for a regiment of baking soda and water for three days, the recipe of which can be found on the Internet. I also found that using a Neti pot or saline sinus douche on a regular basis solved most of my sinus problems. Make sure to use distilled or bottled water, as tap water can contain contaminants and chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride. Also make sure to use a salt made for sinus douching as regular table salt can burn and make the problem worse.

For several months I tried using a chiropractor, thinking that something may be misaligned. I had been told by friends that they knew people who had got relief from having their Atlas or spine adjusted.  Although after several treatments my body was feeling pretty good, my headaches did not seem to subside much.

The acupuncturist gave some relief but treatments only seemed to last a couple of days. The treatment ranged from needles, to cupping (heated glass jars used to suck toxins out of the body) to herbal treatments and vitamin supplements. She asked if I was drinking enough water and my response was several 16 ounce bottles every day. I was drinking the government daily recommended amount of water.  She went on to say that I needed to drink plenty of water with the vitamin supplements and that my body appeared to be dehydrated. While working for Amazon.com, I was reluctant to drink any large amounts of water. Going to the bathroom meant that your R.E. could drop and as a result get pointed for not working fast enough. After talking to the acupuncturist I once again begin to think supplements and water had something to do with my headaches.

This is from the method called cupping which is supposed to remove toxins from the body.

 The homeopathic doctor although he seemed unorthodox, did help some with vitamin supplements. The 50 injections of novocaine into my scalp seem to be stupid when he asked if I felt my headache anymore. I later learned that some headaches are the result of tension in the skull and that the novocaine was intended to relax those muscles. He prescribed coffee colonic enemas at least once or twice a week. I was dumbfounded as to how an enema was going to fix my headache. He laughed at me and said," You would be surprised how many people use colonics on a regular basis." And then said," Mormons may not drink coffee but there is a lot of them using this method to help with their health." As I was desperate to try anything, I went ahead and tried it. To my surprise, the colonic stimulated the liver and kidneys to flush a lot of toxins from the body. In addition, my sinuses immediately flushed themselves. I found increased energy and stamina for a couple of days after a colonic. Now when I find myself coming down with another headache, I find that a colonic will help diminish the severity of the headache. He asked if I was drinking enough water and what vitamins or supplements that I was taking. He prescribed major doses of various supplements and vitamins. It was at this point that I began to suspect that a lack of vitamins and minerals may have something to do with the headaches. Unfortunately I was never able to find the right combination and was looking for a cure rather than a short term solution.

The Arovedic doctor was of more help as I began to understand that my lifestyle may have something to do with it. It's not to say that my lifestyle was any different than the majority of the people that live in this country. Other than having a debilitating migraine that would last for several, I considered my life to be average. I drank an occasional glass of wine, drank several bottles of water every day, and ate a balanced diet, avoided red meat and sugar. Which when you look at it, my lifestyle was actually better than average. The one thing I did notice about the Arovedic doctor is that he spent a lot of time asking what I ate, how I felt, was anything stressing me, how was my home life, and what was my work like, what was my marriage like. For an American doctor to spend 20 or 30 min. asking you about your life would be unheard of. But as he explained, stress is a big factor in many ailments and whether we are happy or not plays a big role in whether or not we are healthy. The Arovedic doctor did do one thing that no western doctor has ever done for me. He asked me about all my symptoms, about every little ache and pain that I had. He did not discount anything that was going on, unlike many western doctors that can't seem to handle more than one symptom at a time. When I told him about cramping in my hands and feet, he seemed very interested. He did not tell me that we need to focus on one problem at a time. He told me that the body is a connected organism. That what affects one part of the body can and usually does affect another part. He told me that everything is connected. That the things we put into our body are as important as the things outside the body. The things outside the body can have an immense effect on how the body functions. Western doctors talk about how stress is the number one cause of illness in this country today. But because they cannot manufacture a pill or perform surgery on it, they do little or nothing to help their patients with the problem. One of the things that the Arovedic doctor prescribed to me, was go fly a kite and not watch the news. That each day I should spend at least an hour doing what makes me happy and not think about any of the problems that I may have. He was the last doctor I saw, two years ago and have been on my own ever since. I have not even seen a dentist since that time. But if I ever need a doctor again, the Arovedic doctor would be my first and only choice.

A past doctor prescribed pain pills for the numbness in my fingers and toes only to find out from the Internet that it was a vitamin B deficiency. The vitamin B deficiency was caused by the same doctor giving me a prescription strength antacid for my stomach. Another doctor twisted my arm after a fall to prove that my elbow was not broken. He said," If it was broken, I would have been in a lot more pain." Not once did he ask if I had a high pain threshold. Two years later while showing my kids how to skateboard, I fell and hit my elbow again. This time an x-ray was done, and the doctor exclaimed," You have broken this elbow before haven't you." Still another doctor prescribed an antidepressant. When the antidepressant did not work he said," You just need to get over it." He never asked what vitamins or supplements that I might be taking at home. I later learned through Internet research that the St. John's wort I was taking counteracts any and all medications, including antidepressants. In one case, my daughter stepped on a nail. I took her to the emergency room and paid $300 to watch a doctor wash her foot with soap and water and then send her home. In my lifetime I've seen a lot of doctors and yet I would not refer anyone to any of them. Working with computers most of my life, I know that if you put garbage in a computer, you get garbage out. Doctors are much the same way, in that they only know what they have been taught. The problem is they were educated by a medical education system that is flawed and corrupted by pharmaceuticals and insurance companies. Even after they start their medical practice their decisions are constantly influenced by pharmaceuticals offering incentives and insurance companies limiting what they will pay for. Most do not know anything about nutrition or preventative medicine and treat the human body the same as a mechanic treats a broken car. If it is not completely broken they usually cannot find the problem. They tell you nothing about what you can do for yourself to maintain or fix the car. And will only talk to you if you have money or insurance in hand.

My wife in her frustration with me being sick all the time would accuse me of creating the headaches myself. She would say that they were psychologically created from the stress of working at Amazon.com. That I wanted out of my job so badly, that the universe and my body conspired to create an illness that would grant my wish. At times I couldn't help but wonder if she was not right.  So I started using meditation, which helped with a lot of things, but not the headaches. The one type of meditation that I did find of use is a body survey meditation. It is a relaxing meditation in which we take note of all the little aches and pains in every part of the body. While in meditation we begin at the feet and we make note of how our feet feel and then we work our way up body. And we make a mental note of how each part of the body is feeling. Afterward we can then treat each part according to its need. If a muscle feels stiff we would then use yoga to release that tension. In studying the ability of the brain to heal the body, I found many accounts of miraculous self-healing. Everything from cancer to infectious diseases had stories of people somehow healing themselves. I read stories of people taking sugar pills that had the same effect as prescription drugs, because they believed it was the real thing. There were stories of people healing themselves with positive thinking and people laughing themselves well. But I could not find in myself the ability to just simply think myself well. I could not wrap my mind around the possibility that I had caused the illness myself. Even witnessing my wife heal her seizures with positive thinking, did not convince me that I had the same ability.

Grandma Jackson

I remember my grandmother having such headaches and then later learning that she was taking pain pills from three different doctors. Her family even went as far as accusing her of having the headaches in order to get out of doing things she did not want to do. Once again because the illness is not outwardly apparent we tend to accuse people of making up their illness. Unfortunately the pain is far too real and one of the illnesses least understood by medicine. I couldn't help but think how frustrated she must've been and how desperate she had to be in order to take that many pain pills. It wasn't discovered until later that she was taking so many pain pills she was on the verge of overdosing. Years later I read about the concept of rebound headaches. And wondered if the very pills she was taking for her headaches were not the cause of the problem she was trying to get rid of. And that the doctor, who first prescribed the pain pills to my grandmother, was actually responsible for causing the headaches in the first place? One of my doctors told me that it could be genetics, and that it might simply be something that I have to learn to deal with. In a recent medical article, I read that genes have the ability of changing. Thinking about my grandmother and how alone she must've felt, I thought to myself," No matter what, I am not going down the same the road. "

Over the years I have studied and used more and more homeopathic and alternative medicine. I now rely solely on homeopathic methods and alternative medicines. It began with my grandparents showing me how to bandage and care for wounds. How to put mud packs on bee and ant stings, to more modern things like using superglue to close minor cuts, and how Ginger cures motion sickness. But my migraines were getting the best of me, as there is little information as to the cause of headaches. In addition most remedies rely on the use of prescription drugs most of which are narcotic. The other problem I was having was that I was having more than one type of headache, with multiple symptoms. Oils and ointments such as peppermint oil and lavender oil helped with minor headaches. The herb Feverfew worked with some of my migraines, and coffee colonics worked with still others. I tried using the remedies in combination, but in the end it always seemed like I was waiting for my body to heal itself.

Using the meditation to focus on what might be causing my headaches, pointed me in one direction. What was the right question? So I started at the very beginning. You have a living organism that is mostly composed of water. You have a brain that is essentially, a drug and chemical factory. The body takes in food which it converts to energy. The brain also uses these nutrients to produce peptides, hormones and other chemicals used in the body. The body expels waste products and toxins through the skin and bowels. It’s kidneys use water to filter out toxins and so on. Now, imagine you're on another planet and you meet this creature that you want to take home. What do you think this creature would need to survive the trip home and how many potty breaks would it need? It would need water; but would just any water work? What types of food would be the best to feed it? These and many other questions clearly pointed to my lifestyle. Although it was a good lifestyle compared to most, it was clearly not the best. I had the tendency to think of soda and coffee as a substitute for water. I thought if I eliminated red meat and ate more chicken and fish that things would be okay. Little did I realize that this was only a small part of what I needed to be worried about.

Exercise and physical activity

Exercise and physical activity is key to any health issue. The body uses movement to help move fluids throughout the body. Yoga and tai chi along with other low impact exercise have been of great help to me. One of the moves in yoga is referred to as downward dog. With your hands and feet on the ground this move puts the head in a downward position. It helps to drain the sinuses, move fluids and is a very helpful position for some headaches. With so many of us in passive jobs it is important that we get up and move and exercise every day. One exercise that I perform is called 100 marbles and it is a simple exercise of dropping 100 marbles on the floor and then picking them up one by one. The up-and-down movement increases the heart rate and strengthens the back and stretches muscles. Another activity that I do is called" pulling weeds" in the garden. Although most people would not consider this exercise, I cannot help wonder if this is one of the reasons my ancestors were so much healthier. In addition to growing healthy food they were also much more active as a result of having to take care of their garden. The one interesting thing about exercise and physical activity is that I have never heard of a doctor say that it was a bad thing. At the same time I have yet to have a medical practitioner recommend physical activity as a way of getting rid of headaches.

Water

As a kid growing up in Fallon Nevada we always drank from our well water. The water tasted good and it tested as being good drinking water. City water always tasted of chlorine bleach, and I always hated going out to restaurants because sometimes the chlorine was so strong you could smell it. Now I always had a question about city water that no one seemed to have a good answer to. Why would you put chlorine and fluoride in the water that you drink? Would you drink straight chlorine bleach or fluoride? And what does chlorine and fluoride do inside your body? I've been told that the chlorine is added to kill bacteria and that the fluoride is added to help prevent tooth decay. I understand the chlorine but why does it have to be there all the time? And what does chlorinated water do to the good bacteria in your digestive tract? I have also learned that there are other safer methods of purifying water. The fluoride doesn't make much sense either. I have not been drinking fluoridated water all my life and neither have any of my friends. I stopped using fluoride toothpaste three years ago when my headaches started, as I thought it might be a plausible cause. A year after I stopped smoking and reduced my sugar intake to as low as possible, I still have no cavities. I also learned that even though sugar can be used as a preservative in foods, that in the body it actually helps bacterial infections grow. I have reduced my sinus infections dramatically by eliminating this one thing from my diet. So if I can go three years without a cavity, why do they need to add fluoride to anything?

When bottled water came on the scene people scoffed at it saying," why would I want to pay for something that I can get out of my water tap for free?" For years anyone trying to sell bottled water struggled to make a living selling bottled water. It was not until a city construction crew accidentally broke a water line and with the scare of contamination forced people to buy bottled water. It was interesting to note that the city claimed they didn't know the water line was there. It was also noted that one of the city fathers was related to one of the major bottled water suppliers. Although no one could prove anything, the damage had already been done. People that normally would not have bought bottled water were now lining up to buy bottled water.

Years ago when reverse osmosis first came out for purifying well water, an interesting thing happened. Plumbers would install the system on the entire house, and five years later would have to replace the copper pipes that the water eat holes in. This is why reverse osmosis water is called starving water. Like distilled water, reverse osmosis water has no minerals in it. Drinking distilled or reverse osmosis water for long periods of time will result in the water leaching minerals out of the body. The bones literally have calcium leached out of them along with any other minerals the water can attach to. But if the water is Spring water that has a lot of minerals already in it, it does the opposite by adding minerals to the body. The old stories of a fountain of youth may have been literal. That upon drinking the right water in large amounts could reverse aging, cure illness and extend the longevity of one's life. In the modern age that we live in today, finding and drinking the right kind of water is as much a problem as finding the fountain of youth. Purchasing refillable bottle water sounded like a good idea until I realized that it was reverse osmosis water. Most bottled water is filtered and sterilized leaving it devoid of any nutrients that are needed by the body. In addition, chemicals can leach from the plastic bottle into the water, especially when exposed to sunlight and heat. Labels on packaging can be deceiving, as Springwater does not necessarily denote that it came from a spring. What is even more disturbing than anything else is that there does not seem to be any safe sources of water left on earth. As a result the only alternative I was left with was to drink distilled or reverse osmosis and increase my intake of minerals and vitamins. As I did further research, I became more aware that our civilization was being poisoned either intentionally or unintentionally. The springs that I once drank from when I was a child are now unsafe to drink from. The free ranges of cattle and sheep have contaminated most streams with parasites and toxins. A report came out several years ago about children in Europe that were testing positive for Viagra, steroids and other drugs. Authorities were in shock to find that the source of the drugs was the very drinking water in the schools. It was later learned that the water treatment plant was not designed to filter out such drugs. When a person takes a drug it does not stay in the body and it is urinated out into the sewage system. These drugs then find their way into the environment and water supply. Engineers have told me that there is no cost effective man-made water treatment system in the world that can filter out these drugs. In addition since these tests were run 15 years ago no additional tests have been done in the United States or elsewhere. Their solution to the problem seems to be ignoring it and maybe it will go away. The biggest problem that I see is that as a human species we are arrogant and disconnected. And until we realize that we are part of our own environment and that everything we do in our environment affects everyone else, we will continue to poison ourselves into extinction.

I have begun a Regiment of drinking 1 to 2 liters of room temperature water in the morning before I eat or drink anything else. I use room temperature water so as not to drop my body temperature or kill the fire. Your Agni or digestive fire is one of the more important body functions. It is not only responsible for digesting your food but also for digesting life itself. So it is important that while you are drinking water you do not extinguish your digestive fire. I may drink as much as 6 liters of water or more throughout the day but as I do so I pay close attention to how I feel and I do not attempt to drink it all at once. I make sure that at some point during the day that I take additional multivitamins and minerals to offset the starving water. The body will use this water to lubricate joints, expel toxins and to move energy throughout the body. Think of it this way, if you want to clean your clothing, you don't clean them by adding more dirt, you add more water and soap to get them clean. Drinking Water and eating antioxidants acts the same way in the body. Toxins and oxidants are the main cause of aging and illness. If your skin is dry and wrinkled and not very resilient it is most likely because you are dehydrated. If you are dealing with constipation you're most likely dehydrated. If you're urine is yellow you're not drinking enough water. If you have a urinary tract infection the first thing the doctor will ask you is" are you drinking enough water?" The body is an amazing self-regulating, self-repairing organism and if you give it the right amount of water and nutrients it will take care of itself. If you take too much vitamin C, the body will expel the excess through your urine. Too much sugar in the body and it will try to expel the excess. But if you're not drinking enough water, the body has no choice but to retain it or convert it into something else. In the case of sugar, the body converts it to fat. The body also decides what to store based on how you feel. The body will increase your appetite and begin to store food and sugars as fat if you are stressed or fearful. If you are happy and getting enough sleep, the body burns fat at a higher rate. Keep in mind that there are other factors also involved such as oxygen intake, physical activity, body type and environmental factors. All of which contribute to how quickly and how efficiently energy is moved or stored in your body. But you should always remember that your body cannot move anything without water.

Energy drinks that have been the latest rage are also probably one of the most dangerous drinks that you can drink. The caffeine and other ingredients may give you a short boost but the sugar and the following crash the next day have to make you wonder whether it's worth it. Caffeine is added to the drink mainly to open up the capillary veins so that the B vitamins can be more readily absorbed. To this day FDA and the medical community have done no studies on excessive use or long-term effects of this drink. Yet I have seen people drinking two or three of these drinks in a single day. Flavored drinks, energy drinks and sodas are not a substitute for water. Drinking a full liter of water in the morning before you eat or drink anything else will give you the same effect as drinking an energy drink. Keep it in mind the body does not separate out the water cup of coffee and then use it to cleanse the body. That would be a little bit like using sewer water to clean your clothes, with the idea that it contained water, therefore it should clean your clothing just as well as plain water.

Vitamins and supplements

Although I'm not an expert in the use of vitamins and supplements I have found them to be of use along with the addition of herbal supplements. As I said before I use a vitamin and mineral supplement to offset the lack of vitamins and minerals in the water I drink. I also use herbal supplements in place of prescription drugs. I have found the use of feverfew to be very helpful without the side effects that I was getting from prescription drugs. With that said I still treat these herbal remedies with the same respect as prescription drugs and I do extensive research on the supplement before I begin taking them. Herbal supplements can have similar interactions as prescription drugs. In addition although these may be herbal drugs they can be just as dangerous, the possibility of overdose and interactions with other things that I'm taking are always taken into consideration. St. John's wort is one of those herbs that should be used with extreme caution. Used by itself it is a good antidepressant but will counteract any other medication or herb that you are taking. It is currently under study by toxicologists for the possible use of helping patients with poisonings and overdosing. Fish oils and omega-3 oils are a supplement that I also take and which has helped some with the frequency of the headaches. Vitamin D3 is a good supplement for depression as well as other ailments. There are volumes and volumes of books written on the subject of herbal, vitamin and mineral supplements. I recommend that you take advantage of several of these books in addition to the Internet in order to determine a consensus of the proper use of the supplements.

Food

In this day and age, food is as important as water but how you eat is as important as what you eat. From the time of day that you eat, to how long you chew your food, and whether you eat in front of the TV, can determine how healthy you are.

If the largest meal of your day is your dinner and you eat late in the evening, you are more likely to be obese and to have digestive problems. This is because food eaten late in the evening stays in the stomach longer than normal. If you go to bed with an hour or two of having eaten food, the food digests in the upper part of the stomach causing ulcers or acid reflux. It also takes longer for the stomach to digest the food and as a result ends up storing the food as fat, as the body has no need for extra food while it sleeps. It should also be noted that your digestive system is designed to use gravity as a way of moving food through the digestive system. If you're lying down the body can't use gravity and the food usually remains in the system until the morning. You should not eat food within four hours of going to sleep or laying down. In addition eating small portions throughout the day works better and is easier for the body to digest small portions rather than large portions. Your largest meal of the day should be breakfast or lunch as this will give your body time to digest the food before going to sleep.

Eating in front of the TV is probably one of the worst things you can do. It creates what is referred to as mindless eating. If you have eaten in front of your TV for any length of time, you've created a habit of eating whenever the TV is on. Your subconscious mind is in control now and you are not eating because you are hungry, you're eating out of habit. Habits are anything that you do and cannot control. It is a hardwiring of the brain and takes 21 days of not doing the habit to break such habits, or replacing the old habit with a new habit which you hope is better than the old one. In addition if you are eating while the news is on, you are adding negative energy to what you are eating. You have to understand that the body does not simply consume food and water. The skin absorbs whatever it comes in contact with and our lungs take in more than just air. The body also absorbs negative energy which stresses the body and causes the body to store fat.

In a day and age when food is filled with chemicals, irradiated, sprayed with pesticides, filled with steroids and genetically engineered, it’s no wonder we don't know what is safe to eat. As a matter of fact the United States is the only country that does not require food manufacturers to label GMO”s (genetically manipulated organisms ) as such.

Animals raised for meat production can contain steroids, antibiotics and other toxins. Most meats are processed in large factories where they can be exposed to bacteria such as salmonella. This is not to say that home raised meat is any safer. Animals are constantly exposed to parasites and diseases. As such some animals are treated with antibiotics on a regular basis, creating super strains of viruses and bacteria. Even hobby farmers struggle to find feed that has not been treated with antibiotics. Farmers are faced with either raising their own feed or paying exorbitant prices for feed that doesn't have chemicals and drugs in it. Grass fed or free range animals are best. These are animals that are allowed to wonder in a large pasture. The animals are moved on a regular basis, which allows the land to restore itself and keeps bacteria and parasites to a minimum One thing to keep in mind is that we have been told a lie. Animal meat is not bad for us as long as we keep it to moderate amounts. A yogi master will tell you that you should consume no more than a palm size piece of meat per week. The main source of protein should come from vegetables such as beans and lentils. This is for two reasons: one vegetable protein is easier to digest, and two vegetable proteins are not likely to be contaminated with steroids and other chemicals. The other lie about meat is that fat is bad for you. The truth is there are good fats and there are bad fats. The fact is your body needs a certain amount of good fat every day just to function. Your brain and other organs rely heavily on fatty acids just to function. You should also know that a person who does not eat fat can die from starvation. I have read old news clippings relating stories of how people starve to death trying to subsist on just rabbit meat. Also if you starve yourself of fats the body will try to make up for it by eating sugars and other foods that are bad for you.

Processed meat such as sausage and bacon can contain nitrates which are used to add flavor and shelf life. I have found that nitrates are one of the triggers for my headaches, as well as monosodium glutamate. Only through a process of trial and error did I discover that these foods were causing problems. Keeping a food journal is extremely important when trying to decipher if foods are the cause of your headaches. Strangely enough these triggers did not come up in allergy test, which goes to show that not all headache triggers are allergy related. Tomatoes, potatoes and coffee are also problem foods for me. They cause joint pain and inflammation of the joints as well as headaches. My mother suffered from arthritis for many years. It wasn't until she stopped drinking coffee that she found relief. Coffee can act as a diuretic and many people who stop drinking coffee not only get headaches but also get constipated. Coffee falls into the category of a body and brain dehydrator along with alcohol. They cause the body to expel large amounts of water, trying to remove what the body considers to be a toxin or a stimulant. Although each works in a different way the result is still the same. A hangover from drinking too much is in actuality the result of being dehydrated. This is why people who drink large amounts of water with their alcohol seldom get hangovers.

I have found that eating coconut oil in my oatmeal and with other foods is a good source of fat for the brain. My headaches do not come about as frequently when I eat coconut oil on a regular basis. A tablespoon in my oatmeal is usually all it takes. I also eat eggs on a regular basis at least two or three times a week, despite being told I have high cholesterol. I do not give much credence to doctors who base this on FDA recommended levels. These levels were based on recommendations by doctors who worked for pharmaceuticals that make statins and other drugs to control cholesterol levels. They lobbied for acceptable levels to be lowered so more people could be put on their drugs.

At one point I had a doctor prescribing statins to lower my cholesterol and another doctor prescribing testosterone which raised my cholesterol. Both doctors were aware of the others prescription and at one point they were raising the amount I was taking every month like a couple of poker players doubling down. They did not seem to care about my health and were more interested in selling a prescription drug. The statins side effects caused extreme back pain and headaches. Statins are also known to cause memory loss when they leach into the brain and may be the leading cause of Alzheimer’s.

Additives such as aspartame are notorious for not only causing headaches and joint inflammation but also numerous other ailments as well. I have found that if I drink flavored water with aspartame in it, I get excessive joint pain. Anything that is sugarless or low sugar should be approached with caution, as it may contain one of these sugar substitutes. Studies also show that sugar substitutes can be 100 to 1000 times sweeter than sugar. This can cause the body to think that it's getting an excessive amount of sugar and the over stimulation can cause the body to become addicted to the sensation. If the body thinks it's getting more sugar than it can use, it immediately begins trying to store the excess as fat. This is why drinking diet sodas does not help you lose weight. My mother who is diabetic found out the hard way that sugar substitutes can cause blood sugar spikes. This is very strange, as doctors are still recommending sugar free products as a way of fighting or managing diabetes. High fructose corn syrup is also another product that should be avoided. Corn producers spent millions of dollars on advertising try to convince people that this product was safe to use. But did the FDA or any doctors or medical practitioners ever come out and say different?

Saccharin was proven to be a carcinogen and yet we still see it in restaurants on the dining tables in the United States. Even with safer substitutes this product is still being made even though the manufacturer knows it causes cancer and is band in many other countries. Read the label is all you have to do in order to wonder why our medical community has done nothing to stop the use of this product. They will spend billions of dollars filing lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers before they ever file one single lawsuit against the manufacturer of saccharin,why?

Excessive intake of salts can cause the body to retain water and inflame the joints. Although it is used as a preservative and a flavoring it should be remembered to be used in moderation. It is one of those products that you cannot live without but at the same time can kill you if taken in excess.

I could go on and on about all the bad additives that are in foods but the main thing that you should come away with is, your body is only as good as what you put in it. Raw foods that have no additives and have not been cooked are the best foods. They are the easiest for the body to digest and contain the most vitamins and minerals. Drink pure water whenever possible and avoid flavored drinks. Take vitamin and mineral supplements on a regular basis to make up for what is lacking in your diet. Do an exercise or extracurricular activity such as sports every week. Many of the vitamins that our body needs can only be produced if we spend time outside being active. Remember, the body wants to heal itself but can only do so if given the right tools.

To this date I still have not cured all of my headaches but it is hoped that by sharing this story I will eventually find the answer to my questions. And that other people will be inspired to share their stories and their quest for answers.