Head Aches Bothering me...

[Seb V-G]

Hello everyone,

I've been a raw food eater for about half a year now(primal diet-type by Aajonus), and was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on a headache I've been having for the last 3 days. I did wake up in the night with a headache before, but this is the first time I've had the headache for 3 days straight. So, I was wondering if maybe
1) I'm not eating enough fat with the meat - how much is enough? I'm asking because I don't know what the symptoms are for the "rabbit starvation" thing I've heard about while searching the forums
2) I've recently started eating a plate of vegetables during the evening, which is the only difference I can think of... I don't see how that could be a cause though
3) When I don't have cream/butter I substitute with vegetable oils (olive, almond, etc.). Maybe Vegetable oil isn't the best (I didn't have cream/butter for a while now)? - I do use fish oil
4) Maybe the meat was contaminated during handling?

That's all I can think of right now, but if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated... I do think raw eating is the best way of eating (I also enjoy it because there's not much preparation needed), but if the meat I buy from the farmer's market is frequently contaminated I am thinking of eating cooked meats again. I am thinking of going cooked again because these headaches never happened before I started eating raw meat. Another thing that happens is getting a huge "blood rush" to my head (red face, ears, pulsing/thumping of head).

I exercise a lot and if it affects my activities (like this week), I will probably go back to eating cooked meat.

Thanks for any help,
Sebastien

[TylerDurden]

Forget the notion of contaminated meats. It is definitely not the cause. Try cutting out all vegetable oils and ALL raw dairy. Those, unlike raw meats, are often cited as problems by RVAFers due to issues re food-allergies etc. Cut out the fish oil unless it is high quality(ie raw) only raw fish oil I know of is either blue ice cod liver oil or kriaxanthin(?) krill oil.

1 last possibility:- people who first go raw usually encounter various detox-phases as they transition, with such detoxes getting reduced in terms of frequency, duration and severity until they disappear completely. For example, the first 3 days or so of going rawpalaeo, I had severe green diarrhea and had to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes at least, while awake. After cutting out all raw dairy from my diet, I had mild flu-like symptoms(eg:- fatigue, runny nose, hot forehead)  once every 2-4 months lasting from 2-7 days each time, which disappeared completely after  c.2-3 years.

[miles]

The only times I had any of these detox symptoms, were when I was detoxing directly from something I'd recently eaten. I got some issues when I first started, because I made bad choices such as eating out of date, frozen, sitting out at room temperature for hours smelly fish, and even that just gave me mild gas, a sub-optimal bowel movement and a temporarily smelly breath. I've also had diarrhoea, detoxing from acutely excessive fat consumption.

In the beginning, my first taste of raw meat was contaminated. Not contaminated with bacteria, but with intentionally added preservatives(which must be altered through cooking, so as to make them unnoticeable), as it was pre-packaged supermarket mince, what I'd previously been eating cooked daily. This gave me a headache after eating, which lasted for hours. However, I could taste this contamination when I ate it, and it burnt my throat and oesophagus.

[Seb V-G]

Thanks Tyler. I'll cut out the dairy for a couple of weeks, then re-introduce it to see if I get any problems after its re-introduction. It might also be the vegetable oil... I've just remembered that I didn't consume any until recently.

Cheese is something I will miss  , but that might be the cause since it might be heated too high (even if the guy said it was raw).

[TylerDurden]

Thanks Tyler. I'll cut out the dairy for a couple of weeks, then re-introduce it to see if I get any problems after its re-introduction. It might also be the vegetable oil... I've just remembered that I didn't consume any until recently.

Cheese is something I will miss  , but that might be the cause since it might be heated too high (even if the guy said it was raw).

It may even be a problem when raw.

[yuli]

Seb I had the exact same thing a coupla weeks ago or so, except my headache (which was fierce) was coupled with muscle pains (in neck and shoulders, do you have those too?) and stomach pain (not always/intermittent), it lasted about 3 days as well. I hardly ate anything during that time, drank lots of liquids and slept as much as I possible, when I wasn't sleeping I was relaxing, taking a walk or stretching and doing light yoga. The not eating, drinking liquids and sleeping seemed to help a lot, maybe that may help you too. After the pains passed I was more fine and dandy then ever, I am sure you will be too  

[Seb V-G]

Seb I had the exact same thing a coupla weeks ago or so, except my headache (which was fierce) was coupled with muscle pains (in neck and shoulders, do you have those too?) and stomach pain (not always/intermittent), it lasted about 3 days as well. I hardly ate anything during that time, drank lots of liquids and slept as much as I possible, when I wasn't sleeping I was relaxing, taking a walk or stretching and doing light yoga. The not eating, drinking liquids and sleeping seemed to help a lot, maybe that may help you too. After the pains passed I was more fine and dandy then ever, I am sure you will be too  

Nope, only the headache... I am getting better, though. I decided not to force myself on doing exercises today (like the past 2 days), and just taking it easier. Now it just hurts if I turn/bob my head kinda quickly.

Hopefully the third day it the last one

[yuli]

Now it just hurts if I turn/bob my head kinda quickly.

Yup I couldn't turn my head without pain either, it was horrible, I'd even get a headache if I stood up quickly, I reintroduced all the raw foods after the pain went away and had no problems since, not even the slightest pain anywhere...
Definitely don't do any exercise if you're dealing with this, your body is fine to be calm a few days without any exercise, well at least I don't get issues when not exercising, I can spend four days working on computer not doing much else, then start exercising after for a few days without issues. 

[MoonStalkeR]

On what part of the head were the pains located, Seb and Yuli?

[yuli]

All over but mostly back of the head, and pain connected to my back neck and upper back muscles and shoulder muscles. Besides that I never have pain in neck and back so I knew the headache was causing that tension too.

[MoonStalkeR]

I have chronic pain that sounds similiar. Especially in my vagus nerve where it runs up the back, through my neck, and around my head. The pain is most severe on the sides of my head with a painful pressure. Actions such as turning and standing up aggravate it. I feel intense pain and squeezing in my head when I stand up too.

[kurite]

Did all of you have this while on rpd?

[MoonStalkeR]

I have them now and when I was on rpd, although pain seemed to vary depending on food choices. In times of illness such as flu, it was extreme.

[yuli]

Yes it was while on raw RPD, however I doubt this was RPD caused...there was a bad flu going around then too, could have really been anything.

MoonStalker this thing was not chronic for me it was extremely acute, came on all of a sudden very fiercely and in 3 days, poof...it was gone...the pain happened not on the sides but mostly in the spot in the back of my head right where the middle of the back neck goes to, and it was coupled with really bad pain in the liver area (which surprised me because I never had liver pain)...I really think I had hepatitis A or a parasite infestation that my body had to deal with, and did.   ...I did actually poop out 2 small dead worms at that time, but they looked like the little fruit worms from my garden, where I ate a lot of fruits, LOL

[Seb V-G]

On what part of the head were the pains located, Seb and Yuli?

Mostly the side/front of the head.

[Seb V-G]

I will clean up my last thought of raw meat being the cause by saying that I have found the real cause (I'm 95% sure)... after a bit of researching.

What really caused my facial flushings/headache poundings was 2 week old tuna. I don't like to throw out food and it tasted like new since it was marinated in lemon juice, so I didn't think it would affect me ; however, I found out that the protein histidine in some fish gets converted to bioavailable histamine (inflammatory neurotransmitter) by enzymes from the flesh of fish/bacteria.

It clicked this morning because I did not feel like crap until I ate the fish to finish it once and for all, which was about 30 minutes after I woke up. The effect can be as quick as 10-15 minutes after ingestion, which was about the time when my head started to thump and my face turning red (I put my hoody low so I wouldn't get so many stares on campus today, hehe)

It also makes sense because I ate tuna with other meals during the days of the weekend to finish it as quick as possible... another reason to eat mostly mono-meals  You get to see what caused something if something happens. Also, these symptoms used to happen during the evenings in the past, which was the time I would eat tuna (not a hard on the teeth)... so there's another reason I'm pretty sure I've found the cause.

I wonder if consuming fish with histamine would quicken the detox when people get sick? It improves permeability to white blood cells since it's an inflammatory neurotransmitter? If anyone has any standards to test it with, keep me posted

Sorry for the rambling, but I just wanted to clean up the thread in case visitors came by and thought everyone gets sick by eating raw , or if anyone else gets the same problem.

Oh, and if visitors think you can stop the symptoms by cooking or something, it won't do anything.

[the PresiDenT]

All over but mostly back of the head, and pain connected to my back neck and upper back muscles and shoulder muscles. Besides that I never have pain in neck and back so I knew the headache was causing that tension too.

I have had a similar thing the last few days. very mild headache the top/back of my head. i traced it back to having some shitty food at a party and smalll amounts of goatcheese on a salad tthe next night. I find i really cant slip w food anymore or my body tells me :S