Headache is commonly the result of food or chemical susceptibility. A large proportion of head pains, including even the worst forms of migraine, are simply due to allergic reactions. There is no need for a person to suffer for years on end with persistent headaches when the cause of these disorders can often be identified and relieved by eliminating certain common substances from the environment.

The idea that specific foods could cause headache is not new. As early as 1905, the Australian medical pioneer, Dr. Francis Hare, reported that head pain could be the result of eating incompatible foods.1 This observation was not pursued at the time by the medical profession. In 1927, two prominent American allergists, Drs. Albert G. Rowe and Warren T. Vaughan, both published articles implicating specific foods as the cause of allergic headaches.2-3

My own first medical paper, published in August, 1935, dealt with the subject of “Allergy in Migraine-like Headaches.”4 In it, Dr. John M. Sheldon and I, both then associated with the University of Michigan Medical School, observed that two-thirds of the migraine patients at the University Hospital in Ann Arbor obtained relief of their headaches by eliminating various foods from their diet.

These results were certainly better than those achieved by conventional medicine. Today, however, even better results can be achieved through the diagnosis of chemical susceptibility and of some common food allergies, which had not then been identified.

Allergic headaches do not discriminate in the site they attack. Every conceivable kind of headache—bilateral, frontal, as well as those radiating into the nape of the neck or the jaws—has been identified and controlled on the basis of clinical ecology. Since certain physicians have promoted alleged “antiheadache diets,” it is important to emphasize again that there is no mass-applicable shortcut to controlling such painful syndromes. What affects one patient does not trouble the next. There is simply no substitute for working out one’s own food allergy picture, using the methods explained later in this book.

A patient is rarely aware of the environmental source of his illness. He may see no relation between eating and headache, since the effects can be delayed. Or he may know that his headache is somehow related to his food intake, but that intake is so complex and varied that uncovering the actual source may seem like an impossibility. Or he may know that a particular food relieves his headache pain, not realizing that it may also cause it and that the “relief” meal is nothing but his maintenance dose.

The physical manner in which allergies cause headache is not entirely known, nor is this information crucial to either patient or physician. One possible explanation is that allergic reactions often cause water retention, or edema. When bellies or ankles become bloated, this is discomforting and disfiguring. But when the brain swells, it pushes against the inflexible skull, and pain results.

This theory receives support from the observations of Dr. Bernard S. Zussman, of Memphis, Tennessee, who had an allergic patient with a hole in his skull from an earlier brain operation. Whenever this patient ate a food to which he was allergic, his brain would literally swell and expand slightly out of the hole. Perhaps patients who speak of feeling “soggy” or “water-logged” in their heads are being more scientifically accurate than they imagine.

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The modern era has sometimes been called the Age of Plastic. Indeed, it is difficult to avoid this almost ubiquitous synthetic material. The threat of indoor air pollution from plastics comes mainly from the “plasticizers” added to make such substances soft, flexible, or resilient. As a general rule, the more easily you can bend a plastic, the more potentially dangerous it is to your health. Another way to sense danger is with your nose: the more odorous the plastic, the more these plasticizers are slipping into the environment.

Hard plastics, such as the older Bakelite and Formica, are, accordingly, rarely incriminated as the cause of chronic illness. The worst offenders are soft materials, such as the plastic used in pillow and mattress cases, upholstery materials, shoes and handbags, and so forth. Naugahyde has been particularly troublesome for some patients. Plastic brushes, combs, powder cases, shoes, and other articles of clothing also occasionally become the source of chronic health problems in patients.

Flexible plastics used in the storage of refrigerated food are particularly menacing. One young child was brought to me for skin problems. It turned out that his mother was a salesperson for a well-known brand of plastic containers. She was shocked when I blamed this product for contributing to her son’s skin problems. Elimination of the plastic containers, however, brought a dramatic improvement in his rash, and this woman soon sought another line of work.

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Home care

Home treatment of eczema is often successful, except in severe or infected cases.

First stop any new foods, beverages, and medications that were added to the child’s diet within a month of the appearance of the rash.

If stopping these new items does not improve the rash in four to seven days in a child under one year, stop all foods and beverages most likely to cause eczema. Look for and remove possible irritating substances coming in contact with the child’s skin.

Ointments that contain coal-tar derivatives are safe to use, but their use can obscure the physician’s initial evaluation of the condition. To avoid further drying of the skin, use a humidifier to moisten dry air. Bathe the child sparingly, using mild dermatologic soaps.

If following this procedure clears up the eczema, try gradually returning the stopped foods to the child’s diet – one at a time. Reintroducing one food each week should help detect the foods that cause a reaction. Those foods should then be avoided. If the condition is not better in one week, see your doctor.

Precautions

• As new foods are added to your infant’s diet, watch carefully for any sign of rash.

• If your infant is allergic to soy formula as well as cow’s milk, your doctor will recommend a non-soy, non-milk formula.

• Coal-tar ointments increase sensitivity to sunburn. When using these ointments, keep the child out of the sun as much as possible.

Medical treatment

Help your doctor find the cause of eczema by trying home treatment first and noting what doesn’t work and what seems to help. Inform your doctor, too, of any similar cases that have occurred in your older children. Your doctor may prescribe steroid creams, ointments, or lotions to ease the rash. Oral steroids will not be prescribed unless eczema is severe, and then they will be given for only a brief period. Oral antibiotics may be prescribed if eczema is infected.

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