Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain

by David Buchholz, Stephen G. Reich (Foreword)

A three-step program that puts headache sufferers back in control of their lives.

“A must read for all individuals with migraine!”—Ronald J. Tusa, M.D., PH.D., Professor of Neurology and Otolaryngology, Dizziness and Balance Center, Emory University

Based on the breakthrough understanding that virtually all headaches are forms of migraine—because migraine is not a specific type of headache, but the built-in mechanism that causes headaches of all kinds, along with neck stiffness, sinus congestion, dizziness, and other problems—Dr. Buchholz’s Heal Your Headache offers a simple, transforming program.

Step 1: Avoid the “Quick Fix.” Too often painkillers only make matters worse because of the crippling complication known as rebound.
Step 2 : Reduce your triggers. The crux of the program: a migraine diet that eliminate the foods that push headache sufferers over the top.
Step 3: Raise your threshold. When diet and other lifestyle changes aren’t enough, preventive medication can help stay the course.

That’s it. In three steps, you can turn your headache problems around.

Includes answers to questions like: This title was updated in November 2021 to reflect the latest medical advice.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Self Help, Medical, Science, Reference, Medicine

246 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2002

Reviews

[Carrie Poppy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book might have been persuasive if it hadn’t been overshadowed by the strangely unscientific attitude the author (a doctor from Johns Hopkins!) has. He says even if experiments showed that his migraine-reduction method didn’t work, he would still believe in it. That’s the opposite of science.

He also thinks basically every complaint is secretly “migraine,” from MS to chronic fatigue syndrome to sinus infections. It seems a bit overkill.

In any case, it was helpful to read his list of potential triggers, and gain some improved understanding about various pain-mitigating options. It’s also a swift read. You can finish it in a day or two, especially if you skip short parts that don’t apply to you. For example, there was a lot of stuff about avoiding rebound headaches by not taking so many painkillers. But I take pain killers only rarely, so I skimmed these bits.

In short, I’ll be reducing my caffeine intake and avoiding sulfites, and lean toward vodka in cocktails. Not sure I got much more out of this book, and if you don’t use a lot of painkillers, I’m not sure you will either.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book a year ago and have been putting the steps into practice ever since. I wish I could say that my migraines have been cured. There is almost nothing I want more. (I don't care what he says in Chapter 9.)

Step 1 was about giving up caffeine and preventing rebounds headaches. I was mostly doing this but I realized that I had to also give up decaf.

Step 2 is the food elimination diet. This is what most people find the most difficult. It is a little tricky at first to read all the ingredients and cook for yourself. But it is worth it. It is worth it if it works. I have never been able to introduce suspected "trigger" foods back into my diet because I still can't go one week with out a migraine. Instead I find myself eliminating more and more foods just to figure something, anything out.

In fact, I stress myself out when eating out or attending friends' homes for dinner. I even make them nuts because I ask to inspect their ingredients. Most of the time, I just eat before going to avoid everything.

I have been on Step 3 since college. My doctors have tried multiple preventative meds.

To be positive about the book, it is well written and gives you great tips. I didn't know about the decaf. It has recipes and food lists, hidden names for MSG. (There are more online). It describes preventative drugs, if you don't know about them.

I only wish it was working for me. I'm still doing the diet. The hardest part for me is only taking my triptans twice a month. I am a chronic migraineur which means I get about 15 a month. Suffering another 13 days is torture. I don't care what anyone says my migraines just laugh at the Naproxen.

This book has fantastic reviews. I just don't want everyone to get their hopes up. I followed this book to the letter. (Maybe overkill. I go to the grocery store with 3 pages of no-no's). But my migraines really only decreased from about 18 to 15 a month. Not really the cure I was wanting.

I am giving it two stars because I am eating a lot healthier because of the book even if I do miss pizza.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a very easy-to-read style, Dr. Bucholz presents his theories about how to deal with persistent migraines. In particular, his approach is one for the many people who have gone to endless medical appointments and endless testing, only to be prescribed one drug after another which help a bit briefly and then are useless, taking up room in the medical cabinet and causing havoc with side effect after side effect. To top it off, most of these drugs were not designed to treat migraines to begin with. Bucholz explains that migraines are caused by inflamed blood vessels in the head and, by treating the symptoms not the actual migraine, the blood vessels simply expand more and the result is a rebound migraine, often worse. Rather than the conventional approach of using antidepressants and other Meds, Bucholz explains that there are various triggers, such as caffeine, chocolate, MSG, stress, and other dietary things which push the pressure in the head too far and, although each person is different, he has found there are trigger foods which make it more likely that you'll have a migraine and acceptable foods. He concedes that scientific testing has not been done to support his theory, but cites decades of helping patients recover from migraines by limiting the things that trigger them. This may prove to be very useful for those for whom the conventional approach provides only frustration.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some tips for reading this book:

Yes, Dr. Buchholz has an attitude. Be prepared for that and try to look past it. He might say things about patients and doctors that upset you, but that's not the important part of the book.

Remember that it's from 2002. Some of the information is outdated. The Step 3 chapter about daily preventative medication is one section that needs to be updated. You could honestly skip it. Buchholz also believes (at least he did 17 years ago) that all headache is migraine. Headache-literate doctors today believe that there is a headache spectrum and the migraine is at one end of that spectrum.

The important parts of the book are how the migraine mechanism and it's threshold work, how medication rebound works, and the list of foods to avoid. The idea of too many triggers to0 quickly or at one time pushing your mechanism over the edge is still the analogy doctors use today. And the elimination diet is still used by the migraine study center at Johns Hopkins. I could have stopped reading after the Step 2 chapter and had all the information I truly needed.

Finally, after you read Step 2 and start to freak out about all the food you can't have and feel like it's not possible, visit TheDizzyCook.com by Alicia Wolf. She posts migraine-friendly recipes, has a list of foods you *can* have that she suggests you stick to your fridge to remind yourself that food is still your friend, and has a list of pantry staples (brand names and where to find them) that helps a lot to relieve the overwhelmed feeling you might have.

For me, this book bounced around from three stars (outdated info in places) to five (the elimination diet seems to be working!).

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have seen fantastic results with number of headaches I receive and the tension in my neck muscles by following the migraine diet outlined in this book. Before I started the migraine diet I was doing 5-6 physical therapy stretches and exercises on my neck every 2-3 hours to keep the tension in my neck at bay. I was still getting incredibly tight muscles each day which would lead to a headache in the evenings. But the stretches, tens unit, muscle relaxers and ultrasounds were keeping the headaches less severe and of a shorter duration. Some months I would get 20 days of headaches (some mild, some severe), other months I could get them down to 10 days a month.

I started the diet in September and since have had 9 days of headaches (as of December 9). More than half of those are days that I cheated on the diet and had a headache by 4pm that same day. The other days I clearly did more than I should and over extended myself (like hiking 3 miles or going to a funeral several hours away). My neck muscles that were naturally tensing within minutes of waking up are now loose with no tension. I go days or weeks without doing a single neck stretch.

The Neurologist that wrote the book heads up the headache clinic at John Hopkins University. Over the years he discovered that the majority of all headaches start as a migraine from the widening of blood vessels around the brain. Then every person manifests differently from there. Some people have their neck muscles tense, others get sinus pain, others manifest with true migraine symptoms. He recommends those with chronic headache pain to follow this diet to eliminate foods that cause of widening of the blood vessels. My Neurologist gave me this list of foods almost 2 years ago but I then I just didn’t believe that my tension headaches were linked in any way to migraines.

I am so grateful that I read this book. It has been another piece to the puzzle for me to take charge of my headaches. I follow his advice closely. I do not take any medications for my headaches and allow myself 1-2 times a month to take Aleve if I get a really bad headache. I follow the diet strictly and be cautious of other triggers (getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, eating every few hours, etc.).

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after a craniosacral client was diagnosed with vestibular migraine. Some research on her behalf led to www.mymigrainebrain.com. That blogger recommended this book--vestibular migraine doesn't usually include headache, but the same diet and other prevention measures are suggested. Since my husband and I both experience a ridiculous amount of migraines, we decided to follow most of the protocols in this book, just to see.

So far, it's helping.

Now. The guy IS a bit of a quack. Just as a lyme doctor will tell you EVERYTHING you're experiencing is related to lyme, this dr sees everything through the lens of migraine. Most controversially, he thinks every kind of headache is a migraine, just with varying levels of severity. I'm not interested in arguing about that, but it's a thought experiment anyway. If you rarely have headaches of any kind, move along. If you get migraines some of the time and other kinds of headaches a lot of the time, maybe this is something to consider. If you get migraines a lot, and have some type of headache most of the time, I really think you should stop and think about his point. I have several clients who have migraine symptoms, such as auras (auras ARE migraines, whether you get the headache or not, and it's not just this guy who says so), but will insist they don't get "the headache." Then they will tell me about other terrible headaches they get that involve, say, temple and neck swelling, nausea, dizziness, but because those headaches don't come with the aura, they figure they're not migraines. Wrong.

There's a lot of hair splitting even among neurologists and various headache specialists about what constitutes a migraine, what's a common migraine, what's a classic migraine, what's a cluster headache (Buchholz excludes clusters from migraines--it's the ONLY headache he excludes... tension and sinus headaches he INCLUDES, but both neurologists I've consulted for my headaches as well as three family doctors lately all include clusters. I believe Oliver Sacks includes them as well, but I'm not sure I recall that correctly.). One reason I like Buchholz's toss-em-all-in-one-sack approach is that it helps with the clients I see who just have these constant headaches that explode into full-on classic migraines every few days, or with the headaches I experience that start every which way but always end up in the same place. For me they can be triggered by structural issues in the neck or by trigeminal neuralgia or by TMJ or by sinus issues or start out as classic migraines or cluster headaches. It doesn't follow a pattern, or didn't follow one that I could see. However they start, they will always end up with the full constellation.

There's a kind of pattern, though, and this is how Buchholz maps it.

You have a high threshold or a low threshold. If you have a high migraine/headache threshold, then maybe you'll never have one unless you're laboring heavily at altitude. Avoid climbing Everest and you're golden.

If you have a low threshold, then it's a matter how many triggers you're exposed to on a given day.

There's a long list of known migraine triggers. You don't have to rely on this book for this info. There are lots of blogs and websites and Mayo clinic pages etc. But this book is a convenient reference with most things in one place. I think there may be some new research coming out of the Yale clinic and a few other places, so signing on to Migraine.com and a few other places might be a good idea.

But, depending on where your threshold is, which you probably know if you're interested in this book, your goal is to minimize your exposure to triggers. Triggers you can't control include barometric changes, external stress, sleep deprivation in some cases... you'll have to read the list for yourself to determine all of them, but frankly a lot of them you can't control or can only control to some degree. You can't control losing your job, for instance. You can control some of your responses to stressors, but come on. That depends. There's only so much a person can handle, and lectures about that are a function of privilege. If you have nothing but time to meditate all day, that's great. You can try to regulate sleep, but what if you have a sleep disorder?

Anyway, one basic point is that migraine brains like regularity. Regular sleep, regular exercise, regular meals. Also, certain meals. Or rather NOT certain foods.

And THAT is one main thing you can control... avoiding food triggers. Which is also a long list, sadly. The best part of this book, though, is he doesn't just list the foods you should avoid, but tells you why. There are CATEGORIES of foods to avoid, so you can do the four months of avoidance of all of them, then try reintroducing them by category to see if you really need to avoid an entire group.

MSG is one of the toughest it turns out, because it hides in a lot of things--pretty much anything that has "natural flavors" in the label, and in a lot of foods that are natural or even health foods, such as khombu. There's a list for this too. This makes it pretty hard to eat out, ever, really. Who knows what's in the salad dressing? The coating for that cajun chicken? That marinara?

The upside is I'm making everything from scratch these days and rediscovering a lot of what I used to love about cooking.

Incomprehensibly, sugar is not on his no-no list. Obviously sugar is a trigger. He actually has a sample meal plan that allows things like caffeine-free soda and other absurdities. But clearly a highly inflammatory "food" like sugar is bad, bad, bad.

Another major point. Stop the big gun headache meds. My doctor was always on me about this--the rebound from the imitrex... she said it was causing more migraines, but what were you supposed to do? You couldn't function with the pain. Buchholz says to tough it out and in the end you'll have fewer migraines. Not sure if he's right or if it's the diet or lack thereof, but yes, far fewer migraines and less intense and over sooner. I mean, down from 4 ish per week to one in 10 days maybe.

So far. Jury still a little out, and April is usually one of the worst months. It's March now.

Most of what he says about preventative meds is out of date. Topamax is the drug of choice now. He says all of his patients reported that Botox doesn't work, but everyone I know or have been on a forum with who has tried it says it does. I haven't tried it. One reason I'm going to all this trouble with the diet is to avoid it if possible. It's expensive even with insurance. Not to mention a lot of needles. In my head.

So... anyway, mixed bag. Take what helps, leave the rest, as always with these guides. But there's a lot that's helpful here.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5 stars

IT'S hard to rate this book honestly because a huge portion of it talks about putting things into practice that I haven't done yet, such as cutting out all foods that can potentially be migraine triggers and there's A LOT OF THEM. So until I cut those out and know if this book is effective or not it seems odd to rate it.

But hot damn it was interesting. It goes into a lot of detail talking about the mechanisms in the brain behind migraines, what causes them and how certain environmental and ingested triggers can impact your pain. Caffeine is a big trigger so I've already cut that out but reading about how it can also temporarily relieve pain so it can lull people into a false sense of security was fascinating.

I'm really glad I read this nd looking forward to implementing some changes in my life that'll hopefully make chronic migraines a little bit easier to live with. Might update my review when I've tried the migraine diet :)

[Kimberly Foulger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read The Migraine Brain instead a much better more comprehensive sympathetic book. This book blames a lot on migraines including other medical diagnosed and says you can fix it mainly with a diet. He does offer explanations about medication and has a really good chapter on rebound headaches.
I was offended towards the end when he actually stated if his diet doesn't work it's usually because you'd rather be on disability or because you have some other hidden agenda. (!!!) That's the exact attitude people with chronic illness are fighting against all the time and to see it being perpetuated in print was astonishing.
There was some good information but not enough to recommend this book.

[Thomas Edmund · Rating 2 out of 5]

So rather than a review - storytime...

I borrowed this book from a workmate who also experienced migraines - who was singing the books praises about diet elimination and so on and so forth. I'd already listened to my friend who gave me all the best advice (which was tbh really helpful)

However as I started reading this book I started to notice some red flags for psuedoscience: namely

- "trust me bro" comments about how the author's experience trumped regular advice
- broad overarching unsupported comments "all headaches are migraine"

but the nail of the coffin was when I got to the section about medication - where the author outrights says that the medications recommended were not prescribed for migraines and started rattling off things like anti-depressants and blood pressure meds (which can have serious side-effects especially coming off them)

So sorry, this was supposed to be a story... When I dnf'd that part of the book and returned to my workmate they actually got super defensive about the above comments and he had a wee tete-a-tete about it with them championing the book!

until...

"So what part did you get up to?"
"the medication chapter"
"Oh I didn't read that bit"

Um, so yes folk I did indeed get into a book argument with someone who didn't even read the book either, I'm sure I can't be the only one.


To round-off I don't think this boo is complete crap but I strongly recommended reading the negative reviews of it to make your own mind up - they spell out the concerns better than my anecdote. For me the key takeaway was taking a bit of control of your migraine management is really helpful, I've tweaked a couple of strategies (e.g. trying caffeine free tea) and found this to be really helpful.

[Kimberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be read by anyone suffering from any kind of headache, migraine or otherwise. Dr. Buchholz offers straightforward help, that, while not easy, seems to work for those willing to "take charge of their pain." Step 1 is to get off your pain medication if it's beyond simple aspirin, Tylenol or ibuprofen. This is meant to prevent rebound headaches. That step was easy for me because I wasn't using anything stronger than ibuprofen. Step 2 is more of a challenge because you must avoid known dietary triggers (you can add them back later a little at a time to test whether they are triggers for you). I've stopped eating the triggers and so far, so good. You can't have caffeine, chocolate, msg, preserved meat, cheese, nuts, alcohol, citrus fruits, fresh bread, and a few other foods. If this isn't enough, you may add step 3, taking preventive medications that are known to lower your headache threshold. I haven't needed this step yet. I'll update this review if I do.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by my ENT, along with other literature and scholarly articles, after I went in for chronic sinus headaches and she diagnosed me with migraines after my exam showed no sign of sinus issues. I was floored at how all of my symptoms, some I didn’t even attribute to my headaches, all lined up under the vast umbrella that is migraine.

I have three big criticisms of this book. The biggest is how in the introduction, the author claims his method is hypothesis, and passionately dismisses any scientific research delving into his hypothesis because no one could possibly do it “right” despite his years of personal experience treating migraines (without recording any data to include in this book which took over 7 years to write). I always see it as a big red flag when a person whose profession is derived from science completely dismisses it.

My second criticism is how the book read like an infomercial for itself. It seemed like almost every paragraph had to include some form of “but with the 1-2-3 Program, all your headache pains will go away!” It was eye-rolling and near headache-inducing to read so many times over.

My third criticism is how the author made migraines seem like the cause to almost every ailment, and his program the miracle solution. It was very repetitive, going over the same points multiple times, but in slightly different ways. I can see how that might appeal to some readers, but it just read very poorly to me. Cutting out all the fluff and repetition would probably reduce the book down to half or two-thirds its size.

Now with the criticisms out of the way, there is definite merit in the author’s claims. If not for the other literature and scholarly articles my ENT provided me that were published after this book, I probably would have stopped reading after the “don’t rely on science” soapbox in the intro. If you can get past the infomercial-like hard sell of the program, and the repetitive points, the author explains really well how migraines affect the body, why they’re often misdiagnosed, and how many treatments fail.

The biggest takeaway is that a lot of what we put into our bodies is making it worse, and like most healthcare directives, the first step in treatment is better diet, sleep, and exercise. The diet part is the majority of treatment for migraines. This treatment plan focuses on an elimination diet to get symptoms under control, and then gradually reintroducing foods, and various medications, after stability’s been maintained for several months.

I very much appreciated that rather than just saying, “You can’t have these foods or medicines. Deal with it.” The author offers plenty of substitutions, and even an appendix with migraines diet-friendly foods, meal plans, and recipes. Although current research (John’s Hopkins for example) makes some of those options (like seeds) void. Despite updated information voiding out some of the foods, it still does a great job of showing that there are plenty of options for healthy, balanced meals.

This may not be the best book to read on the subject. I feel like there should be something more up-to-date, and offers less questionable commentary on science, and less infomercial-style reading. I honestly preferred the straightforward, and brief, scholarly articles. However, if nothing else is available, and a person wants more information on how everything in the body ties together, and in plain English (not a lot of medical jargon), then this is a pretty decent book. Not great, but certainly informative.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because I got dizzy about 6 weeks ago and it was recommended by many people who said I might have migraine associated vertigo. I was originally diagnosed with labyrnthitus, but I have a history of headaches. The diet seems hard but I have learned some things to avoid to try and prevent a headache and possibly help my dizziness. It has lots of knowledge about migraines in general, how they are much more than a headache and how you can be getting them without headaches at all. Definitely a must read to anyone who suffers from headaches, or even dizziness as it states in the book " migraine is the number one cause of dizziness"

[Tamara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is useless. For this author to assume that everyone who gets migraines is overusing medication and that no one who gets migraines has ever tried avoiding triggers before reading this book is absurd. He makes doctors out to be villains, his tone is condescending a lot of the time (towards both doctors and the reader), and he proposes that a number of other illness are actually misdiagnosed migraines. I mean sure, I'm not saying that some things can't be misdiagnosed migraines but he makes it seem as if these other illnesses don't even really exist. He starts off, in the introduction, by essentially saying that science is useless and his approach is the only thing that will work to cure migraines. He validated a few of my symptoms and gave me a bit of info on medications but I'm not even sure if I can trust that information as some of it I found to be contradictory to what I've read/heard elsewhere. Also, just for the sake of complaining, he uses the same diagram over and over throughout the entire book. Trash. For goodness sake it was published in 2002 so not even sure why I read it!

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the ONLY migraine book on the market that is worth it's salt. After having migraines which pushed me to the point of seizures in 2004, I read every headache book out there, and this one is truly the one worth reading (and following!). Buccholz's plan--remove all triggers, then gradually add them back and monitor your load, while deleting caffeine and artificial sweeteners from your diet forever--works like gold for me. As long as I keep caffeine and artifical sweeteners out, I can play with anything else (wine, cheese, chocolate, etc) in small amounts (and bigger amounts if there's not a massive weather inversion going on). I feel TERRIBLE for the migraneurs that are advised to take lots of caffeine, or caffeine in constant small doses. This will blow any migraine control out the window. I wish I could sing this book from the rooftops. It utterly changed my life for the better. It's given me back SO many days a month which used to be thrown away to headaches.

[Becky Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has already made a HUGE impact on my migraines! Like so many others, I suffered from chronic migraines—about 10 a month—and something I’ve dealt with since childhood. I took excederin religiously, until it stopped working, then moved on to sumatriptan. I knew all these meds were bad for me in the long run, but the migraines were so bad that I couldn’t stop. This book taught me how these meds are just perpetuating the cycle of rebound migraines. I also learned how cutting out food triggers can have a big impact. I’m 2 months into the migraine diet and am already noticing a drop in the frequency and severity of my migraines! This book has explained so much to me, more than any other doctor I’ve had. Definitely recommended for migraine sufferers!

[Amy Baier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend for anyone suffering from migraines or even “low grade” headaches frequently.

[Matt Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to divide this review. First I'll offer my thoughts as a reader, and then I will add some thoughts as a sufferer of chronic daily migraines.

From a reader perspective, you should know that I spread this book out over a long time, and I think that that is the best way to cover it. Realistically, it is not a very long book at all, but it does have a lot of detailed medical jargon that could cause some to loose focus if you read it in large chucks. If you did that, however, you'd probably be done in a weekend. It has a large typeface and Buchholz breaks his main text up by inserting a lot of patient stories and other little anecdotes to support his ideas. As you progress through the book, those anecdotes become a bit repetitive, and you'll probably start skipping them as they are inserted, quite literally, into the middle of sentences and paragraphs of complete thought. Despite this, it is a very easy to read, and easy to comprehend medical book. In addition to the logistics of the text that make the book shorter than its page count, the book is made shorter by its second half, which features large sections that only pertain to certain migraine sufferers. If you're reading because you want to know everything about headaches, you probably won't skip some of these detailed and specific sections. If you read like me, who was looking for information about YOUR headaches...you'll probably end up skipping the sections about birth control pills, cluster headaches, and medications you have already tried and disregarded.

And now for the real meat and potatoes of this review:

I have suffered from some sort of daily headaches for eight years. I can feel one coming on as I type this. For this I take a daily preventative medication. Buchholz's ideas are very interesting. In theory, The 1-2-3 Diet is a simple idea. For the chronic migraine sufferer, it isn't very easy to swallow, and I'm not so sure you should. His ideas about giving up ALL potential dietary triggers seem illogical and unrealistic to me. Personally, if you're telling me it's bacon or headaches...I'll take the headaches.

That being said, I have used soda as a 'quick fix' for years and years. Buchholz's points about soda temporarily relieving headaches, only to cause a rebound headache hours later really hit home with me. Since starting the book, I realized I had become dependent and addicted to soda, and have given it up. Almost four months in, I'm soda free (although I miss it like hell, I won't lie about that). I've also been much more diligent about wearing sunglasses whenever I'm in direct sunlight, which is a tremendous trigger for me. With steps like these that I took away from the book, added to advice and medication from a new neurologist, my headaches are greatly reduced both in frequency and intensity.

I think Buchholz has some really worthwhile material in this book. I believe he is a wonderful neurologist. The book addresses just about every concern I've ever had about my headaches from brain tumors to depression. If you have suffered from headaches for years, especially if you've never sought treatment, you should most certainly read this book. I work with someone who also has daily migraines and I just bought it for her as a gift.

The 1-2-3 diet is really smart idea, and it's finer points will truly help you reduce your pain. However, I think when it comes to what triggers you cut out...it's okay to pick and choose. It's been that way for me...at least...so far.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This migraine book is older and some of the medication information is out of date, but the diet information regarding trigger management is some of the best out there! Definitely recommended!

[Silvey · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

This book frustrated me to no end. It was recommended to me by my GP as a good resource to help me manage my more-frequent-than-usual headaches while we started some new treatments. After finishing my slog through this book I feel pretty confident that he has not actually read it himself.

My first big issue with this book arose almost immediately. Towards the end of the introduction, the author (Dr Buchholz) states that he has developed the 1-2-3 Program after years of treating headache patients as a neurologist (no problem so far). Then, he states that he has never actually tested this program in research studies. It is essentially his opinion that his program will work for anyone with headaches, but it hasn't been tested. Dr Buchholz then spends almost an entire page saying that he doesn't believe that his program can or should be tested, and good luck to anyone who tries because it's just not possible. He KNOWS it works, and that's that. In fact, he states that "No 'scientific' data to the contrary, from a randomized controlled trial or any other source, would ever convince me otherwise."

IMMEDIATE RED FLAG for me. A medical doctor who not only hasn't tested his claims, but denies it can/should be tested and says he would ignore any research that found his program less effective than he states? This made me a lot more cautious heading into this book. Anyone who has been trained in the sciences knows how the scientific method works. You develop a hypothesis (i.e. Dr Buchholz's 1-2-3 Program). You test it (ideally in randomized controlled trials where one group gets the treatment being tested and another group gets a different or placebo treatment). You interpret the results. You verify the results are reproducible with more studies. Rinse and repeat.

Dr Buchholz makes it very clear early on that he just knows his program will work. You would think anyone that confident in their hypothesis should be happy to have it researched and tested, because they would believe the results should uphold the hypothesis. But instead he says it's not possible, and he wouldn't believe any research done that contradicted his program's effectiveness. That is not science. That is opinion.

This made me very skeptical of everything else I read going forward. This was compounded by my second big issue with this book - Dr Buchholz doesn't cite any of his sources for the information in his book. Nothing. Not even a list of sources in the back of the book that he used to compile information for this publication. This made it impossible to figure out what was his opinion and what was scientific fact. I was questioning every other sentence in the book, and didn't have the time or energy to fact check everything myself. So even after reading the book, I'm unsure what to believe about the statements made in it.

Problem #3 - Dr Buchholz spends half the book sounding like a salesman trying to sell his program. (Having issues with headaches? Don't know where to turn? Try the 1-2-3 Program! It'll work for you too! (not a direct quote, but that's the feel of it)). It's annoying and repetitive. Also, he keeps saying this program will work for anyone with headaches. I have yet to see any treatment or intervention that works for everyone, without exception, all the time. It just doesn't work that way. This program may be helpful for some people, but he says that anyone who's tried this approach and failed just wasn't doing it properly.

Here's the oddest issue I had with this book. Despite not feeling like I could trust anything the author recommended, when he said (repeatedly) that you shouldn't take triptans for migraines more than twice a month (after fully eliminating them for 4 months as part of his program), it made me very reluctant to take the triptans my GP had just prescribed for me. I suffered through several more weeks of migraines before I bit the bullet and took the sumatriptan to make it through a busy day at a conference (it worked wonders for me, btw). So I didn't trust this man as I was reading his book, but he still managed to interfere with my confidence in the treatment plan my GP and I had made to most effectively treat my headaches. Wild.

My final issue isn't with anything said in the book, but just with its age. It's 20 years old now. I'm sure a lot has changed in that time, and you could probably find a newer (and more useful) resource elsewhere. This one is almost certainly outdated by this point.

The reason I gave it 1.5 stars instead of 1 (the lowest rating possible here) is that there were a few potentially helpful suggestions about dietary triggers (though his list of foods to avoid is EXTENSIVE and I'll only be trying to eliminate the most likely triggers myself). That's it.

TLDR: This book is a 20-year old long-winded opinion piece by a MD who blatantly states in the introduction that he doesn't think his program can/should be researched, doesn't cite any of his sources, and sounds like a car salesman on repeat. Do not recommend.

[furmomof5 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to share my experience with this diet so others with a vestibular disorder can see how it worked (or rather, didn't work) for me. I wish there had been more reviews online from others with my illness when I was deciding whether or not to try this method of controlling my chronic dizziness. I was diagnosed with labyrinthitis in March (my symptoms of chronic dizziness, vertigo, ear pain/pressure, head & sinus pressure all began in January but it took a while to reach my diagnosis). I was diagnosed with a 28% "weakness" of the right ear, meaning it functions that much less than my left, confusing my brain with mixed signals, which in turn triggers the dizziness. I began vestibular rehabilitation therapy in March and have been doing that ever since. It helped tremendously but was no cure all, so when a few women from a dizzy forum recommended this book to me, thinking I may have migraine associated vertigo, I thought I'd give it a read. I should note that Dr. Bucholz calls labyrinthitis an "all to frequent mis-diagnosis" and a "tried and true explanation [of my symptoms] that are largely false" on page 169 of his book. So, even though my ENT insists I don't have migraine vertigo but rather, labyrinthitis, in theory this diet should have worked according to Dr. Buchholz based on what I just quoted.

I didn't need to do Step 1 of his plan since I'm not on any medication. I don't drink coffee, soda or any caffeine containing foods/drinks, so getting rid of caffeine was already done. All I needed to do was change my eating habits. On to step 2. In addition to no caffiene, I had already given up all forms of MSG years ago when I realized I am highly sensitive to it, so label reading was easy for me and I was already eating pretty healthy. I will admit that much of my diet consisted of foods that are "triggers" though, so I was hopeful this diet would work. I used to eat a lot of things like yogurt, nuts, avocado, bananas, etc. It was definitely an adjustment finding other things to eat and avoiding the "trigger" foods, but I made it work and followed the diet strictly. I bought the Migraine-Free Cooking cookbook that is based on Heal your Headache and that helped, but overall the diet just seemed so restrictive and my body started suffering the ill effects of leaving out nutritious foods.

I followed this diet for 6 weeks (I remember reading in the book somewhere, but now I can't find it, to give it 6-8 weeks and then up to 4 months symptom free before introducing "trigger" foods back into the diet). Some may argue I should have tried it longer, but I will tell you why I did not. I was doing pretty well before starting the diet. My symptoms were troublesome and chronic (as in, 24/7), but the vestibular therapy gave me a lot of relief. After starting the diet, I actually got worse. As someone who got actual headaches once and a while (a few a month, if that), I started getting them at least 3x per week. They were massive headaches too, along with eye pain. Also, out of nowhere, I experienced the worst dizziness I had ever experienced since this whole illness began in January (up until starting the diet, my dizziness had been predictable, but this was a major turn for the worse). This happened 3 times and actually set me back in vestibular therapy. I had to go back to my most basic exercises, whereas before the diet I had gotten pretty advanced. My life was pretty manageable, feeling about 80% better most days before the diet, but after the diet and this major episode of horrendous vertigo, I was back to being practically bed ridden. I couldn't drive weeks, whereas before I could drive just fine (my dizziness always felt better while I was in motion and never bothered me while driving up to this point). I actually thought that perhaps the diet WAS working and this was my brain's way of healing and adjusting, so I decided to continue on. However, my health overall just felt like it was starting to decline.

Since there seems to be some sort of trigger food in everything, I started relying too heavily on carbs & sugar. I know this is my own fault, but with a diet so limited, day old bread was pretty easy to reach for when I didn't know what else to eat. I couldn't even follow the sample diet in the book. Dr. B suggests roast beef sandwiches (what kind of roast beef, surely not processed deli meat??), tuna salad (what about the mayo that has vinegar and lemon juice in it?), grilled cheese sandwiches (I can't find preservative free cheese around here). As for his sample breakfasts, it's just not healthy to live on waffles with maple syrup, blueberry muffins and bagels with cream cheese every day (not that I could find a preservative free cream cheese anyway). Dinner was the easiest because of the cookbook, but I found breakfast and lunch to be limited. I can't remember the last time I ate a decent salad. Although Dr. B says white wine vinegar is "allowable" in small amounts, I can't use it because of the sulfites. The problem is that now I can't use avocados, lemon juice or yogurt either to make my own salad dressing with those. Eating out was not even an option. Don't get me wrong, if this diet helped me, I would gladly never eat out another day in my life, but it did not.

I think the stress of following the diet and worrying about what food might have a trigger in it caused me to feel much worse too. I'm not saying you shouldn't try it if you have a vestibular disorder like me, I'm just telling you my experience. I would personally try anything (that's natural like a diet) and now I can say I did. Do I think it would have "worked" if I tried the diet longer? No, not at all. I think I will begin to get much better now that I stopped following it, just like I was before I ever started it.

The book overall is a decent read and explains migraines very well, including the idea of thresholds (the idea is when triggers add up and push you over your "threshold", a migraine happens). I do like the fact that he prefers changing your diet over taking medication (though he admits that some people do need a low dose medication along with the diet). I'm happy for those this diet worked for; I wish it to work for me!

[Mallory Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3/5 because it is an older book with some outdated information. The author also has some pretty aggressive opinions, which can be taken the wrong way. I think his opinions were kind of funny though. Lastly, the organization of the content in the book was weird. I would love to redo the book myself so it’s easier to read, thus being more helpful to chronic migraine sufferers.

However, I’m committed to following this intense migraine diet for 90 days to see how it will affect my DCH and migraines.

[Leslie McKee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a number of interesting points to consider and try. I haven't done them all yet, and I'm not sure I will, but it certainly gives me options. I love being educated when I read, and this book certainly did that. The items mentioned may not (and likely won't) work for everyone, but it gives a different perspective on dealing with migraines.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written by a non-migraine sufferer and the first recommendation is to avoid migraine meds? Wow!! Sure - I didn’t need to be able to leave the comfort of hugging the toilet anyway.
Too simplistic, he says he doesn’t want to “blame the patient” and then goes on to “blame the patient”, he recommends not listening to any other doctors.
The diet - avoiding histamines etc. is probably a great idea, but the initial chapters put me off the whole book.

[Sarah Lanclos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend the Migraine Diet he designed. It is the only thing that has EVER made a consistent difference with the horrible headaches I've had since my teens.

[Morgan Beach · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? It was fine.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I 100% recommend this book to any and every chronic migraine sufferer, and I would even recommend it to any one who suffers from headaches or mysterious sinus/tension/stress headaches they can't seem to get under control.

I am not totally "healed", but I will say that by following David Buchholz' directions, I have finally been able to break the three year long chronic migraine I have had which was brought on by some severe negative medication reactions. (I did suffer chronic migraines for 12-13 years prior to this three year spell though, so I am very experienced migraineur)

Here are some of the biggest take-aways I got from the book which helped me as a very severe chronic migraine sufferer:
-Trying to make changes to your entire life is too difficult so focus on the things you can control the easiest, what you put in your body: medications and food
-TRY TO AVOID TAKING YOUR TRIPTANS! THEY WILL CAUSE REBOUND! That's the MAIN reason why some doctors will tell you to try not to take it, and why they will attempt to reduce the number of pills you are given in a month.
-Stay off caffeine FOREVER (or maybe commit yourself to being a serious caffeine addict and NEVER let yourself go through withdrawal). Any amount of caffeine leaving your body will start you going through withdrawal which can start the migraine process, so he thinks you should just never have any amount of caffeine, ever, unless you want to trigger a migraine. I don't know if I will keep to this "forever" because I love green tea so much, but I have completely stopped consuming caffeine.
-All headaches are migraines - just varying degrees of severity/presentations. I know that I can attest to this with my own personal experience. I've suffered from migraines for 16 years and they have gone through nearly every presentation imaginable: hormonal/stress/tension/sinus/visual, etc. For a long time I suffered from "sinus problems" and was being treated with decongestants, antibiotics, etc. and it wasn't until I was able to get health insurance again and get a Triptan that I realized that my sinus congestion/post nasal drip/grossness and pain ALWAYS completely cleared up once the sumatriptan kicked in. And that's because it was never an external thing that was causing my chronic sinus inflammation such as allergie, viruses or bacteria, it was my brain sending crazy signals through my nervous system.
-Diet IS THE DIFFERENCE and it doesn't just mean avoiding "bad foods", it's about finding what effects you

When you have suffered with the hell that is migraines, for any amount of time, the thought of being told that simply changing your diet and tweaking medications could suddenly relieve you of this immensely heavy weight of pain that has burdened you for so long, can feel ridiculous, embarrassing, daunting... But it does seem that for the vast majority of us, these simple changes CAN be the difference between life in hell or life on earth.

I wish that I had read this book many many years ago, and I wish that I had tried the diet prior to trying any extra medications, because all of those medications had side effects that made my migraines worse. However, I did attend a lot of Occupational, Physical and Pain Management therapy prior to reading this book, and with all of that combined I do feel a lot more in control of my brain pain, hopeful for the future, and less terrified of living another year in this hellscape.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes - really - 5 stars. Mainly because it saved my life.

People have said negative things about this book, which I don't understand. So maybe it didn't work for you - so what? Did all those medications you went through work for you? I know I spent my life on several, some which helped more than others. If this book didn't work for you, maybe your brain is different than mine - and that's OK. Everyone is wired/balanced differently.

However, this was my 3rd migraine book, and it was the one that worked for me. While I miss some of the foods on the list, I find that I'm in overall better health plus I have been headache-free for approximately 9 months. After having migraines 2-3 days a week, every month, I'm thrilled.
Dr Buchholz writing style is easy to follow. He provides testimonials as well as test case information that you'll probably recognize yourself in if you are a migrainer.

[Tori · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kindle Version - I would not recommend buying this book for the Kindle. I couldn't figure out a way to read the tables. If I increased the font, it didn't increase the font on the tables. Also, it had very odd formatting in many of the chapters so that it didn't make sense reading it straight through on the Kindle version. The issue seemed to come up when there would be lines across the Kindle screen which I hadn't seen with other Kindle books. Especially for the cost of the Kindle book, I was very disappointed in the way the ebook was put together.

Book Itself - I was open to the 3 steps, but I felt like the author was very dismissive about health problems in addition to migraine to the point that I felt offended by his writing multiple times. He seemed to want to say everything was migraine, but he didn't seem to have anything to back that up. He kept saying there is so much we don't know about migraine and that he couldn't explain why certain things were the way they are, but yet he seemed to speak unequivocally that other things weren't causing issues that it was all migraine. He seemed to have a different way of looking at headache but didn't explain much to back it up. I would not recommend this book.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book several times and would recommend it to everyone because we all suffer headaches but if you have a headache problem, I highly recommend it.
I am still trying to figure out if I have migraine or meniere's disease but the longer I suffer the more I am convinced it is migraine, especially after reading that migraine is so much more than a headache.
I have tried the diet a couple of times but have never succeeded to make it 4 months which is what he recommends before adding back foods that could trigger the migraine so I cannot give an accurate testimony about if it really works.
I do know that weather is my #1 trigger but I also know that if the triggers aren't stacked so much that weather doesn't affect me so badly.

[Barbara (The Bibliophage) · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was diagnosed with atypical migraine activity, the doctor referred me to this book. It's written by a neurologist, so the terminology is medical in nature but he makes it very approachable for everyone. I get the feeling this author is a medical rebel, and yet the institution that referred me is highly regarded for their medical expertise.

If you've lived with a variety of symptoms that doctors tell you "you'll just have to deal with," you might want to check out this book. Migraine is SO much more than just headaches! It's worth the read to see if his methods can help you.