My girlfriend has experienced classical migraines since she was six years old. Classical in this context means migraine with aura. I have attempted to help her over the last ten years with the migraines, doing a bit of research here and there. We have tried many different diets and supplements over the years, but a general high-fruit, low-fat, high-dairy, high-protein, zero-grain diet seems to make her feel very good.
The migraine has remained throughout all the dietary and supplementary changes, although frequency has dropped from as many as seven per year, to three. So we're winning so far.
Here is the conundrum: one year my girlfriend had no migraines whatsoever. This had never happened before. Because she is so good at keeping records of her routines, dietary and otherwise, we were able to study what had changed over this period. Basically nothing had changed, except for one thing: roasted peanuts.
My girlfriend started eating lots and lots of roasted peanuts for afternoon tea every day, and we didn't think anything of it. During this one year period without any migraines occurring, she started to have 'migraine vertigo', which is essentially exactly the same as vertigo. Neurologists I have spoken to insist that it is different, but they can't explain what exactly makes it different. I basically do not believe in migraine vertigo as distinct from vertigo.
Anyway, I noticed that roasted peanuts have a very high ratio of arginine to lysine, and I wondered if maybe lysine was downregulating vasopressin, and thereby preventing the migraine, while arginine was upregulating nitric oxide and causing the vertigo. This is all guesswork on my part, coupled with internet research. Fast forward to one year later, my girlfriend has stopped eating peanuts because of PUFA. The migraines have returned, as well as what seems to be symptoms consistent with high serotonin/prolactin on a daily basis. Strangely, I would not say her current diet contains low amounts of lysine, and yet the lysine that she is consuming as part of her daily nutrition is not having much of a role in minimising serotonin/prolactin or minimising the migraines.
When I asked two different neurologists to explain the year-long-migraine-free-phenomenon, they each said that 'migraine vertigo makes the migraine go away'. When I protested that this was an insufficient explanation, they each replied, "I actually don't know why". From reading more broadly, this "don't know why" is the official explanation from what I can understand.
I would really appreciate it if someone could shed some light here. The key question is, what is the relationship between arginine, lysine, and the serotonin neurotransmitter? The current medical misunderstanding of serotonin and nitric oxide both truly disrupt the attempt to interpret research literature correctly, and demonstrably hinder progress to creating an effective treatment.
There have been a few posts on migraines on this forum, but they are too general. There are different types of migraines, with different symptoms. The limited evidence I've supplied hopefully gives a clue to narrowing down the troubleshooting to a particular relationship of amino acids in the context of preventing classical migraine with aura.
It's also important to mention that the drug she takes for treating the migraine works on the 1B, 1D and 1F components of the 5-HT receptor, which I understand causes the serotonin receptor to 'release dopamine', but possibly also 'release nitric oxide' when agonised - not antagonised. Haidut quoted Ray Peat in another thread explaining this phenomenon, but I'm not sure how it works. With this medication, the migraine only lasts two-three hours, as opposed to five-seven. Hence, I have given some thought to many serotonin-antagonising substances in helping my girlfriend avoid migraines completely.
The migraine has remained throughout all the dietary and supplementary changes, although frequency has dropped from as many as seven per year, to three. So we're winning so far.
Here is the conundrum: one year my girlfriend had no migraines whatsoever. This had never happened before. Because she is so good at keeping records of her routines, dietary and otherwise, we were able to study what had changed over this period. Basically nothing had changed, except for one thing: roasted peanuts.
My girlfriend started eating lots and lots of roasted peanuts for afternoon tea every day, and we didn't think anything of it. During this one year period without any migraines occurring, she started to have 'migraine vertigo', which is essentially exactly the same as vertigo. Neurologists I have spoken to insist that it is different, but they can't explain what exactly makes it different. I basically do not believe in migraine vertigo as distinct from vertigo.
Anyway, I noticed that roasted peanuts have a very high ratio of arginine to lysine, and I wondered if maybe lysine was downregulating vasopressin, and thereby preventing the migraine, while arginine was upregulating nitric oxide and causing the vertigo. This is all guesswork on my part, coupled with internet research. Fast forward to one year later, my girlfriend has stopped eating peanuts because of PUFA. The migraines have returned, as well as what seems to be symptoms consistent with high serotonin/prolactin on a daily basis. Strangely, I would not say her current diet contains low amounts of lysine, and yet the lysine that she is consuming as part of her daily nutrition is not having much of a role in minimising serotonin/prolactin or minimising the migraines.
When I asked two different neurologists to explain the year-long-migraine-free-phenomenon, they each said that 'migraine vertigo makes the migraine go away'. When I protested that this was an insufficient explanation, they each replied, "I actually don't know why". From reading more broadly, this "don't know why" is the official explanation from what I can understand.
I would really appreciate it if someone could shed some light here. The key question is, what is the relationship between arginine, lysine, and the serotonin neurotransmitter? The current medical misunderstanding of serotonin and nitric oxide both truly disrupt the attempt to interpret research literature correctly, and demonstrably hinder progress to creating an effective treatment.
There have been a few posts on migraines on this forum, but they are too general. There are different types of migraines, with different symptoms. The limited evidence I've supplied hopefully gives a clue to narrowing down the troubleshooting to a particular relationship of amino acids in the context of preventing classical migraine with aura.
It's also important to mention that the drug she takes for treating the migraine works on the 1B, 1D and 1F components of the 5-HT receptor, which I understand causes the serotonin receptor to 'release dopamine', but possibly also 'release nitric oxide' when agonised - not antagonised. Haidut quoted Ray Peat in another thread explaining this phenomenon, but I'm not sure how it works. With this medication, the migraine only lasts two-three hours, as opposed to five-seven. Hence, I have given some thought to many serotonin-antagonising substances in helping my girlfriend avoid migraines completely.
