I get asked a lot what my next book is going to be and while I have a few ideas swimming about, I got all hot to trot on one idea in particular: a book on migraines. After all, having struggled with them since my early teens, I have become something of an expert on how to prevent, mitigate, and manage them.

The Migraine MiracleOf course my first step after jotting down some initial ideas was to do a quick Amazon search for books on the topic. To my dismay, a book was scheduled for release just months from that day on exactly I wanted to write about: The Migraine Miracle: A sugar-free, gluten-free, ancestral diet to reduce inflammation and relieve your headaches for good. Sigh. And it was coming out by the very publisher who published our first two books! Darn.

What’s a girl to do but get a copy and read it?

That’s exactly what I did, and within a few pages I realized that author Dr. Josh Turknett, neurologist and clinical researcher in this very area, was in fact significantly more qualified than me to write this book. (Hey, I’ll be the first to admit it!) In fact, it’s by far the best book I’ve ever read on the topic.

First, Dr. Turknett gives an incredibly validating explanation of the migraine experience. If you’ve ever had a migraine, you know the extreme pain and debilitation it brings. It is most definitely not “just a headache.” One of the biggest emotional hurdles I’ve had on my migraine journey is explaining this to my non-migraine-experiencing family and friends. It’s hard to describe the fear and obsession that arise from the quest for finding that perfect storm of factors that will trigger a migraine. In reading his first chapters, I found great comfort in knowing I was not alone.

Turknett’s deep scientific understanding of what’s happening in the body bio-chemically during a migraine is tremendously helpful in making sense of the intensity of symptoms. What I loved most was the powerful analogy he gave that explains how to determine your own unique combination of factors that can trigger a migraine (I won’t spoil it for you because I can’t do it justice in this limited space).

When he gets to solutions, dietary solutions in particular, I was cheering out loud I was so delighted to hear his recommendations. The three utmost important things you can do to drastically reduce the number and frequency of migraines in your life are:

1) Adopt a sugar-free diet

Amen to that! We’ve been doing this for years with our Sugar Control Detox – is it any surprise that one of the many pieces of feedback we hear from participants is how they eliminated their headaches?

2) Eliminate gluten

Yes, yes and more yes. Here’s what I think about a gluten-free diet, and oh, by the way, every recipe we’ve included in our two books are gluten-free.

Personal note: for the last few years I’ve eaten mostly gluten-free – probably 90-95%. But within the last few months I’ve eliminated it completely and have noticed that this has been a major factor in my migraines. This is something I *knew*, but never being diagnosed with a formal sensitivity it was hard for me to implement in my life. The one time I’ve cheated, I immediately got a migraine. The lesson: “mostly” gluten-free isn’t gluten-free at all. In fact, it takes a full 6 months to completely clear gluten from your body.

3) Eat an ancestral, traditional diet

This is what I call “eating naked” – getting back to the basics of a nutrient-dense, whole foods diet and getting rid of the nasty processed stuff. Honestly, when you do the above two factors, you’ll have gone a long way on this one.

All three of these critical approaches rid the body of inflammation, which is ultimately what set you up for the migraine experience to start with.

Turknett’s book is outstanding and I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you have migraines, it is a must-read. It’s that simple. Implementing the changes he suggests in this book will either eliminate the migraines in your life for good, or at the very least reduce them to a manageable level. (If you still struggle with migraines after you’ve implemented his recommendations, you may have some undiagnosed food sensitivities or digestive issues that you need to address, and this is work best done with a trained holistic practitioner.)

Want a chance to win your very own copy of this book?

Just leave a comment on this post explaining why you’d like to have the book and we’ll enter you into a random drawing for a copy. We’re giving away two copies of the book and will announce the winner on July 15th.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

It’s always terribly hard to choose a winner in these giveaways, and so I let random.org do it for us…

Congratulations to Jeannie Sapp and Gloria! You each have won a copy of Dr. Turknett’s incredible book. Please email us at info (at) eatnakednow (dot) com with your mailing address and we’ll send you your copy as soon as we can.

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