Medicinal Fat
While road-tripping yesterday with my sister and her faithful project-dog Fletchy to the dog trainer’s in Leander, TX, I suddenly developed a startlingly painful headache. I forced the sibling to pull in to a gas station, where I procured not a four-dollar two-pack of Advil, but a Krispy Kreme donut and a Coke. I am reluctant to put a positive spin on poisonous products hawked by bloodless megacorps, but the headache vanished as soon as I washed down that congealed glob of sugary fried dough with the corn syrupy brown water. Make of it what you will.
Well, I’d suspect you hadn’t eaten enough that day and were having a blood sugar crash. I hope you ate some real food not too long thereafter.
MKK
That, or caffeine withdrawal. Or both. Amazing what our bodies can become addicted to. After having been forced to give up just about every other mood-altering substance, caffeine is, by default, my drug of choice, and I’m here to tell you that it’ll mess with your body chem just as much as anything.
Mary Kay and CafeSiren could both be right. I run long distances and when I’m training hard and I haven’t eaten I get massive headaches. Both sugar and caffeine help immediately if I can’t get real food right away. The caffeine increases the rate at which oxygen gets to the brain and the sugar is a simple carb, the fuel that my brain was probably craving, and which gets digested and used pretty quickly.
I don’t know this for sure, but given that your body has its resources spread thin, it’s probably hard pressed to get the sugars and oxygen where they’re needed effeciently.
Oh, and btw, mmmmm, Krispy Kreme.
Have you been losing weight? Eating? When my husband was on chemo, he would always say he wasn’t hungry. Being an Irish wife (food is good), I’d put a plate of food in front of him and he would eat it all.
He felt best when he had high amounts of fat in his diet, I don’t know why, but it seemed counter the effects of chemo.
This is the third account I’ve heard of the medicinal value of Krispy Kreme donuts. I dismissed the first (hangover cure) because I live in Winston-Salem, NC, the birthplace of Krispy Kreme, and everyone swears their favorite hometown/regional product cures hangovers. I’ve never tested this theory because I so rarely have hangovers, but there might be something to it. And I’ve heard from others undergoing chemo that Krispy Kremes are excellent for whatever seems to be wrong, including sudden headaches and, um, “irregularity” as they call it on the teevee.
Migraines are vascular in nature. Caffeine and sugar can both alter that system. Everybdy is different, though, so I doubt prescription K-squared will be marketed soon.
Things I’ve used to stave off a migraine all twiddle with the blood vessels or muck with the histamine system: caffeine, bloody mary, sugar, benedryl, etc.
One time I was cured of a nasty headache with a big glass of homemade lemonade from a lemonade stand at a rural folk festival. They took 1/2 a big fresh lemon, squeezed it into a glass, added simple syrup (sugar water), water, and a bit of ice (not too cold!), then include the squeezed-out lemon half in the glass. Ahhhh. Relief was almost instant. I think the double shot of Vit C and sugar helped, and being somewhat dehydrated probably contributed to the problem.
I’m here to back up juliamacadam re: the “high fat content staves off the effects of chemo” theory. Worked for my pals sure as you can say, “Pass the tater tots.”
And, alphabitch, (kinda sorta) hailing from the Home of Krispy Kreme, as I do, I’m here to back up the hangover cure, too. Folks swear by it. I wouldn’t know. Other “medicinal” effects of KKs have been noted though, helping to ameliorate the effects of everything from My Boyfriend Sucks to Fuck It, I Quit and I Hate My Novel/Dissertation/Thesis/Mother. Those little buggers pack a punch!
A votre sante, Twisty. xo
After chemo on Monday I started craving onion rings. Damnedest thing.