Hi, I am new here. Been a clusterhead for more than 20 years. I am not extremely computer literate, so it took me awhile to figure out how to actually do a message. Hope this is OK.  The thing is, I have been headache free for years, as long as I watch my diet. Three other women I met, followed my advice and had success also.
   I eliminated all soy protein and soy bean oil from my diet. I did this because a clusterhead wrote in to the Diamond headache clinic newsletter, stating that; despite taking Lithium as a preventative, he had had five major episodes of headaches in one year. He was able to tie that into the fact that each time, he had eaten fast food. He guessed that the soy prot
ein may have been the culprit.
    I had only (to my knowledge) eaten anything with soy protein in it once, and the result was an immediate violent headache, so I never ate it knowingly again.
    But, I carried his idea a little further. I looked in the fridge: mayonnaise=soy bean oil; margarine=soybean oil; ragu spaghetti sauce= soybean oil. You get the picture.
    I decided to do a "soy detox" for 21 days and see what happened.
I had reached the end of my rope. I remember telling my husband, that if this didn't help, he could just check me in to the nearest psych ward. Many headache specialists agree that 98% of chronic headaches are food related: it's figuring out which food that's the kicker.
   My headaches were running four to five a day, lasting 1 to 2 hours each time, sometimes just blurring one right in to the next.
    And so, my detox began:
    By the middle of the second week, the headaches were down to one or two a day, and much shorter in duration. during the third week, I still remember waking up one morning and bursting into tears. That woke my husband, who muttered sleepily, "What is it honey, another headache?" "NO, I bawled, I SLEPT ALL NIGHT!" It was
so overwhelming to think there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
    And yes, my cluster headaches stopped.  A few years later, I began to get my "shadow". It feels to me like a slight tingling along my right cheekbone. That's my warning that I have either benn "cheating" on my self-imposed diet, or some product I buy has changed. Sure enough, the "all-butter" bread I had been buying, changed to being made with soybean oil. I gave up and bought a bread machine!
    I read on this site about drinking excessive amounts of water to lessen the effects of CHs. It seemed to me that the water would aid in flushing out of the system any "toxin" that could be causing the headaches.
    Anyway, that's my story, and if it helps even one person, I am grateful to have a place to tell it.
    It isn't always easy to grocery shop, and eating out is a very rare occurrence, but it surely has worked for me.
   I tried to make this brief, as I am so new to this site, I don't know what is customary, but please do contact me with any questions. I know what it is to be in so much pain that you don't know whether to be glad or sorry there isn't a loaded gun in the house.

Hi Susie,
I am very interested in your detox, thanks for sharing.  I am curious to know what kind of foods you substituted the soy containing foods with?  You mentioned that you stopped using margarine and mayo; what did you replace those types of foods with?  Did you find that you started buying what could be deemed as healthier alternatives, such as: organic, Free range chicken or beef products, or foods high in Omega 3 fatty acids?  Have you added any supplements to your diet?  Any info will be appreciated.  Thanks again.

Thomas

Got to ask but which headache specialists said this in relation to CH?

Some migrianes may be triggered by some foods as part of  the 'stressors' that lead up to a migraine.

Some people are intolerant of soya proteins and a few are truly allergic just as some are to other proteins.

Looking at the foods involved there may well have been a heap more ingreadiants ading to the mix than simply soya.
I would be asking questions about how the foods have been processed and if plain green soy beans without any processing cause problems too.

SINCE I AM into health foods I had been off soy products for decades before I got hit with my first CH. (Did you know that the health movement has gotten more and more suspicious of soy?) I could say that soy restriction is a good thing but I, for one, would not fit the mold of allowing --especially-- commercial soy products into my diet.
Correlation is not causation. Nevertheless I agree that diet must be watched and soy is probably a weak dietary choice.
LOVE, Daniel R Peterson

Random thoughts:

My wife has found that soy will negatively affect her thyroid in a dependable manner.  

Not sure exactly how this might work for clusters, I am guessing an allergy or intolerance to a protein or the oil.  Products that only contain soy oil (like mayonaise) don't contain much if any soy protein, but they seem to have an effect on the wife.

Kudzu and soy contain many of the same isoflavanoids (although kudzu contains puerarin, which is not in soy to any notable degree). A double-blind study on soy isoflavonoids found it could reduce the frequency of migraines; there is also a case report of a woman who started taking soy isoflavonoids getting migraines for the first time in her life shortly afterwards.  

I wouldn't be surprised if this is like testosterone - there are studies showing that testosterone helps some with clusters, as does the opposite (medicines that block testosterone help with clusters).

Think intolerance rather than allergic ; if a person has an allergy to soy there is absolutely no mistaking a severe allergic or anaphylactic response. ;)

Eat beef.

 Kinder gentler Potter

Wow, I am going to have to do an inventory check to see what is in my food. I try to be careful about that I have a daughter that is allergic to soy.

I know eating out is not good, I never thought about the soy in their products.

Guilty at eating out in a rush with the kiddos, will have to be more careful about this.

Thanks for the info!

Cassie