How to avoid holiday headaches, part 1

December 9, 2009

Holiday headaches are quite avoidable, but to avoid them you have to have willpower. I know myself that it is hard to resist all the chocolate that surrounds you during the holidays. If you have a choice, pick milk chocolate over dark. There is no scientific proof, but in my case I find that the higher the cocoa content the more likely I will get a headache. Of course I, like many other chocoholics do not consider milk chocolate real chocolate and don’t bother eating it. For the most part I stay away from chocolate altogether because it is addictive – once you start eating it, it is hard to stop. My headaches do respond to medication and when I do eat chocolate I make sure to have it handy. Another way to avoid headaches from chocolate, or for that matter any other trigger, is to avoid having more than one trigger at a time. That is if you want to have some chocolate do not also drink wine or do not eat chocolate if you did not get enough sleep.

Written by
Alexander Mauskop, MD
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