dr. wife to the rescue!

earlier this week, after bryan was complaining about frequenting headaches and not sleeping very well, i battled the desire to be impatient and unmerciful to my husband. and by battled i mean completely lost the battle with hardly a fight. i was tired of his complaints, especially because i couldn't fix his problems. especially because we had already spent hundreds of dollars to try to fix the headaches. so why didn't he just buck up already and get over his pain?
several times God spoke into my heart, "...in sickness and in health." oh how humbled i need to be! i am so thankful that headaches and lack of sleep are bryan's only sicknesses and i'm so thankful to be learning these lessons on such little things.

after my change of heart, i decided to put some effort into finding some sort of solution to bryan's pain. i did some research and found lots of answers! i'm finally starting to take after my mom's resourcefulness and desire to discover natural causes and cures.

it makes sense to me that if you can find a natural cause for an ailment, you should be able to find a natural cure. after i researched headaches and the causes for them, i've deducted that it's probably allergy related. in an article i read, allergies that cause headaches also causes two other side-effects: sneezing and um, another side-effect which shall remain nameless. : ) bryan has experience both of those side-effects. in the same article i also found that foods that can cause the allergic reaction of headaches are:

• milk
• milk products
• chocolate
• chicken
• liver
• alcohol
• strong cheese

i was amazed by the helpfulness of this information! bryan's dad happens to be allergic to milk-just milk, not all dairy. we both think milk is the culprit. bryan, being the great guinea pig that he is, is going to take a break from drinking straight up milk for a while and see if that helps. if not, we'll add all dairy to the list of "do not eat." we'll continue to work our way down the list until something changes-hopefully it does!

in the meantime, we're going to see if some of these natural remedies help:

apparently, 3-4 slices worth of lemon juice will give you immediate relief from a headache

eating a peeled apple with a little salt in the morning on an empty stomach for about a week will cure your headaches (not so sure about this one, seems a little too good to be true. but i know that eating fruit on an empty stomach is really good for you so we'll probably try it!)

i also looked up some natural sleep aids. there were some obvious things like cutting out caffeine and laying off the sweets before bed but one interesting thing i found was how important magnesium is. it's a natural sedative and being magnesium deficient can directly cause insomnia. also, whole wheats can help promote sleep as well. we're thinking we'll try a magnesium supplement with some whole wheat toast or crackers before bed and see if that helps!

i'll keep you posted on the results and you can always be praying for bryan's health!