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Comment by Duhck | Hacker News Reader

I've been doing IF (18:6) for 6 months and OMAD (23:1) for 2 months, while I've lost a decent amount of weight, slowly but surely, I've mostly plateaued. I don't weigh myself and I'm very active (ice hockey 3-5 times a week) but I've noticed a difference in body fat qualitatively.

But... that's not why I am doing it. I've suffered for years from migraines. 2-4 times a week, I've been to half a dozen doctors with no solid recommendations besides medication.

Now, not only do I take zero medication, but I get migraines about once a month, and way less severe than I used to. Ive also correlated the migraines with times followed by poor fasting behavior (for instance, eating all day on a weekend with family and friends).

I also need less sleep, am less groggy, and have far fewer stomach issues.

Overall its a massively net positive change.

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Do you grind your teeth at night? I used to have severe migraines at least once a month until I got a night guard from a dentist that prevented grinding. Now I get a migraine maybe once a year.

I have a guard from a company called NTI. It’s a small piece of acrylic that sits on my upper front teeth and has a sort of “shelf” that my lower incisors rest on. This apparently tricks the brain into refusing to clench down because at a deep level it knows not to bite when it’s incisor on incisor.

I recall reading that this style of night guard, while certainly better than a whole tooth guard that still allows you to grind but just protects your teeth, is not great for long term. However I can’t recall why and I need to research more. In any case I’ve been using mine for over 10 years and I would never go back to not using it.

Anyway, a bunch of unsolicited info that will maybe help you or anyone suffering from migraines who stumbles across this post.

Just a note on the NTI device, I had one of these for years as I am a bad grinder.

After a while I noticed that my front teeth were not coming together any more when biting, and I could not force them together. It turns out it is known that for people that really force their jaws together, the NTI device actually changes and collapses the jaw joint, changing the pivot point of your whole jaw.

I stopped using it, but the change is permanent. I had to have the dentist actually grind down my molars so that my front teeth could touch again. Beware.

It can adjust your bite if worn too many hours in a day. Worth asking dentist, bit prob not serious if worn only during sleep and bite is monitored.

I should add I’m thinking specifically of anterior bite planes. Unsure if you have that or something different.

Thank you for your note! I don't grind my teeth, but I'll ask my dentist on my next check up!

Just an idea, but the migraine might be coming from inflammation in the brain. Eating less food causes less inflammation. You could try something like Aspirin or Glycine to bring inflammation down, it might help that last bit.

Glad you've found what works for you! Just wanted to comment that I love that you abbreviated OMAD. I've done it too and after a week or so of feeling a little dizzy around 3pm, my body fully adapted to OMAD. I just find it funny that the strategy may be well known enough to use an acronym.

Are you doing both IF and OMAD (on different days obviously) or have you switched entirely over to OMAD?

I am doing OMAD 4-5 days a week, and if I don't do OMAD I most certainly do 18:6.

On the weekends its a bit of a crap shoot since my social life is mostly around eating but I tend to stick to 16:8 (still IF)

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