I found this forum while searching google for a link between migraines and amalgam fillings. I think carey is right. I am 32 years old and I started suffering from migraines exactly 1 year ago. I have a migraine about once a week and they include a visual aura that completely blinds me for 45 minutes, extreme confusion, memory loss and weakness. Please note that I NEVER had this before and nothing has changed in my life. I eat very healthy and exercise 5 days a week. The only thing that did change exactly one year ago was that I got several amalgam fillings. eric_oh, I feel that you are giving bad advice. It may be expensive but the pain is worth it if I go back to what my life was like before these migraines. Looking at this from a logical standpoint the migraines are either being caused by something physically that changed with my body or from something being introduced from the environment. I have seen a neurologist and have had the MRIs and EEGs which came back negative. I have seen a ENT, everything checks out. My regular doctor thinks I am a hypo. Only thing left are these fillings I got a year ago, exactly at the same time migraines started. I am going to go do something that's medically unjustified and have them removed. I will write back and let you all know if it solves my issues with migraines. Best Regards David

A high proportion of the posts dealing with mainstream medical topics are by people who see this forum as a place to denigrate evidence-based medicine. Then, when others respond to false and misleading claims and set the record straight, they are criticized for not sticking to herbal topics. Similarly, when a particular herbal or other alternative remedy is questioned as ineffective and/or dangerous, there are often gratuitous followup posts attacking mainstream medicine, when the original poster has not recommended or even mentioned mainstream treatment for the problem. So, most of the time it's alt med advocates who bring up the subject of mainstream medicine. There are instances where a poster asks about an herbal treatment for a problem, and is advised to seek an accurate diagnosis first from a physician before pursuing any treatment. This is not meant to rule out herbs or supplements as eventual treatment, but some find it unacceptable and threatening to mention physicians in any context other than a critical one. As for ad hominem/personal attacks, the best strategy is to disregard them and only address health-related remarks and questions. Once trolls realize they can't get a rise out of opponents or spark a flame war, they usually get bored and leave.

I have dogs and don't know terribly much about cats, but this may help anyway. We buy a food called Innova made by Natura Pet. Their website is : http://www.naturapet.com/ and they also sell a variety of cat food products. While they do utilize some Menu Foods facilities (the manufacturer that has all these recalls happening), it is quite minimal, and every bag of pet food comes back to Natura for testing before it goes on the market. Their foods are also mainly (if not all) organic as far as I know. We've been *extremely* pleased with their products for our dogs and as such, have not worried a bit about our pets through this recall deal. The dog food we buy has no wheat gluten in it at all, and very few grain "fillers", which are often the source of those type of contaminations like the one going on now. Most of their products (for dogs at least) have some sort of meat as the 2 main ingredients. Compare this to other brands, and often the first ingreident is "corn" or some filler grain like that, which is really not that great for a dog's digestive system. One of our dogs has allergies, and Natura products are the only pet products we've found that do not give him a rash. Also, we adopted an older dog with arthritis, and since putting him on Natura products, his arthritis has improved and he is more limber and active. Anyway, I could go on and on...I am so pleased with this company. However, if you are sold on home made meals, google "BARF" and you can get some good information that way. Mainly it's "dog people" doing it, but I also know of some people BARFing with their cats. My husband and I did the BARF diet for our dogs for a while, but it was quite time consuming, and I found the worry of whether or not they were getting proper nutrition to be too much. They started losing weight on it. Plus, my little allergy dog started breaking out again on it. And beyond that, I like to buy free range chicken, and it's quite hard to find free range chicken necks and such! Anyway, I'd check out Natura products.

I'm talking doctors mostly. Since I have to have health insurance I'd rather pay for something I might, possibly use as opposed to something I definitely won't use. I do not currently take any prescriptions - but I occasionally take things for Lyme disease.