
Aajonus was unequivocal about the physiological mechanism of all headaches: a headache is not a "brain ache", it is impossible to have a brain ache in the conventional sense, because the brain itself has no pain nerves. The brain is made of neurons, electrical and chemical impulse-transferring tissue, not nerve tissue that registers pain. Aajonus pointed out that open brain surgery can be performed on a conscious, speaking patient, and they will feel nothing from the brain tissue being touched, because there are no nerves in the neurons.
Aajonus's Definition
Aajonus was unequivocal about the physiological mechanism of all headaches: a headache is not a "brain ache", it is impossible to have a brain ache in the conventional sense, because the brain itself has no pain nerves. The brain is made of neurons, electrical and chemical impulse-transferring tissue, not nerve tissue that registers pain. Aajonus pointed out that open brain surgery can be performed on a conscious, speaking patient, and they will feel nothing from the brain tissue being touched, because there are no nerves in the neurons.
The pain of a headache is located entirely in the meninges, the layered connective tissue membrane surrounding the brain and nervous system. Aajonus described the meninges as being up to 11 layers thick. Each of those layers contains nerves that are fully capable of registering pain. When the brain swells, which it does during detoxification, during toxic overload, or during excessive fluid accumulation, the fluid and expanded brain tissue presses outward against the meninges, and the meninges press against the inside of the skull. That pressure on those nerve-laden meninges is what is experienced as a headache.
He stated this mechanism in multiple ways across different workshops:
"The water, the fluid in the brain swells, collects, presses on the meningi against the skull. That is a headache. It's always in the meningi wherever it is around the head."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"When you get a headache, it's the swelling of the brain, the water retention in the brain pushing on the skull, and it's that meningi that eludes up to 11 layers of coating around the brain where you experience pain."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
"The skull is too small, and the brain's trying to expand, get more nutrients into it."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
The skull, unlike softer tissue in the body, does not automatically expand in sync with the swelling brain. The skull is held together at fissure points by sinew, tendons and ligaments, that keep those bony seams buckled together. Because these connective tissue attachments resist expansion, the skull does not enlarge as the brain needs more room, and so pressure builds against the meninges. That pressure is the headache.
This is Aajonus's unified definition of all headaches, regardless of type: a brain trying to expand, fluid accumulating in the brain, pressing against an inelastic skull, and the meninges bearing the full force of that pressure.
Migraines are sudden headaches that fluctuate in intensity, usually occurring on one side of the head. The fluctuating intensity corresponds to fluctuating pressure inside the skull. The one-sided nature reflects the localization of the toxic or fluid accumulation within the brain on that particular side.
Aajonus identified that in migraines, the toxicity is typically in the nervous system, not simply in the blood or the surrounding tissues, which is why many of the standard headache remedies work less reliably for migraines than for common headaches. When the toxicity is seated within the nervous system and the meninges themselves, pulling those toxins out through the blood and lymph is a slower and more complex process.
Cluster headaches, which Aajonus acknowledged are sometimes called "suicide headaches" in conventional medicine, reflecting their severity, are successively occurring headaches that grow in intensity, eventually becoming immobilizing. They are not just one severe headache but a series, each one worse than the last, occurring in a pattern.
Aajonus described cluster headaches as occurring in a body that is "laced with volatile toxins, usually from excessive adrenaline, accompanied by low blood fat and low body fat levels." He also described them as being "somewhat allergy related," meaning there is an immune hypersensitivity component to the toxic cycling that produces the cluster pattern.
The specific mechanism of cluster headaches involves the nervous system, just as with migraines, but the pattern of successive escalating attacks reflects the body's repeated attempts to detoxify through the meninges and nervous tissue while insufficient fat is present in the blood and body to buffer those toxins.
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Root Cause
Aajonus identified multiple root causes for headaches, and he was careful to distinguish between types of headaches based on their particular underlying cause. He stated definitively:
"I've finally come to two reasons: too much salt so the edema is so large that it creates high blood pressure, causes not a constriction, but a swelling in the brain and in the nerves and that creates the headaches. Another one is toxicity in the blood, also needing edema to swell and expand causes the headaches."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Aajonus considered salt, all condiment salts including sea salt, to be the single most prominent cause of headaches, particularly migraines. He stated:
"Salt causes 80% of all headaches."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He explained the physiological mechanism in detail. Salt, when it enters the body, is an explosive substance. Aajonus stated that the body "fractionates and separates it," causing "little explosions going off in the bloodstream damaging red blood cells and white blood cells." These explosions create micro-damage in the vascular system, and the body responds with fluid accumulation (edema) to dilute and manage the volatile sodium.
He pointed to a specific piece of documentation in his own research: he worked with people who had long histories of headaches. Ninety percent of them ate a lot of salt. When they stopped consuming all forms of condiment salts, including sea salt, they stopped having frequent headaches. When their headaches returned periodically, he had their blood and urine analyzed. Every analysis showed sodium molecules clumping, exactly as if they had recently consumed condiment salts, even when they insisted they had not. Additionally, all analyses showed high levels of dead cells, especially liver and brain cells. His conclusion was that the body was dumping stored sodium out of the tissues, particularly liver and brain cells, and that these periodic salt detox episodes were producing the recurrent headaches.
He gave the example of his own father, who suffered from debilitating migraines for decades, five days a week with migraines so severe he would have to leave work at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and suffer through to the next morning. Aajonus told his father when he (Aajonus) was 27 years old, making his father about 57 at the time, to stop eating salt. His father ignored this advice for approximately 20 years. When his father was around 65 to 67, he developed arrhythmia. His cardiologist told him to stop eating salt. His father stopped eating salt. His migraines went away within 24 hours. Aajonus stated:
"Here he suffered 5 days a week with migraines that were excruciating for him. Debilitating. He'd come home from work, sometimes at 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon with a migraine because he couldn't function. And it would last all the way to the next morning. He'd go to work tired. All of his life."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Aajonus also connected salt's effect on the body to its historical use as a tool of social control, noting that it disturbs thinking, disturbs logic, disturbs calm feelings, creates irritability, and creates headaches including migraines.
The second major root cause is toxicity in the blood and in the brain and nervous tissue. When the body accumulates toxins, from any source, those toxins must be processed and eliminated. The brain and nervous system are high-priority detoxification sites, and when the brain detoxifies, it swells. The detoxification process increases fluid circulation to the brain, causes tissue reaction, and produces the expansion that results in meningeal pressure.
This is a completely normal, purposeful physiological process in Aajonus's framework, detoxification through the brain. The headache is the symptom of that healthy process, not a disease in itself. He stated:
"Remember, a headache is a swelling in the brain. It's a detoxification."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Aajonus specifically identified toxic metal accumulation as a major cause of migraine and cluster headaches. He described seeing this pattern repeatedly in iridology consultations, where he could observe metal accumulation in the sinuses and brain:
"Lots of minerals, toxic minerals, stored in the sinuses. Do you get headaches? ... Usually when I see this condition, people have either migraines or cluster headaches. So, there's toxic minerals there? Toxic metals."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He described the mechanism: metal gets into the nerve endings. The nerve ending tries to throw it off, causing mass swelling. White blood cells rush to the site. The nerve gets pushed and stretched and the tension on it produces excruciating pain. This is similar to the headache mechanism but involves the nerve endings specifically rather than just the general meningeal pressure.
He identified mercury from dental amalgam fillings as a particularly common source. He also noted mercury from vaccines as a cause in children, and described personally experiencing headaches starting approximately six hours after receiving a vaccination at 18 months old, because the mercury and aluminum from that vaccine went directly into his brain.
He described a case involving someone who had lived near a potter and on a road graveled with mercury tailings, resulting in extremely high mercury levels, a degree of mercury contamination he said he usually only saw in young children who had received many vaccines.
For cluster headaches specifically, Aajonus identified low blood fat and low body fat as essential conditions enabling their occurrence. The toxic volatile compounds, including excessive adrenaline, cannot be buffered without adequate fat in the system. Fat is the primary substance that binds, neutralizes, and removes volatile toxins from the nervous system. When fat levels are insufficient, those toxins cycle repeatedly through the nervous tissue, producing the escalating series of cluster attacks.
Cluster headaches occur in a body laced with volatile toxins, "usually from excessive adrenaline." The adrenal system, when chronically overactivated, produces hormonal byproducts that become toxic metabolites. These accumulate in the nervous system and, in the context of low body fat, produce the cluster pattern.
Aajonus noted a specific mechanism by which raw dairy could appear to cause headaches even though it does not directly do so:
"Raw dairy never causes a headache. It's old toxic casein that your body's collected from old pasteurized dairy and sometimes the fresh dairy will cause an old storage of casein to be pulled out of the body and that can cause a temporary headache."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This is a detox-related headache triggered by the introduction of raw dairy, which stimulates the body to pull out old toxic casein deposits from previous pasteurized dairy consumption.
Aajonus noted one additional edge case:
"I've found that about six times out of ten if somebody is real sensitive to unnatural carbons they get headaches and their mind will shut down a little bit and won't be thinking as well. Of course, the person who is experiencing it doesn't really notice that their brain is shutting down."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This specifically concerned unnatural carbonation, not naturally sparkling mineral water, which he used therapeutically in headache formulas.
In one consultation, Aajonus identified significant lymphatic congestion in the left side of someone's brain as the source of frequent headaches, particularly in the frontal area. He attributed this primarily to salt and instructed the person to eliminate salt.
In one specific case involving heavy lead and mineral toxicity stored in the hair and tissues, Aajonus noted that when that toxicity dumps into the blood, it creates high blood pressure and produces headaches. He instructed the person to use the pain formula whenever this occurred.
Aajonus also described headaches as a consequence of meningeal detoxification, particularly when a virus or bacteria is working in the meninges to clean out specific tissue. He described how a particular virus might clean out just one specific tissue type in one layer of the meninges, even as little as one percent of that whole layer, but it creates an inflammatory reaction and headaches result, along with detoxification through the mucous membranes. This is a completely purposeful cleansing process.
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Why This Happens
Headaches fit primarily within the Detoxification of Aajonus's philosophical framework. All headaches are, at their root, the body conducting detoxification through the brain and nervous system. The brain swells in order to push toxins through, this is normal and healthy. The skull's resistance to expanding with the swelling brain is the mechanical problem that produces pain.
Headaches also fit within the Root Cause / Terrain Theory, specifically as a consequence of: - Salt consumption (a terrain-degrading substance) - Industrial toxic accumulation (heavy metals, chemicals, vaccines) - Low fat levels in the body (insufficient terrain buffering capacity)
The condition is not caused by microbes, though microbes working in the meninges can produce headache as a side effect of their beneficial cleaning activity, the headache itself is the result of swelling and pressure, not microbial damage.
Headaches also relate to the Cooked Food in the sense that cooked food, processed sugars, salt, and pasteurized dairy all contribute to the toxic accumulations that produce headaches. The Raw Food is relevant because adequate raw fat is the primary buffer that prevents cluster headache formation and supports recovery.
The Sovereignty is implicitly relevant because Aajonus repeatedly pointed out that pharmaceutical companies profit enormously from headache sufferers:
"The pharmaceutical knows that people who have a headache down more toxins, medication, than anybody else. People who have headaches take more medication than anyone else. People will take whole bottles of aspirin in a day with a headache."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He was pointing to the systemic financial incentive to keep people dependent on aspirin and pharmaceutical pain relief rather than addressing the root cause through dietary change.
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Symptoms Reframed
Aajonus categorized common headaches into three types based on their accompanying symptoms, each corresponding to a different root cause mechanism:
High Blood Pressure Headache: This is the most common type, most often caused by eating salt. The salt creates explosive micro-damage in the bloodstream, leading to high blood pressure and excessive fluid accumulation (edema) that causes brain swelling. This headache is primarily driven by the high-pressure component of the blood's toxic state.
Low Blood Circulation Headache: Accompanied by sluggishness. This type occurs when circulation to the brain is insufficient, meaning the brain is not receiving adequate nutrients and oxygen. The brain responds by increasing fluid and swelling to compensate, but the skull does not accommodate. The sluggishness indicates the general circulatory deficiency.
Toxic Blood Stream Headache: Accompanied by nausea. This is the detoxification headache par excellence, the body has high levels of toxins circulating in the blood, the body is attempting to flush them through the brain, and the nausea signals that toxins are dumping into the digestive tract simultaneously.
Migraines are not a mysterious neurological disorder. They are: 1. A headache where the toxicity has penetrated into the nervous system itself, rather than being primarily in the blood 2. A headache driven by sudden, fluctuating pressure as the brain expands and contracts during active nervous-system detoxification 3. Often one-sided because the toxic accumulation or nervous system detoxification is localized to one side 4. Frequently salt-related at their core, with the salt causing explosive damage in the blood that the nervous system then attempts to clear 5. Exacerbated by: caffeine, alcohol, processed sugars, cheddar and jack cheeses (even raw), condiment salt, and anything made with baking soda
The one-sided nature of migraines is not a mysterious "aura" phenomenon, it reflects the localization of the swelling and detoxification process within the brain.
Cluster headaches are not a medical mystery. They are: 1. A body laced with volatile toxins (primarily from excessive adrenaline buildup) that has insufficient fat to buffer those toxins 2. The "successively occurring" and "growing in intensity" pattern reflects repeated detoxification attempts that each fail to fully clear the toxic load because fat reserves are too low to bind and remove the toxins 3. Somewhat allergy-related, meaning there is a hyperreactive immune component where the body overresponds to the toxic triggers 4. The "suicide headache" severity comes from the combination of deep nervous system toxicity, low fat buffering, and the inflammatory cascade of each successive attack
Aajonus consistently reframed the conventional neurological explanation (vascular constriction, "neurovascular disorder," serotonin disruption, etc.) by returning to his foundational anatomical point: there are no pain nerves in the brain tissue itself. All head pain is meningeal pain. Period. This is not a controversial anatomical claim on his part, he noted it is established that the brain has no sensory pain nerves, but the implications for his framework are profound: the brain can swell considerably and the person will only feel that swelling when it begins to press against the meninges. This means the pain is always secondary, always delayed relative to the actual swelling process, and always mechanical in its immediate cause even if toxic in its underlying cause.
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Food Protocol
Before any food protocol, Aajonus considered the hot water bottle treatment to be the most essential and immediate intervention for any headache. This is a physical/mechanical intervention that addresses the skull's failure to expand with the swelling brain.
The full protocol:
1. Lie on your back (not on your side, not sitting up, specifically on your back) 2. Take two hot water bottles 3. Place one on each side of the head, not on top of the head, and crucially, NOT pressing against the head. The hot water bottles should be at the sides without pressure against the skull, because pressure would counteract the expansion you are trying to achieve 4. Place a towel over the hot water bottles and over the head, creating a tent that captures the heat inside, leave the nose and/or mouth uncovered so breathing is possible 5. The tented heat penetrates the skull and warms all the sinew, tendons, and ligaments that hold the skull's fissures together 6. As those connective tissue structures relax, the fissures open and the skull can expand 7. The skull expands to accommodate the swelling brain 8. 80-85% of the headache disappears once this expansion occurs
Critical warning about the first 10-12 minutes:
Aajonus explicitly warned that the headache will worsen for the first 10-12 minutes of this treatment, not improve. The reason is that the brain fluid expands first, and the skull fissures take time, approximately 10 minutes, to relax enough to allow the skull to expand. During that first 10 minutes, the brain is expanding while the skull is still not accommodating, so pressure on the meninges temporarily increases. He stated:
"The first time I've had a hot water bottle on either side, it gets worse because the brain swells first and the skull, it takes longer. So you have to make it through that little bit of 10 minutes of more headache. It takes about 5 minutes where it starts increasing, goes about 10 to 12 minutes of more pain and then it starts lowering at that point."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
The person must persist through this initial worsening. Once the fissures relax, typically within 10-12 minutes, the skull begins to expand and 80-85% of the headache disappears "just like that."
Aajonus expressed dismay at how simple this solution is and how little known it is:
"20 minutes people suffer with headaches all day long, migraines, and all they have to do is simply lie down for a half an hour, 20 minutes, a half an hour, the hot water bottle is there, tint the heat into their head, have the headache formulas, the headache is gone. All this suffering."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Do NOT use cold/ice for headaches:
Aajonus was emphatic that cold compresses, ice packs, and cold water are wrong for headaches:
"Hot, always hot. Well, you could cause your brain to shrink and that could be for athletes. Once you apply cold water, cold compresses, ice packs, you prevent circulation into that area."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He stated that increased circulation is necessary because the brain is trying to bring in more nutrients for the detoxification, to clean up bruised, damaged tissue and circulating toxins. Cold prevents this circulation and thus prevents the detoxification from completing. Cold may temporarily numb the pain but does nothing to resolve the underlying process and may obstruct it.
Hot baths as an alternative:
A whole-body hot bath will also cause the skull to expand, for the same reason, total body heat causes all tissue to expand, including the skull. However, Aajonus noted important caveats:
- Hot baths should not be too hot, temperatures that are too high will destroy beneficial bacteria in the body, which leads to depression
- If the bath is too hot and bacteria are destroyed, the person should have high meat or rotten eggs ready to restore bacterial populations
- Duration should be kept to 5-7 minutes at a time
- Hot baths can sometimes worsen headaches by causing the brain to expand faster than the skull accommodates, increasing meningeal pressure
- An alternative when hot baths worsen headaches is to place 5-7 hot water bottles under the covers with the body, heating the whole body without specifically causing rapid brain expansion
Aajonus described three distinct headache formulas, each corresponding to a different type of headache. He recommended that when having a headache, a person have all three available and use whichever ones apply to their type, drinking them separately (not mixed together simultaneously):
Formula 1: High Blood Pressure Headache Formula
- 2 ounces naturally sparkling water
- 2 tablespoons unheated honey
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Mix these together first
- Then add 6 ounces more naturally sparkling water
- Drink
Usually relieves this headache in 20-40 minutes.
Formula 2: Low Blood Circulation Headache Formula
- 2 ounces naturally sparkling water
- 2 tablespoons unheated honey
- Mix together
- Add 6 ounces more naturally sparkling water
- Drink
Usually relieves this headache in 20-40 minutes.
Note: This formula and the high blood pressure formula are structurally identical except that the high blood pressure formula adds lemon juice. Aajonus distinguished between them by the presence or absence of lemon.
Formula 3: Toxic Blood Stream Headache Formula (for headaches accompanied by nausea)
Option A: - 1 cup fresh raw orange juice - 3 tablespoons unheated honey - Drink
Usually relieves this headache in 20-40 minutes.
Option B: - 6 ounces good mineral water - 2 tablespoons raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar - Fresh raw juice of ½ lemon - 3 tablespoons unheated honey
Usually relieves this headache in 20 minutes.
Aajonus noted that he had learned, after the first book was published, that cream should always be added to the headache formulas and he stated he was updating the book to include this:
"You should always have the cream with it. And even though I didn't put that in the first book, I'm changing it on the revision to come out next year."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
The reason cream is important: it helps pull toxins out of the blood so the blood's toxicity does not cause as much swelling. It also neutralizes some of those toxins. Additionally, the high mineral content in honey adds to the water and keeps the water properly structured in the tissues.
He stated: "I usually recommend is honey, water, lemon juice and cream. That lasts longer. Use just the honey and water. It's not going to last very long. But it will work quicker and work better."
So honey and water alone works quicker but doesn't last as long. Adding cream makes the formula last longer.
For migraines specifically, when awake, Aajonus recommended:
- Eating a little spoonful of unheated honey every five minutes
- Avoiding all other food, especially avoiding meat and dairy during a migraine
- If thirsty: sipping some good mineral water, OR some fresh raw orange juice with an equal amount of unheated honey
The key for migraines is the slow, repeated small doses of honey every five minutes, allowing it to continuously provide minerals and energy to the detoxifying nervous system without burdening it with foods that require complex digestion.
Sleeping as the best relief for migraines:
Aajonus stated unambiguously that sleeping is the best relief for migraines. Sleep is the state in which the body devotes the most energy to its own repair and detoxification, and allowing the nervous system to complete its detox cycle during sleep is the most efficient path through a migraine.
Aajonus described a comprehensive pain formula that he emphasized works for all types of pain, including headaches, though with varying degrees of effectiveness:
- Pain formula does not work more than 50% with headaches in general
- With cluster headaches, it still only works maybe 30%
- However, it does work for migraines when combined with cheese
The Pain Formula ingredients:
- 1 egg (preferably 2 eggs, depending on body size; 2-4 eggs for larger people)
- 3 ounces raw cream (if cow's cream unavailable, use raw coconut cream)
- 3 ounces raw milk
- 6 heaping tablespoons of fresh bee pollen (must be refrigerated bee pollen that crumbles in the fingers and comes apart easily, soft pollen, not hard pellets; if it's pellets it has been dried and is not sufficiently fresh/active)
- 1½ to 2 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on how much butter, cream, or coconut cream is used)
- Optional: 1 teaspoon of honey only, not more
How to consume the pain formula:
Aajonus described a precise protocol for consuming the pain formula:
1. Take the first 3 ounces of the formula 2. At the same time as the first 3 ounces, eat a piece of raw, no-salt-added cheese that is 1 inch by 1½ inches, the thickness of the brick of cheese (approximately the thickness of a standard cheese brick) 3. After that initial dose, for every 1-2 ounces of the formula consumed subsequently, eat 1 sugar-cube-sized amount of raw, no-salt-added cheese 4. Chew the formula sip and the cheese together
Why cheese improves the pain formula:
The cheese improves pain relief by approximately 20-40% when combined with the formula. Eating more cheese can sometimes cause slight dehydration if it exceeds the appropriate ratio, but this can be corrected with a small drink of water or milk.
Which cheese for migraines:
Aajonus made a specific distinction for migraine sufferers:
"Cheddar works a little bit better if you're a person who gets migraines. It's better to use the other cheeses. It only cuts it down maybe 5% of its value, of its therapy."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Wait, he actually stated the opposite. He said for migraine sufferers it is better to use other cheeses (not cheddar), and that cheddar cuts the therapy value by about 5%. But in other discussions of the pain formula generally, he said cheddar works a little better than Munster or Monterey Jack. The migraine-specific guidance is that non-cheddar cheeses work better for migraines, though the difference is small (5%).
All cheeses used must be: - Raw - No salt added - Preferably Cheddar for general pain relief - For migraines: Munster or Monterey work somewhat better than cheddar
He also confirmed that homemade cheese can be used in the pain formula, though he had not personally tested it.
History of the pain formula and migraines:
Aajonus noted that the pain formula did not originally work for migraines. It was only when he added the cheese (and potentially other components) that it became effective for migraines:
"Migraines, it even works for migraines. I couldn't get it until I had the cheese and other things involved. It didn't work for migraines before. This now works for migraines."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
For simple headaches, honey alone in sparkling water: - Works quickly - Does not last as long as the full formula with cream - Is faster-acting but shorter-duration than the cream-inclusive version
For the toxic blood stream headache with nausea: - 1 cup fresh raw orange juice - 3 tablespoons unheated honey - Relieves in 20-40 minutes
For cluster headache sufferers over age 25, Aajonus outlined a prevention protocol that must be followed for several months before the cluster season begins:
Step 1: Abstain from the trigger foods (see What to Avoid below) for at least 3 days per week
Step 2: On those days, eat: - Cooked starches with plenty of raw fat - Tomatoes - Fresh raw fish, salmon being the most commonly effective
This combination, cooked starches with raw fat, tomatoes, and fresh raw salmon, must be maintained for at least 3 days weekly for several months before the cluster season to usually prevent recurrence.
When headaches come from the nervous system, as in migraines and cluster headaches, Aajonus gave specific dietary guidance beyond the formulas:
"Those remedies don't work with the nervous system; they'll only help a tiny bit. So you've got to eat a lot of cheese, got to eat eggs, got to make sure that you don't go to sleep at the time when the nervous system kicks in to do its detoxification, at midnight."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This is a critical piece of guidance specific to nervous system headaches: eating large amounts of cheese and eggs is necessary to provide the substrate the nervous system needs to process and remove toxins. Cheese specifically absorbs toxins from the nervous tissue and carries them out through the digestive tract. Eggs provide the fats, proteins, and bioavailable nutrients for nervous system repair.
He also warned specifically against sleeping at midnight when the nervous system initiates its primary detoxification cycle, implying that when migraines or cluster headaches are active, managing sleep timing relative to the nervous system's detox schedule is important (the text was cut off at "at midnight - until you" so the full instruction is not available from the sources).
For headaches caused by heavy metal toxicity (mercury, lead, and other metals from fillings, vaccines, industrial exposure), Aajonus recommended:
- Cheese throughout the day in small sugar-cube-sized amounts
- Every half hour to 45 minutes to an hour
- Consistently throughout the day
- This keeps pulling the metals out of the nervous tissue and into the digestive tract for elimination
He stated in one consultation involving chemical/oil paint exposure causing headaches:
"Cream will help. Cheese, eat cheese all day long, little sugar cube sized amounts every half hour to 45 minutes to an hour. Keep pulling it out. Vinegar will also help, so have a tablespoon of vinegar with a vegetable juice every day."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
For headaches driven by heavy metal toxicity:
"Berries and berries and blackberries will help you also get rid of those metals faster. And if you're going to mold some, mold those. Particular berries."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He recommended blackberries specifically, and suggested molding the berries (i.e., allowing them to develop mold, which in his framework increases their therapeutic potency for metal removal). Berries help break down metals and carry them out of the nervous system.
For intense, persistent headaches accompanied by detox symptoms including body stiffness, joint pain, neck stiffness, and inability to sleep, Aajonus recommended:
- Custard with a tiny bit of fresh ginger grated into each one, daily
- Smoothies containing: 2-3 eggs, 3 oz raw cream, 2 oz raw milk (the specific full recipe was cut off in the sources but these components were listed)
In one specific case involving metals in the sinuses going forward toward the frontal area, Aajonus recommended a specific juice formula:
- 40% celery
- 30% summer squash (especially zucchini)
- 20% parsley
- 10% cilantro
- This ratio for one week
- Then the following week: swap the cilantro for 10% carrot, alternating between the two weekly versions
- At least 2 tablespoons of cream in each juice, preferably 3 tablespoons
He noted that when metals are moving forward through the sinuses (as in this case), the headaches go forward into the frontal area. When they move backward and down (more typical), they manifest differently. He considered the frontal exit via the sinuses to be "a better way" and "much better" than the downward path.
Aajonus suggested glandular tissue, liver, brain, or other organs, as part of the dietary support for people with migraines, particularly in the context of having the pain formula:
"It would be a great idea if you can find a source for glandular tissue. I don't care if it's liver, I don't care if it's brain, as long as it's organic if it's brain. It doesn't have to be organic if it's liver."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
He recommended cheese (from the cheese-and-pain-formula protocol) with a small amount of raw glandular/organ tissue, bitten off and chewed together.
Fresh raw salmon is "more often the most effective" of the raw fish options for preventing cluster headache recurrence when used as part of the pre-season protocol. The specific mechanism is not elaborated in these sources, but its position in the prevention protocol, alongside cooked starches, raw fat, and tomatoes, suggests it provides specific fats and nutrients the nervous system needs to build sufficient buffering capacity before the cluster season arrives.
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What to Avoid
- i
All condiment salts must be eliminated: - Table salt - Sea salt - Any salt used as a condiment or food additive - Anything cooked or prepared with salt - Aajonus was emphatic: "It doesn't take a lot. It doesn't make any difference." Meaning even small amounts of salt contribute to headaches
- ii
He identified salt as responsible for 80% of all headaches and explicitly linked it to migraines. Salt's mechanism, explosive micro-damage in the bloodstream, edema formation, high blood pressure, brain swelling, makes it uniquely destructive for anyone prone to headaches.
- iii
During a migraine: - Avoid all food except small spoonfuls of unheated honey every five minutes - Especially avoid meat during a migraine - Especially avoid dairy during a migraine - (Honey, mineral water, and fresh raw orange juice with honey are acceptable)
- iv
The following foods and substances should be avoided and doing so "usually solves the problem" for cluster headache sufferers:
- v
1. Caffeine, including all its sources: aspirin (which contains caffeine and/or has caffeine-like effects), coffee, chocolate, sodas 2. Alcohol, all forms 3. Processed sugars, all forms 4. Cheddar and jack cheeses, Aajonus specifically noted that even raw versions of cheddar and jack cheese are problematic for cluster headache sufferers (unlike most raw dairy, which is beneficial) 5. Salt, all condiment salts, as detailed above 6. Anything made with baking soda, baking soda is a sodium compound and creates its own volatile effects in the bloodstream
- vi
Aajonus explicitly named aspirin as something to avoid for headaches. This is partly because aspirin contains or functions like caffeine (he grouped it with caffeine triggers for cluster headaches), and partly because pharmaceutical pain relief masks the detoxification process without resolving it, creating dependency:
- vii
> "People will take whole bottles of aspirin in a day with a headache."
- viii
He framed the pharmaceutical industry's profit motive around headache medications as a reason people are not given simple dietary solutions.
- ix
As stated above, cold should never be applied to the head for headaches. Cold prevents the circulation that is necessary for the detoxification to complete, and cold causes the skull to contract rather than expand, working directly against the body's need to accommodate the swelling brain.
- x
- xi
Aajonus mentioned that cluster and migraine headache sufferers should not sleep at the specific time when the nervous system begins its primary detoxification cycle, at midnight. The implication is that this timing of sleep can put the person into the deepest part of the nervous system's detox at a time when they cannot manage the symptoms, potentially worsening the headache episode. The full instruction was cut off in the available sources.
- xii
Hot baths cause the brain to expand more rapidly than the skull accommodates, which can worsen an already intense headache. Aajonus described this:
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> "Hot baths usually cause headaches to worsen."
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His solution for people who want to support detoxification through heat but cannot tolerate baths worsening their headache: use 5-7 hot water bottles placed under the covers with the body instead. This heats the body without causing the rapid brain expansion that worsens meningeal pressure.
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However, he also noted that since an already-intense headache is already at maximum pressure, the addition of a hot bath "is unlikely" to make it worse in those cases. So the guidance is conditional: if you have an already-maximal headache, the bath probably won't worsen it; if you have a moderate headache that can still escalate, the bath might push it worse, and hot water bottles under the covers are safer.
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Recovery Timeline
- High blood pressure headache formula: usually relieves in 20-40 minutes
- Low blood circulation headache formula: usually relieves in 20-40 minutes
- Toxic blood stream headache formula (orange juice and honey version): usually relieves in 20-40 minutes
- Toxic blood stream headache formula (mineral water, vinegar, lemon, honey version): usually relieves in 20 minutes
- Hot water bottle treatment alone: 80-85% of headache resolved after 10-12 minutes of skull expansion (with initial 5-12 minute worsening period before improvement)
- Combined hot water bottle + headache formulas: nearly complete resolution in approximately 20-30 minutes total
Aajonus described his personal experience: he started a workshop day with a headache and within 45 minutes of leaving his hotel room, the headache was gone. He noted the headache "mitigates", meaning it is reduced significantly even if not completely eliminated, and that 85% reduction is highly workable for functioning through the day.
Aajonus's most striking example is his father's case: after decades of migraines occurring five days per week, debilitating and lasting from early afternoon through the next morning, eliminating salt caused the migraines to disappear within 24 hours of stopping salt intake.
"His migraines went away in 24 hours."
Aajonus Vonderplanitz
This is an extraordinary timeline, not weeks or months of gradual improvement, but 24 hours. However, this may reflect a best-case scenario where salt was the primary and almost exclusive driver. Individual results would depend on how many other toxic factors are also contributing.
The prevention protocol (3+ days weekly of avoiding triggers while eating cooked starches with raw fat, tomatoes, and raw salmon) must be followed for:
- At least 3 days weekly
- For several months before the cluster season begins
- This timeline "usually prevents reoccurrence"
This is a months-long preventive protocol, not an acute treatment. Once cluster headaches have begun, they are extremely difficult to stop, the protocol must be established before the season starts.
The standard headache remedies only help "a tiny bit" when the toxicity is in the nervous system. The primary protocol is: - Large amounts of cheese - Eggs - Managing sleep timing relative to the midnight nervous system detox cycle
This implies a longer and less predictable timeline for migraine and cluster headache recovery, measured in weeks to months of consistent dietary support, not hours.
Metal removal from the nervous system is a long-term process. Aajonus described using cheese throughout the day, every half to one hour, as an ongoing protocol. Berries help accelerate metal removal. The juice formula (celery/zucchini/parsley/cilantro with cream) used alternately week by week is part of an extended protocol. These are not day-or-week protocols, metal detoxification from nervous tissue takes months to years in Aajonus's framework.
He noted for one person with significant metal toxicity in the sinuses going forward: "When that metal starts pulling out at that point, you're going to have it [frontal headaches]", indicating that the detox process itself will produce headaches as the metals move through. This is expected and is part of the recovery process, not a sign of worsening.
Given that Aajonus described mercury from vaccines affecting him from 18 months of age onward, and that he described needing 40 years to clean out all the damage from childhood medical interventions ("It takes 40 years to clean out all that garbage"), metal-related headaches from early toxic exposure represent a very long recovery arc, measured in years and decades of consistent dietary support rather than short-term treatment.
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Questions Aajonus Answered
- Q&A: Headache That Will Not Go Away, Debilitating, With Body Stiffness, Neck Pain, Joint Pain
From the written correspondence (December 11, 2011):
A person wrote to Aajonus describing a progressive deterioration over several weeks: it began with pain and stiffness all over the body, especially in the joints. Then the stiffness moved into the neck, so stiff the person literally could not move it, and it was very painful. Then, a few days prior to writing, a headache came on that would not go away. It was completely debilitating, the person could not do anything and could not sleep. The body stiffness and joint pain continued alongside the headache.
Aajonus's response: He identified this as a detoxification crisis in which the brain was detoxifying at the same time as the rest of the body needed the same hot bath protocol to clear toxins through the skin. The problem was that hot baths, which are needed for full-body detoxification, usually cause headaches to worsen because they cause the brain to expand faster than the skull accommodates, increasing pressure on the cerebral meninges.
His specific guidance for this conflict:
1. Option A (baths): Hot baths can still be used since the headache is already intense, it is "unlikely that your headache would increase with baths" when the headache is already at its maximum. If the bath does worsen the headache, switch to option B.
2. Option B (hot water bottles under covers): Place 5-7 hot water bottles under the covers with the body. This heats the entire body, supporting the full-body detoxification that baths would accomplish, without causing rapid brain expansion that increases meningeal pressure.
3. Daily custard with a tiny bit of ginger grated into each one: Consumed daily throughout the crisis.
4. Smoothies: Containing 2-3 eggs, 3 oz raw cream, 2 oz raw milk (the full recipe was cut off in the source but these are the initial components listed).
- Q&A: Frontal Headaches from Metal Going Forward Through Sinuses
From a personal consultation:
A person presenting with metals in the sinuses and brain (visible to Aajonus through iridology) mentioned getting frontal headaches quite a bit.
Aajonus's response: He explained that the metals going forward toward the sinuses and frontal area is unusual, most often metals go down and backward. But going forward toward the sinuses is actually a superior pathway: "Usually it goes down. Yours is going forward to go out the sinuses. Super... It's rare that I ever see it go this way." He considered the forward-sinus exit route to be "much better" than the downward path.
His protocol for this case: - Specific juice formula: 40% celery, 30% summer squash (especially zucchini), 20% parsley, 10% cilantro for one week; then 10% carrot replacing the cilantro the next week, alternating - At least 2-3 tablespoons of cream in each juice - Pain formula (2 eggs, bee pollen, cream/coconut cream, lemon juice) - The pain formula combined with cheese - When the metals dump into the blood and cause high blood pressure and headaches: use the pain formula
He also noted that when the metals start pulling out of the tissues as detoxification proceeds, the person can expect headaches to intensify, warning: "If that metal starts pulling out at that point, you're going to have it."
- Q&A: Migraines Developing, What Is Happening?
From a workshop exchange:
A person stated: "I'm developing what I'm told are migraine symptoms."
Aajonus began to explain the mechanism (the passage was cut short in the source), but from the context and surrounding discussion, his explanation covered the metal contamination (heavy mercury burden from the person's environmental exposure to mercury tailings), the bile concentration issue, and the fundamental skull-expansion mechanism. He directed the person to: - Use the hot water bottle protocol to expand the skull - Use the pain formula
- Q&A: Headaches and Salt, Direct Seminar Exchange
Seminar exchange:
Someone mentioned getting headaches. Aajonus asked: "Do you eat salt? Not a lot."
Aajonus responded emphatically: "It doesn't take a lot. It doesn't make any difference. Salt is the worst thing you can do besides cooking your food."
He then gave a full explanation of what salt does in the body, the explosive fractionation, the damage to red blood cells, the creation of edema and swelling. He noted the person had lymphatic congestion on the left side of their brain, consistent with their report of headaches in the front of the head. He attributed this congestion to salt and stated:
> "You shouldn't be getting headaches. It must be salt."
- Q&A: Do All the Headache Formulas Work Together?
Seminar exchange:
A person asked: "When I've had headaches, sometimes some of the remedies in the book are helpful like the orange juice or Perrier and honey, those kind of things. But then other times they're not. Do you have any other suggestions for headaches?"
Aajonus: "Well, if you have that [the pain formula] with the headache formula, you have all of them. You have this pain formula and the other headache formulas I recommend in the book. They all work together then. Don't mix them at the same time. Drink them separately but have them. Have all of them. Whichever ones apply to your type of headache."
He confirmed this was "a tough one", headaches are one of the harder conditions to fully resolve with the formulas. He said: "The headache one is a tough one."
- Q&A: Toxic Minerals in Sinuses, No Headaches Yet, But Should Have Them
Personal consultation exchange:
Aajonus observed significant toxic mineral/metal accumulation in a person's sinuses during iridology. He asked: "Do you get headaches? No, but I have a chronic problem."
Aajonus: "Most people do. I'm surprised you don't have migraines with that one. I don't get headaches usually."
Aajonus: "You're very fortunate. Usually when I see this condition, people have either migraines or cluster headaches."
He described what he was seeing as a concentration of toxic metals, "like it could be mercury from fillings. It's a little bit more than that because it goes so high up."
- Q&A: Hot Baths Causing Splitting Headache
Written correspondence:
A person had taken two hot baths in one day for pain relief from a rash, and was "left with a splitting headache and had so many muscle cramps that night that my back pain paled in comparison."
Aajonus's response (from the massage/rash context) confirmed this was a known consequence of hot baths during intense detoxification, baths disturb many stored toxins simultaneously, can cause massive detoxification, and when the brain expands faster than the skull during the bath, the headache result is expected. This is precisely why he recommended the hot water bottles under the covers as an alternative when baths worsen headaches.
- Q&A: Headache from Heavy Detox During Workshop
Aajonus describing his own experience at a workshop:
> "Can anybody tell here I'm going through a heavy detox? I have a splitting headache right now and it's not affecting me. It does not limit my ability to communicate with you and to get things put out in a fairly good pattern."
He described waking up with a headache from chemical air fresheners/fragrances sprayed in the hotel room the previous night. The chemicals entered his brain while he slept, and by morning his brain was actively detoxifying them, producing a headache. He also noted that the chemical exposure was affecting his alertness and that people were falling asleep in his workshop, which he said never happens. He said: "I don't do it to myself but sometimes other people do it to me."
This is presented as a real-time example of a chemically-induced detoxification headache, and he treated it with the headache formulas, resolving it within 45 minutes of leaving the hotel room.
- Q&A: Can Carbonation Cause Headaches?
Training session exchange:
An attendee (appearing to be a health practitioner) asked about carbonation, noting some practitioners say to avoid even natural carbonation.
Aajonus: "I've found it works very well. I've found that about six times out of ten if somebody is real sensitive to unnatural carbons they get headaches and their mind will shut down a little bit and won't be thinking as well. Of course, the person who is experiencing it doesn't really notice that their brain is shutting down."
This is specifically unnatural carbonation, not naturally sparkling mineral water. Naturally sparkling mineral water is used therapeutically in several of the headache formulas. The concern is with artificially carbonated beverages for people who are sensitive to unnatural carbons.
- Q&A: Migraines from the Brain Detoxifying, Managing the Sleep Timing
Workshop passage (partially cut off in source):
Someone asked about migraines, and Aajonus began to address the issue of timing of sleep relative to nervous system detoxification cycles:
> "Usually the toxicity is in the nervous system when it's in the brain, as in migraines. Cluster headaches - it's in the nervous system. Those remedies don't work with the nervous system; they'll only help a tiny bit. So you've got to eat a lot of cheese, got to eat eggs, got to make sure that you don't go to sleep at the time when the nervous system kicks in to do its detoxification, at midnight, until you..."
The text was cut off here. But the instruction establishes clearly that for nervous-system-based headaches (migraines and clusters), the standard formulas are insufficient on their own, and the primary dietary support is cheese and eggs, with careful timing around the midnight nervous system detox cycle.
- Q&A: Pain Formula and Migraines, The Case of Menstrual Cramps Resolved
Aajonus describing a case study that also demonstrated efficacy for migraines:
He described a woman who had been literally bedridden and unable to move from menstrual cramps. She forced herself to the kitchen, made the pain formula, drank it all at once along with approximately one quarter to one third of a brick of cheese (all consumed at the same time). For the first time in her life, her cramps did not continue. They resolved in 20-40 minutes.
He used this case to demonstrate the formula's power and then extended the point:
> "Migraines, it even works for migraines. I couldn't get it until I had the cheese and other things involved. It didn't work for migraines before. This now works for migraines."
He confirmed that the pain formula with cheese, specifically with the cheese included, not the formula alone, is what made migraines responsive to this treatment. Before he added the cheese component to the protocol, the formula was not effective for migraines.
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How this condition connects to the rest of the platform
Terrain Theory, and Raw Food.