Celiac And Tia/stroke

[Georgia-guy]

So the only major health problem I have had that celiac didn't answer was a TIA at age 22. Blood work, CT scan, MRI, ambulatory EEG, etc, all showed nothing abnormal, so my health records list it as "idiopathic ataxia of the left side, possibly TIA". Someone posted something about TIA being celiac connected, so I just did done googling. There's a bunch of reports showing up from studies in the past 15ish years, the most recent was published in March of this year and states:

"Celiac disease patients also had a slightly higher risk of stroke..."

(Open Original Shared Link)

Question is, does anyone have any more information on the connection? Who on here has had a TIA/Stroke with no known cause?

[BlessedMommy]

I did, as you know from the other thread. 

 

I was 27 years old with no neurological problem history of any kind. I didn't have a history of migraines either. During my gluten challenge, my chronic headaches lead to neurological impairment. I believe that mine was a left brained TIA, since it affected my speech and numbed my right side.

 

The doctors just ran a CT scan which showed nothing abnormal. I went to my family doctor and he said that he absolutely believed that it was gluten connected and that the best thing I could do was to "not eat gluten."

 

My husband was absolutely adamant that I would never eat gluten again. I think that the whole thing scared him to death!

 

At that point, it didn't matter what celiac tests said, even if they were negative or inconclusive, I wasn't going near the stuff!

 

When I stopped the gluten, it took awhile for it to get out of my system, but right away I started feeling better. The headaches started to go away. I didn't have any further TIA symptoms. In about 5 days, I was completely recovered and back to normal and I committed to being gluten free for life. 

[beth01]

I have had neurological symptoms since I was 7.  When I got older, my migraines got pretty severe.  I have had about 4 "migraines" in my life that have lead to speech impairment and numbness on one side of my body, one episode lasting more than 12 hours of not being able to speak.  I was never diagnosed as having TIA's but I am starting to wonder. The doctors just chalked it up to having a bad migraine, but now after my diagnosis I haven't not gotten one "migraine" in over three months and I was getting them 4 times a week for the six months before my diagnosis.  Makes me wonder if I have ever had a true migraine.

[BlessedMommy]

Having temporary stroke symptoms that last 24 hours or less and don't produce permanent impairment is the definition of a TIA. 

 

I'm glad that you're not getting migraines anymore!

[mamaw]

I had  several TIA's  thirty  years  ago  plus  lifelong  migraines but  didn't  get  dx'd  with  celiac  until 2003....

[RMJ]

I had an unexplained episode of double vision. Since I do get classic migraines, the neurologist finally decided it was a variant of a migraine. This was before I was diagnosed with Celiac and went gluten free. I get far fewer migraines now.

[Georgia-guy]

I haven't had an unexplained migraine since diagnosis. I have had explained scent induced migraines (ppl, please do NOT douse an envelope in perfume then stick it in your mailbox for the carrier to pick up. Spray the letter a time or two, but don't soak the envelope and all in perfume!). But with my TIA, I literally exhibited every stroke sign. I was rushed into the ER to find nothing wrong with typical stroke tests.

[cristiana]

This interests me as before I was diagnosed with celiac disease my bad headaches (which I always suspected were actually migraines because they made me feel sick and I couldn't look at light)  turned into aura migraines without pain.  The first episode I had was the silver flashing lights, kind of a paisley pattern, in both eyes which was then followed by a sort of snow storm where I could still see through but only partially, lasting about 20 minutes.  It was towards the end of a pregnancy and I hadn't a clue what was happening.  I rang family to tell them as I was in the house alone and as I spoke to them I realised my speech was kind of slurred. I thought I was having a stroke.  They took me into hospital to keep an eye on me.  Then, a few weeks after my daughter was born, they did an MRI and apart from a cyst that I had probably been born with found no explanation for the episode, diagnosing it as an aura migraine.   I recently realised I haven't had one since going gluten-free.

 

But I have often wondered at the TIA/migraine connection especially when I talked about how I felt during the first aura episode to a friend of mine who had just had a TIA, who had also experienced the slurred speech.