Headache

[Ankita12]

My friend who has celiac disease is having severe headache... Pls suggest something

[cyclinglady]

So nice of you to be supportive. Anyone can get headaches (celiac or not).  We are not doctors and can not offer medical advice.  But I can say that any medication should be gluten free.  If the headache is severe, a trip to the doctor is best.  It might not be related to celiac disease.  

[GFinDC]

Agree with Cycles, severe headaches are a good reason to visit a doctor.  That being said, celiac can affect the brain.  So it may be related.  If it is a celiac reaction, it would be good to really make a serious effort to avoid gluten.  It only takes a tiny amount of gluten to cause the immune reaction, and the immune reaction can continue for weeks or months.

There is a condition called gluten ataxia that some people with celiac get.  It can cause brain lesions and bad stuff like that.  People sometimes lose the ability to walk also.  It's a serious thing and she needs to be very careful to avoid complications.

Another thing that some people say helps is to avoid all dairy.

[trents]

Headaches are one of the documented medical conditions associated with celiac disease. They are more common in the Celiac population than the non Celiac population. But as others have said, they can be due to something else. It's important to figure out what kind of headaches they are and what triggers them if possible. Do they seem to center at the base of the head? Behind the eyes? Left side or right side? Do they come on with stress? What time of day or night does the onset typically occur? Are they posture related as when straining to see a computer monitor? Are they vision related? Is there need for a new eye glasses? Do they come on after consuming alcohol or certain foods? Are they related to allergies and congestion? That sort of thing. Have your friend look for patterns.

Personally, I do suffer from severe, almost migraine headaches frequently. Sometimes I get them several times a week and then I will go for two or three months and not get one. Usually, mine start to set in about 2:00 or 3:00 AM as I'm sleeping. The migraine medication "sumatriptan" works very well for me and seems to produce no particular side effects. This is a vaso constrictor med so that tells me my headaches are caused by dilation of the arteries supplying blood to my head and brain. What triggers that dilation I don't always know but I do know that red wine is one of the triggers.