Celiac And Migraines

[maggee]

Hi - I am new to this site. I am grateful for all the info I have read so far - thanks!

My son and then my husband were recently diagnosed celiac. My husband suffers from migraines (1 to 2 per week, 24 hrs in bed, vomiting, weight loss, etc.). He has been gluten-free for only a few months but has not experienced any relief. My question to those of you who have BTDT is how long before you experienced any relief? What were the triggers (just gluten or other foods/environment, etc.)? How did you figure out the triggers?

I think we are on the right track (my son is improving greatly!) but since we have been Gluten-free my husbands headaches are more frequent. Has anyone else experienced this? Many others (friends / relatives) are trying to convince him that Gluten-free won't help him. I think it will. We see the dr again tomorrow (I am not sure how much he will help).

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Anglgrle3]

i dont have any answers but in the last 2 weeks that my sister has been gluten free with me her migrianes have gotten much worse. keep us updated on any info you get! thanks!

[Ursa Major]

I found that tomatoes caused most of my migraines. It could be other food intolerances as well.

[trents]

BTDT? What's that stand for?

Since Celiac dx, has your husband been put on any new medication such as bone building drugs?

Steve

[maggee]

BTDT? What's that stand for?

Since Celiac dx, has your husband been put on any new medication such as bone building drugs?

Steve

No my husband is not on any medications.

Oh and "BTDT" is "Been There Done That".

Thanks for the replies.

[tarnalberry]

Despite many efforts at trying, I have been unable to identify any food triggers for my migraines. (Sudden barometric pressure changes may be one for me, though I'm not certain of that.) I did rule out, by process of elimination, all the major players - caffeine, the major food allergens, and anything that's commonly in my diet. I also believe I have ruled out the other common triggers, such as bright light, or chemicals that I may be exposed to. (Though, for instance, I didn't test things like apartame, because I always avoid it.)

I would, however, recommend that he talk to his doctor about meds if they are very bothersome migraines. The treatment meds can be *very* effective - working to completely eliminate the migraine in four hours. (OTC meds won't do a lot, because most of them are anti-inflammatories, but the problem with migraines is that the blood vessels in the brain become enlarged and dilated, and you need something to constrict them.) Even making use of those (and you have to take them at the onset of a migraine for them to be effective), I was having difficulty with very frequent (many times a week) migraines, and - after appropriate diagnostic testing, including a sinus CAT scan - was put on daily preventative therapy.

While I'm on an incredibly low dose (1/4 the normal dose) of Topamax (originally an anti-convulsive, but found to have anti-migraine properties), it's sufficient to almost entirely keep the migraines at bay, and to significantly reduce the severity of a migraine that I might get. (I went from many a week, to three in the past three months or so.) It's an expensive med, there are some annoying side effects (I get a little fatigue and tingling in my fingers/feet for a few hours after I take the larger of the two doses of the day in the evening, though these are both wearing off as I get past the initial wean onto the medication), and I am supposed to avoid alcohol while on it, but man... after the winter dealing with near constant migraines, the trade-off is worth it from a quality of life prespective, hands-down.

Of course, I advocate investigating food, chemical, and environmental triggers first, as well as appropriate diagnostic testing to confirm migraine, as opposed to conditions that manifest very similarly to migraine.

[Guhlia]

My migraines also got significantly worse after going gluten free. It took about two years for them to start clearing up. I've been on Imitrex most of that time. I still get them maybe once a week, but there for a while I had a migraine every other day, so one day a week is good for me. I'm on the same page with Tarnalberry. I tried and tried to figure out what was causing them but found no pattern whatsoever other than a small stress correlation. I hope you find some answers. Migraines are horrible.

[NSG]

I have been a migraine suffer for years - mostly hormonal triggers [estrogen], then over the past 3 years, anything and everything would trigger one - environmental, food, hormones, etc.

I have what's called Basal Artery Migraines that have triggered TIAs and I have also had one mild stroke because of them. Imatrex is out of the question, and after 15 months of Topomax, I ended up in the hospital with heart problems related to an electrolyte imbalance. One side effect of Tomopax is potassium and magnesium depletion - not a good combination with Celiac.

My neurologist was the one who recommended the gluten free diet for the migraines, that was in 3/05. I have had only 3 in the last 6 months [most after being glutened]. So - for me the gluten-free diet, along with avoiding caffine, nitrates, smoke, mold, etc. is working.

Keep a migraine log and then talk to the doctor about what is working and what isn't.

[Matilda]

..

[maggee]

I have read the replies to my original post to my husband (he cannot look at computer screen too long as he is just recovering from a migraine) and he wants to return the good wishes and thanks for the info. I have read enough to him from these and other posts to keep his spirits up. We will continue to see the MD and are going to visit a naturopathic physician to help with pain management.

Best regards

[Katie O'Rourke]

Me and my dad are both coeliac and suffer from migraines. Mine have become slightly more frequent sicne beign gluten-free, but his are always very bad and he ahs them more often than me - same as your husband - abotu twice a week with throwingup and everything. He does not know what triggers his, but I know for certain what triggers mine. They are very occasionally triggered by hormones just before time of the month, but nearly always from looking at something bright/white for a bit too long, and then i get the aura, and then the migraine develops. One which I found to be really bad was when I went to get an eye exam, and they took photos of my retina, where i was literally blided for a few seconds, and it took me about 10 minutes to get my normal vision back, and had a terrible migraine not long after leaving the opticians. I also find artificial orange flavouring, such as that in sweets/candy can cause them.

I find Paramax is one of the best things to take - it is like strong paracetamol with somethign added to help stop the nausea. Unfortunately it is not over the counter - though am not sure about in the USA.

Hope he is feeling better soon

[fritzicurls]

A lot of migraines are caused by magnesium deficiency. And a lot of celiacs are magnesium deficient. Take 200 mg of magnesium glycinate (KAL magnesium glyicnate - google that and you can buy this product cheap. No I don't sell it, it just works!) every hour until the migraine goes away.

fritzicurls

[tarnalberry]

A lot of migraines are caused by magnesium deficiency. And a lot of celiacs are magnesium deficient. Take 200 mg of magnesium glycinate (KAL magnesium glyicnate - google that and you can buy this product cheap. No I don't sell it, it just works!) every hour until the migraine goes away.

fritzicurls

While it is true that many celiacs are magnesium deficient, and that magnesium can help migraines, I only wish it were so easy that taking extra magnesium will necessarily make them go away. It is, given the seriousness of other options, worth a try, of course.

[Katie O'Rourke]

While it is true that many celiacs are magnesium deficient, and that magnesium can help migraines, I only wish it were so easy that taking extra magnesium will necessarily make them go away. It is, given the seriousness of other options, worth a try, of course.

Wow, thanks for that. Am going to go buy some tomorrow now,and see if it works. I just found this article on msn just before reading your post though:

About 18 million women and some 5 million men in the U.S. currently suffer from migraine headaches. Dr. Alexander Mauskop and his colleagues from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn set out to evaluate and correlate clinical responses to magnesium treatments for migraines. The researchers recruited 40 people (11 men and 29 women) who suffered from moderate or severe headaches; of these, 36 had some diagnosed form of migraine.

The results of this study were impressive. Only eight patients had no response to the magnesium, while 32 of the 40 patients (80 percent) had complete elimination of their headache pain within 15 minutes. However, as with other anti-migraine maneuvers, symptoms returned within hours in 14 of the 32 patients (43 percent). Still, with just this one magnesium treatment, 18 of the 32 subjects were free of symptoms for 24 hours or more and one stayed migraine-free for more than five months.

Dr. Mauskop says Americans overall don't get enough magnesium from their diets. Some of the healthy volunteers in his study had low serum-ionized magnesium, but their total magnesium levels were normal. This, researchers suggest, “supports the notion that magnesium deficiency could be an important factor in the etiology of headaches.”

Low ionized magnesium levels are caused by poor absorption, a magnesium-deficient diet and, perhaps most important, from excessive magnesium loss in urine due to diabetes or excessive stress. The U.S. recommended daily allowance for magnesium is 350 milligrams for men and 280 millograms for women. The richest sources of this mineral are whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, cocoa and green leafy vegetables.

Apparently apples are also good. Though apparently if you have a lot of dairy food it depletes yur calcium, whcih could be the mistake ive been making - I have a lot of dairy food as its great at fighting GERD.

Thanks again for finding the specific meds to get

[Austin Guy]

I just realized that I have been having migraines for a couple of years. I never had one prior to that. This is also the time frame that my more obvious Celiac symptoms started to show. I just didn't recognize them until recently. I went gluten free only 16 days ago and generally feel better than I have in many years, but I've had 2 migraines since being gluten-free. I guess I need to look for a trigger.

[kareng]

Halia - the last post on this thread was 5 years ago. I thnk there has been more recent info about migraines.

[trents]

Be aware that magnesium supplementation can cause diarrhea in some folks. Think, "mile of magnesia".

[EdwardL]

The gluten protein and the casein protein in dairy have very similar chemical structures, and both can cause neurological problems. My wife did not get rid of migraines until she was off both gluten and dairy (goat milk also has casein).

Interestingly, my wife had a MRT test done recently and blueberries caused the highest reaction, slightly above wheat. Who would have guessed.