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| 1 October 2003 | 2003-10-01T00:00:00.0000000+02:00 |
| | Gluten-free diet could help migraine sufferers | Italian scientists believe that many people who experience migraines have gluten intolerance or coeliac disease (CD) and may be able to reduce their symptoms by changing their diet. Researchers from the Gemelli Hospital in Rome studied 90 patients suffering from migraine and found the incidence of CD was 10 times higher than in the general population. Four patients with CD were treated with a gluten-free diet for six months. During that time, one had no migraine attacks, and migraine frequency, duration, and severity improved in the other three. All four had better cerebral blood flow. Migraine causes painful, sometimes disabling, headaches, often with visual disturbances. Around 12-15 per cent of people in UK suffer from the condition, with twice as many women as men affected. Attacks can last from between four and 72 hours, and patients experience, on average, 13 attacks a year. "The improvement observed in both symptoms and cerebral blood flow after a gluten-free diet is intriguing," writes researcher Dr Maurizio Gabrielli. "It needs to be clarified, however, whether coeliac disease itself is associated with cerebral blood flow abnormalities, or whether these flow alterations are present only in those patients with both coeliac disease and migraine. " If other trials confirm these findings, screening for coeliac disease could become part of the management of migraine, and a gluten-free diet proposed as first-line therapy in migraine patients with evidence of coeliac disease. Ann Turner, director of the Migraine Action Association, said it was well known that certain foods could trigger migrane, and there was some other evidence implicating gluten. "Migraine may also be triggered by hormonal, stress and other factors," she added. "But it is certainly worth a migraine sufferer exploring this possibility if there is any evidence of gluten intolerance. "
(c)2003 global news services ltd |
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