FOOD ALLERGIES AND MIGRAINE

doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(79)91735-5

The Lancet

Volume 313, Issue 8123, 5 May 1979, Pages 966-969

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(79)91735-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

60 migraine patients completed elimination diets after a 5-day period of withdrawal from their normal diet. 52 (87%) of these patients had been using oral contraceptive steroids, tobacco, and/or ergotamine for an average of 3 years, 22 years, and 7·4 years respectively. The commonest foods causing reactions were wheat (78%), orange (65%), eggs (45%), tea and coffee (40% each), chocolate and milk (37% each), beef (35%), and corn, cane sugar, and yeast (33% each). When an average of ten common foods were avoided there was a dramatic fall in the number of headaches per month, 85% of patients becoming headache-free. The 25% of patients with hypertension became normotensive. Chemicals in the home environment can make this testing difficult for outpatients. Both immunological and non-immunological mechanisms may play a part in the pathogenesis of migraine caused by food intolerance.

References (37)

E.C.G. Grant
Lancet
(1978)
D.P. Rose et al.
Clinica chim. Acta
(1970)
V. Glover et al.
Lancet
(1977)
R. Finn et al.
Lancet
(1978)
A. Gulsvik et al.
Lancet
(1979)
C. von Pirquet
Munch. med Wschr.
(1906)
A.H. Rowe
Food Allergy
(1931)
H.J. Rinkel et al.
Food Allergy
(1950)
T.G. Randolf
Human Ecology and Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment
(1962)

R. Mackarness

Not All in the Mind

(1976)

F. Hare

The Food Factor in Disease

(1905)

W.T. Vaughan

Va med. Mon.

(1922)

A.H. Rowe

Food Allergy: Its Manifestations, Diagnosis, and Treatment

(1931)

J.K. Pinnas et al.

Res. clin Stud. Headache

(1976)

E.C.G. Grant et al.

Current Concepts in Migraine Research

E. Hanington

Background to Migraine

Mansfield, J. Personal...

Cited by (69)

Food Allergy and Intolerance
2018, Integrative Medicine: Fourth Edition
The Elimination Diet
2018, Integrative Medicine: Fourth Edition
Food Intolerance and Elimination Diet
2012, Integrative Medicine, Third Edition
Dietetic treatment of headache (not only in children)
2011, Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Akupunktur
Nahrungsmittelunverträglichkeiten sind als Einflussfaktoren von Kopfschmerzen bekannt. Migräne lässt sich durch eine strenge Diät bei stark betroffenen Kindern signifikant bessern. Für Kinder erscheint es jedoch auf Dauer sinnvoll, eine einfachere Ernährungsumstellung zu konzipieren. Eine Ernährungsumstellung bereits über sechs Wochen baut auf Erkenntnissen der Traditionellen Chinesischen Medizin und der Lebensmittelchemie auf. Die Diät schließt insbesondere die Vermeidung von Milch, Quark, Weizenmehl, weißem Zucker, Schokolade, Konservierungs- und Farbstoffen sowie weiterer Zusatzstoffe ein. Eine Halbierung der Kopfschmerzhäufigkeit und -stärke wird dabei angestrebt.
Nicht nur bei Migräne, sondern auch bei Spannungskopfschmerzen ist eine triggerarme Ernährung wirksam. Bei hoher Migräne-Frequenz und zusätzlichen Allergien bessert die Ernährungsoptimierung oft auch die atopischen Symptome. In der Praxis erweist sich die Kombination aus schriftlicher Information und einer kurzen Beratung als besonders effizient.
Food intolerance is a well-known factor in functional headache in children. Severe migraine in children can be significantly mitigated by a strict diet. But in the long term, a simpler nutritional change seems to be more appropriate in order to achieve a long-lasting influence on children's headache. A nutritional change of at least 6 weeks' duration should reduce the headache frequency and intensity in the range of 50 % or more in order to be defined as successful. Not only migraine, but also tension-type headache respond in a relevant dimension to nutritional treatment. In case of higher migraine frequency combined with allergic comorbidity, the efficacy of the nutritional regime seems to be even more pronounced. In daily counselling, a combination of written information and a short personal explanation seems to represent a practicable procedure.
Behavioral management of headache triggers: Avoidance of triggers is an inadequate strategy
2009, Clinical Psychology Review
The standard clinical advice for individuals who suffer from recurrent headaches is that the best way to prevent headaches is to avoid the triggers. This review challenges that advice from a number of perspectives, including: that the advice is given in a theoretical vacuum; it is associated with practical problems; and it is not evidence-based. The review considers cognate literatures on stress, negative affect, and chronic pain that advocate approach/confront strategies over avoidance strategies. It is suggested that advice to avoid triggers could result in maintenance of the capacity of the trigger to precipitate headaches or even a sensitization process whereby tolerance diminishes. As anxiety researchers have investigated extensively the issue of how stimuli acquire and lose their capacity to elicit fear, this literature is explored to draw inferences for headache triggers. The review concludes with suggestions concerning etiology of chronic headache and associated management implications, and directions for future research. It argues that the philosophy of ‘avoidance of triggers’ should be replaced with ‘coping with triggers,’ as the latter includes both avoidance and approach/confront strategies involving exposure to triggers.
Adverse Food Reactions and the Elimination Diet
2007, Integrative Medicine, Second Edition

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Preventive MedicineFOOD ALLERGIES AND MIGRAINE

Abstract

Lancet

Clinica chim. Acta

Lancet

Lancet

Lancet

Munch. med Wschr.

Food Allergy

Food Allergy

Human Ecology and Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment

Not All in the Mind

The Food Factor in Disease

Va med. Mon.

Food Allergy: Its Manifestations, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Res. clin Stud. Headache

Current Concepts in Migraine Research

Background to Migraine

Preventive Medicine
FOOD ALLERGIES AND MIGRAINE