A Link Between Migraines and Celiac Disease...Is this True?
By Susan Guzman
In June of 2008 I experienced my first migraine headache. It was a typical work day, on my computer when all of a sudden out of my left eye it seemed like a flash from a camera went off in my eye. I was seeing these swiggily lines that almost looked like I was looking into a colloidescope. I had no idea what was happening. My vision was blurring and everything was distorted. I decided maybe I was hungry so I went down to the cafeteria to get something to eat.
About 30 minutes later the flashing had completely disappeared and my vision was back to normal. I now had the most unbelievable headache on the ride side of my head which was opposite the side of the flashing light. My whole entire right side of my head was in angony. It felt like someone was squashing my head in a vice. I couldn't look at the light, I couldn't hear any noise and it was so intense I almost wished I could just lay down and die and get it over with. About one hour after the headache began I started feeling a little sick to my stomach. I ran into the ladies room and began vomitting. Not long after that I began feeling better but I was totally wiped out from the entire experience.
I was hoping I would never experience anything like that again, but no such luck. Since that first episode in 2008 I have had this happened to me more than 20 times. I have tried to figure out what was triggering it. I was 48 years old at the time and thought it possibly could have been related to the start of perimenapause. I also thought it could have been triggering because of the weather. I started tracking what the weather was when I got a headache and many of the times it was humid and raining. But then there were other times that it was sunny and beautiful. I tried to find a pattern of when I got them in relation to what I was doing, but there seemed not to be a pattern with that either. I have been woken up in the morning with the flashing in my left eye. I could be working or commuting on the train. I could be home from work. There seemed to be no pattern I could put together. Was I close to menstruating? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.
I went to conventional doctors who told me to go for an MRI, or I was prescribe meds to take at the onset of the flashing. Not one doctor tried to get to the root of the trigger. They were only offering me a treatment to the symptoms and not getting to the root of the problem. What is the trigger of these headaches?
This past February after being totally desperate to get passed these debilitating headaches, I made an appointment to meet with an Intergrative doctor who I was hoping would take a more wholistic approach to my headaches. Well sure enough my visit to this doctor proved to be a much greater experience than the conventional doctors I saw in the past. She sat with me and took my history from the time I was still in my mother's womb to what I was doing 5 minutes before I walked into her office.
Before she even ran any tests on me she told me that she though I was suffering from food allergies and leaky gut syndrome. She said that until the test results come back she wanted me to follow a Candida diet and eliminate all sugar and processed foods from my diet as well as diary.
My test results did indeed prove that I have food allergies along with Celiac Disease. In addition to Celiac Disease I also have a Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Hashimoto Disease which I will discuss in another blog post.
The bottom line here is that since following a gluten free diet without diary and sugar I have had less frequent headaches. Since February I have had 2 headaches and both times I believe they have been triggered by accidentally being exposed to gluten and one time diary.
I just came across an article that shows a direct correlation between migraine headaches and Celiac Disease that I would like to share with you. Please feel free to leave your comments and share your experiences with me. http://www.celiac.com/articles/22944/1/Increased-Rates-of-Migraines-for-People-with-Celiac-Disease-IBD--/Page1.html
In June of 2008 I experienced my first migraine headache. It was a typical work day, on my computer when all of a sudden out of my left eye it seemed like a flash from a camera went off in my eye. I was seeing these swiggily lines that almost looked like I was looking into a colloidescope. I had no idea what was happening. My vision was blurring and everything was distorted. I decided maybe I was hungry so I went down to the cafeteria to get something to eat.
About 30 minutes later the flashing had completely disappeared and my vision was back to normal. I now had the most unbelievable headache on the ride side of my head which was opposite the side of the flashing light. My whole entire right side of my head was in angony. It felt like someone was squashing my head in a vice. I couldn't look at the light, I couldn't hear any noise and it was so intense I almost wished I could just lay down and die and get it over with. About one hour after the headache began I started feeling a little sick to my stomach. I ran into the ladies room and began vomitting. Not long after that I began feeling better but I was totally wiped out from the entire experience.
I was hoping I would never experience anything like that again, but no such luck. Since that first episode in 2008 I have had this happened to me more than 20 times. I have tried to figure out what was triggering it. I was 48 years old at the time and thought it possibly could have been related to the start of perimenapause. I also thought it could have been triggering because of the weather. I started tracking what the weather was when I got a headache and many of the times it was humid and raining. But then there were other times that it was sunny and beautiful. I tried to find a pattern of when I got them in relation to what I was doing, but there seemed not to be a pattern with that either. I have been woken up in the morning with the flashing in my left eye. I could be working or commuting on the train. I could be home from work. There seemed to be no pattern I could put together. Was I close to menstruating? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.
I went to conventional doctors who told me to go for an MRI, or I was prescribe meds to take at the onset of the flashing. Not one doctor tried to get to the root of the trigger. They were only offering me a treatment to the symptoms and not getting to the root of the problem. What is the trigger of these headaches?
This past February after being totally desperate to get passed these debilitating headaches, I made an appointment to meet with an Intergrative doctor who I was hoping would take a more wholistic approach to my headaches. Well sure enough my visit to this doctor proved to be a much greater experience than the conventional doctors I saw in the past. She sat with me and took my history from the time I was still in my mother's womb to what I was doing 5 minutes before I walked into her office.
Before she even ran any tests on me she told me that she though I was suffering from food allergies and leaky gut syndrome. She said that until the test results come back she wanted me to follow a Candida diet and eliminate all sugar and processed foods from my diet as well as diary.
My test results did indeed prove that I have food allergies along with Celiac Disease. In addition to Celiac Disease I also have a Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Hashimoto Disease which I will discuss in another blog post.
The bottom line here is that since following a gluten free diet without diary and sugar I have had less frequent headaches. Since February I have had 2 headaches and both times I believe they have been triggered by accidentally being exposed to gluten and one time diary.
I just came across an article that shows a direct correlation between migraine headaches and Celiac Disease that I would like to share with you. Please feel free to leave your comments and share your experiences with me. http://www.celiac.com/articles/22944/1/Increased-Rates-of-Migraines-for-People-with-Celiac-Disease-IBD--/Page1.html
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