Kathy, a 53-year-old accountant, came to see me at my clinic for the treatment of migraineheadaches. Over the past two years, her migraines had become more severe and frequent, with an average of five migraines per month. She took the common migraine medication Imitrex when she recognized a migraine starts. Sometimes the drug would work well, and at other times she suffered.
As a doctor, I work in some ways as a detective. Understanding a patient’s medical history isvery important. When speaking with Kathy, I was looking for information that would clue meinto the cause of her migraines. For example, I wanted to know if her migraines started with the hormonal changes around menopause or some major life stressor? Are her migraines triggered by stress or consuming certain foods? Does she have neck or back problems that could cause nervous system and muscular imbalances that trigger her migraines?
In Kathy’s case, her migraines seemed to be related to her digestive system. Around the same time her migraines began, she was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). This makes sense since the gut is the biggest producer of neurotransmitters. These chemical messengers are key communicators for the brain and nervous system. There are many theories as to why migraines occur. People with migraines often have low or fluctuating levels of serotonin or dopamine. These neurotransmitters have various effects on blood vessel dilation and pain modulation. Common migraine medications like sumatriptan (Imitrex) work by stimulating serotonin brain receptors. This results in relaxation of the muscles surrounding the blood vessels and reduced blood vessel dilation. Also, there is the reduction of pain signals by nerves in the brain region.
Interestingly, almost all migraine headaches have a direct relationship to the head. In otherwords, the trigger for the biochemical reactions that occur which cause headache pain is rarely due to a direct issue in the brain itself.
Due to Kathy’s ongoing problem with IBS, I prevented her migraines by treating her gut.First, I tested her food sensitivities and eliminated her most problematic foods: wheat, cow’smilk, and oranges. Next, I prescribed a probiotic to balance her gut flora. The results wereastounding; over the next six weeks, Kathy had only one migraine. Then over the following three months, she had no migraine headaches! Also, her bloating and occasional diarrhea ceased being a problem as well.
A 2019 study of people with chronic migraines found that supplementation with aprobiotic for ten weeks resulted in a significant decrease in migraine attacks. Also, probioticusers had a significant reduction in migraine severity and migraine drug usage. There were no changes for those taking a placebo. The friendly flora in the gut has been shown in recent years to balance neurotransmitters that affect the brain and nervous system.
Remember, migraines are really not in your head. Instead, they are a symptom of animbalance elsewhere in the body.
Dr. Mark Stengler NMD, MS, is a bestselling author in private practice in Encinitas, California, at the Stengler Center for Integrative Medicine. His newsletter, Dr. Stengler’s Health Breakthroughs, is available at www.markstengler.com and his product line at www.drstengler.com
Martami F, Togha M, Seifishahpar M, Ghorbani Z, Ansari H, Karimi T, Jahromi S.2019. The effects of a multispecies probiotic supplement on inflammatory markers and episodic and chronic migraine characteristics: A randomized double-blind controlled trial. Cephalalgia.
