Migraine-allergy link strengthened

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 6

Migraine-allergy link strengthened

NZPA-NYT New York New research is lending credence to a the long debated view that food allergies may cause migraines in a majority rather than a minority of people who suffer the headaches. Several studies conducted in the United States and England in the past five years have shown that about 75 per cent of migraine patients are allergic to five or more foods, while some patients are allergic to 20 or more foods. When the patients were placed on diets that eliminated or reduced contact with such “trigger” foods, their migraines stopped or became less frequent and severe. In spite of the gathering evidence implicating food allergies, many specialists are not fully of

their importance and say they are awaiting more data. Most doctors agree that headaches, including migraines, are a symptom and not a disease, as it is underlying mechanisms that give rise to the sensation of head pain. Two recent studies used “double blind” experimental techniques to verify the relationship between food allergies and migraines. Great care was taken to assure that patients and doctors were not swayed by personal biases. Both studies found that migraines were consistently provoked by trigger foods — foods the subject was allergic to — and not by placebos. They strongly support, therefore, the notion that the allergy-migraine connection is real for many patients.

Dr Donald Dalessio, a migraine expert at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, in La Jolla, California, maintains that food allergies may be a factor in only about 10 per cent of patients with migraines. He agreed that “there are some foods that bother migraine patients, with alcohol being the most common”. Dr Dalessio said, however that there was no known mechanism through which food allergies had been shown to produce migraines. Until the fundamental mechanisms that caused migraines were understood, scepticism about allergies was warranted, he said. According to Dr Seymour Diamond, founder of the Diamond Headache Clinic, in Chicago, less than 5 per cent of his patients were likelygjo suffer migraines

due to food allergies. Dr Diamond said his clinic saw 2000 patients a year and had an average of 30,000 patient visits a year. “We see people all the time who have undergone allergy testing and desensitisation without it being any great success,” he said. “Special diets do not help many patients, I’m not sold on the idea.” Researchers involved in the recent studies say, however, that doctors who treat migraines should keep an open mind. Dr James Breneman was chairman of the food allergy committee of the American College of Allergy for 15 years and maintains a private practice in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “I am convinced threefourths of migraines are food related,” Dr Breneman said . “Those who are scegical

have not adequately investigated the role of food. It is a time-consuming process and the tests are sometimes faulty and difficult to do. But the tools we use are showing us there is a much higher incidence of food allergies than previously believed.” Dr Breneman said migraine patients tended to be allergic to common foods they ate every day such as wheat, eggs, milk, and corn. The foods elicited a slow allergic response. Substances formed by the immune system in reaction to the foods were not evident in blood vessels and other tissues until two or three days after the foods were eaten, Dr Breneman said. As a result, migraine sufferers found it difficult to relate specific foods they ate with headaches they developed.