112013Nov

People with Celiac Disease and IBD May Be More Likely to Have Increased Migraines

A recent study that was published in the February Issue of Headache, showed that people with celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease appear to suffer from migraine headaches more often than people without these conditions.  The study was conducted at Columbia University in New York.  The study originally started out with the purpose of studying migraines in people with celiac disease.  The study included two comparison groups.  One group was made up of healthy volunteers and the other was made up of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.  They decided to use a comparison group composed of patients with inflammatory bowel disease so that they had gastrointestinal disease comparison group.

The study included 502 people, 188 with celiac disease, 25 with gluten sensitivity, 111 with inflammatory bowel disease, and 178 who didn’t have any of these conditions.  The results from the study showed chronic headaches were reported by 30% of the people with celiac disease, 56% with gluten sensitivity, 23% with inflammatory bowel disease, and 14% without any of these conditions.  These results showed that people with celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, and inflammatory bowel disease all suffer from migraine headaches more frequently than those without these conditions.

The study also looked at the severity of the migraines that were experienced by those involved in the study.  The study showed that 72% of the patients with celiac disease graded their migraine as severe, 60% of those with gluten sensitivity graded their migraine as severe, and 30% of the patients with inflammatory bowel disease graded their migraine as severe.

References:
1. “Celiac Disease, IBD May Raise Migraine Risk.”  WebMD.  March 1, 2013.  Web 11 Nov 2013.
2. “Migraine Increased in Celiac and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.”  MedScape.  Medscape Medical New.  February 28, 2013.  Web 11 Nov 2013.