Migraines and Gas

[opnbl]

I am in dire need of a correct diagnosis.... my husband began having severe migraines in May and has had numerous tests done to rule out major illnesses, to include blood work from 5 labs, MRI, MRA, angiogram, and an ENG. He has visited internal medicine doctors, neurologists and ENT's. He has been prescibed Vicodin to ease the pain of the migraine when they come, but of course that only helps for the duration of the medication. Having said all that, we wonder if there is something gastrointenstinal going on. Each and every one of his migraines includes gas. He belches and has flatuence like crazy during his "episodes". Every doctor we mention this to sort of brushes it under the rug. This is disturbing to us because we feel it could be the cause of the migraines. Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

[Unregistered]

Sometimes celiac disease manifests in both neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms at the same time. It might be worth getting tested for that.

[Unregistered]

no but i have a similar but less severe problem. often it is also associated with diarhea and unpleasant bowel movements. as well as foul smelling movements. however i have this problem very infrequently and usually i can deal with it with a tall glass of ice water two advil and a big **** later on then it miraculously goes away. a few times it has been really painful however and i felt unable to think clearly and had distortions in my vison on the left side.
i find it happens to me most often when i eat processed meats like pepperoni. but not every time i eat them so surely there must be more to it than just that. i have been curious if it might be preservatives or salts or nitrates or some spice etc in certain brands maybe. havent found anything conclusive there either. but it does happen to me often with beef flavored ramen noodles. sometimes with certain unusual flavors of chips like buffalo ranch doritos. infact sometimes it happens when i eat spicy foods in general like habanero chicken. but not usually. so maybe its the combination of these foods with something else.

[Unregistered]

I have a similar problem but less severe I suppose. I have discovered, it happens after eating dairy products, not soon-after but about 12 - 20 hrs later. Taking lactase supplements with dairy products does help.

[Unregistered]

I am in dire need of a correct diagnosis.... my husband began having severe migraines in May and has had numerous tests done to rule out major illnesses, to include blood work from 5 labs, MRI, MRA, angiogram, and an ENG. He has visited internal medicine doctors, neurologists and ENT's. He has been prescibed Vicodin to ease the pain of the migraine when they come, but of course that only helps for the duration of the medication. Having said all that, we wonder if there is something gastrointenstinal going on. Each and every one of his migraines includes gas. He belches and has flatuence like crazy during his "episodes". Every doctor we mention this to sort of brushes it under the rug. This is disturbing to us because we feel it could be the cause of the migraines. Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

I cannot believe someone is having the exact situation as me. My husband has witness the same to be true. I have not gone thru any tests. I have been to acupuncturists, chiropractors, been given migraine medicine from my GP. None of them could help and they ignored the belching and flatuence complaint. I have started on bio-identical hormones (i am 58) and they did seem to work. I stopped because I became a raging maniac, and a month after stopping, the headaches are back. I have always felt they were driven by hormones, but I don't understand the gastrointestinal symptoms.

[Unregistered]

I thought it was just me. This sounds exactly the same as what i go through. No pain killer ever works for me. I take Axert to take the edge off when its at its worst. Staying away from the foods described above works the best. I have been migraine free for a while but now its back. I find it sad that doctors, especially all the ones i have seen, pay no attention to what is obviously an important fact in diagnosing this problem. Simply belching temporarily relieves the pain instantly. Anti gas medications also help. There is an important connection doctors are ignoring. Best of luck fellow sufferers.

[Miguel Cavazos]

I cannot believe someone is having the exact situation as me. My husband has witness the same to be true. I have not gone thru any tests. I have been to acupuncturists, chiropractors, been given migraine medicine from my GP. None of them could help and they ignored the belching and flatuence complaint. I have started on bio-identical hormones (i am 58) and they did seem to work. I stopped because I became a raging maniac, and a month after stopping, the headaches are back. I have always felt they were driven by hormones, but I don't understand the gastrointestinal symptoms.

I'm not doctor, but I'm a fitness/health/nutrition writer for Livestrong.com. I also deal with migraines and associated gastrointestinal problems sometimes, but I manage them agressively. Honestly, the gastrointestinal problems seem like a case of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). As many as 20 percent of the adult population, or one in five Americans, have symptoms of IBS, making it one of the most common disorders diagnosed by doctors.IBS can be brought on by many things, certain foods, potentially a larger than "normal" intestine (whatever normal means), and STRESS. Although symptoms of IBS can range from mild to severeand debilitating, it does not permanently harm the intestines and does not lead to a serious disease, such as cancer. Most people can control their symptoms with diet, stress management, and prescribed medications. I think the most important thing for you to do is keep track of those migraines. They may result from emotional stress, or just cause the stress thats causing your IBS. Getting headaches over headaches is a cycle migraine suffers must consciously suppress, and it does escalate your body's stress response. It take a while to narrow down the cause of your migraines, and you may just be "sensitive" in some ways, and many things can cause migrains, so keep a journal. Write down what was going on in your life around the time the migraine started, what you ate, how much physical activity you got, and when it stopped. Stress does not have to be emotional, it's a physiological response that gets activated different for differnt people. For example, after a year of tracking my migrains, I know that if I don't get at least 7 hours of sleep , I'll have to do a lot of deep breathing the next day to keep my stress under control and avoid a migrain. Slouching too long at my desk also leads to migraines, going a couple days of eating fast food and I'll definitely get migraines (mind you, I practically grew up on fast food - this now explains some academic underperformance before college, btw). Basically, unless you want to suffer even more severe consequences of persistent elevated stress response from your migraines (which include depression, obesity, and even cancer, not to mention all the ways they dampen your lifestyle, mood, relationships and career ); you need to take responsibility for tracking things that trigger them, and adjust your lifestyle to control them. Trust me. You can control them, and you can even get good at predicting them so you don't get overly stressed each time one happens. You just need to take the bull by the horns. Good luck!

[Miguel Cavazos]

I thought it was just me. This sounds exactly the same as what i go through. No pain killer ever works for me. I take Axert to take the edge off when its at its worst. Staying away from the foods described above works the best. I have been migraine free for a while but now its back. I find it sad that doctors, especially all the ones i have seen, pay no attention to what is obviously an important fact in diagnosing this problem. Simply belching temporarily relieves the pain instantly. Anti gas medications also help. There is an important connection doctors are ignoring. Best of luck fellow sufferers.

I'm not doctor, but I'm a fitness/health/nutrition writer for Livestrong.com. I also deal with migraines and associated gastrointestinal problems sometimes, but I manage them agressively. Honestly, the gastrointestinal problems seem like a case of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). As many as 20 percent of the adult population, or one in five Americans, have symptoms of IBS, making it one of the most common disorders diagnosed by doctors.IBS can be brought on by many things, certain foods, potentially a larger than "normal" intestine (whatever normal means), and STRESS. Although symptoms of IBS can range from mild to severeand debilitating, it does not permanently harm the intestines and does not lead to a serious disease, such as cancer. Most people can control their symptoms with diet, stress management, and prescribed medications. I think the most important thing for you to do is keep track of those migraines. They may result from emotional stress, or just cause the stress thats causing your IBS. Getting headaches over headaches is a cycle migraine suffers must consciously suppress, and it does escalate your body's stress response. It take a while to narrow down the cause of your migraines, and you may just be "sensitive" in some ways, and many things can cause migrains, so keep a journal. Write down what was going on in your life around the time the migraine started, what you ate, how much physical activity you got, and when it stopped. Stress does not have to be emotional, it's a physiological response that gets activated different for differnt people. For example, after a year of tracking my migrains, I know that if I don't get at least 7 hours of sleep , I'll have to do a lot of deep breathing the next day to keep my stress under control and avoid a migrain. Slouching too long at my desk also leads to migraines, going a couple days of eating fast food and I'll definitely get migraines (mind you, I practically grew up on fast food - this now explains some academic underperformance before college, btw). Basically, unless you want to suffer even more severe consequences of persistent elevated stress response from your migraines (which include depression, obesity, and even cancer, not to mention all the ways they dampen your lifestyle, mood, relationships and career ); you need to take responsibility for tracking things that trigger them, and adjust your lifestyle to control them. Trust me. You can control them, and you can even get good at predicting them so you don't get overly stressed each time one happens. You just need to take the bull by the horns. Good luck!

[Unregistered]

Hello fellow sufferers; I have a similar problem and have noticed that most every time I get it I trace it back to something I ate with dextrose or one of it's cousins in it. I will notice slight back and neck tightness from eating corn products but if I have dextrose, maltodextrin or dextrin it is much worse and often leads to a bad migraine and also the gas.
Check the labels it's in a lot of food and I wonder if it is in beer also, I have no problems drinking German beer but can not even have one American made beer. I have also mentioned it to doctors when I have gone in for test and they have just brushed it off also.

[jlsrnsn]

no but i have a similar but less severe problem. often it is also associated with diarhea and unpleasant bowel movements. as well as foul smelling movements. however i have this problem very infrequently and usually i can deal with it with a tall glass of ice water two advil and a big **** later on then it miraculously goes away. a few times it has been really painful however and i felt unable to think clearly and had distortions in my vison on the left side.
i find it happens to me most often when i eat processed meats like pepperoni. but not every time i eat them so surely there must be more to it than just that. i have been curious if it might be preservatives or salts or nitrates or some spice etc in certain brands maybe. havent found anything conclusive there either. but it does happen to me often with beef flavored ramen noodles. sometimes with certain unusual flavors of chips like buffalo ranch doritos. infact sometimes it happens when i eat spicy foods in general like habanero chicken. but not usually. so maybe its the combination of these foods with something else.

I notice when I eat gas-provoking foods, I get the migraine 'aura', where I feel like someone turns off a switch in me, only for a second or two, but my speech gets garbled, and I have trouble getting words to come out, or to my mind, for that matter. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to go down for the count. I used to have panic attacks that I associated with gas, and recently have read that people mistake these migraine 'auras' for panic attacks. I am 54 and am just now finding these things out, thanks to the internet.