Can gut bacteria cause migraine?
Apr 16, 2021
Can gut bacteria cause migraine?
For some people, absolutely yes!
For others, it may play a part in your migraine puzzle.
Eating a diet composed of energy-dense and highly processed foods, gluten, sugars, refined oils, artificial sweeteners, and alcohol upset the microbiome's optimal balance (gut bacteria).
But it is not just your processed food. Often "healthy foods" have hidden ingredients (such as industrial oils) that can upset the balance. Medicine such as NSAID's and antibiotics, infections, chronic stress, and pollutants can also affect the microbiome
As a result, some of the "bad bacteria" flourish at the expense of the "good bacteria". There can also be a loss of the bacteria's diversity (going from lots of different types to just a few types of bacteria).
As the microbiome has numerous roles in maintaining our overall health, gut dysbiosis can have wide-ranging effects on your health from local conditions such as IBS and more distant conditions such as migraines.
This can work via a number of different mechanisms.
- local inflammation seeping out into the bloodstream and eventually affecting the nervous system
- Stimulation of immune cells
- Alteration to the production of neurotransmitters ( such as serotonin, glutamate)
- Direct communication from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve.
Analysis of participants from The American Gut Project showed significant differences in nitrate, nitrite, and nitric oxide reductase genes in people with migraine compared to people without migraine. Nitrates are a well-known Migraine trigger and are suspected of playing a role in the release of CGRP.
Studies have also shown that changes to diet and supplementation of the correct pre and probiotics, can significantly improve your migraines.
Often to help the brain, you have to heal the gut.
Find out more in Solving the Migraine Puzzle.
