Coeliacs And Migraines
Yesterday, I watched BBC Morning Live about migraines.
I used to suffer from migraine-like symptoms, especially, if I was in a room with small tungsten downlights. One real tennis court at Cambridge caused them and the other didn’t, as the lights were different.
In 1997, I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free.
I’ve not had the symptoms since!
I also stopped nail-biting, which I’d done since I was about five. Incidentally, I’ve had others tell me, they stopped nail-biting after being diagnosed as a coeliac and going gluten-free.
On the program, the doctor has just said that women have a 1-in-5 chance of having a migraine, whereas with men it’s 1-in-15.
The NHS web site says this about who’s affected by coeliac disease.
Coeliac disease is a condition that affects at least 1 in every 100 people in the UK.
But some experts think this may be underestimated because milder cases may go undiagnosed or be misdiagnosed as other digestive conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Reported cases of coeliac disease are around 3 times higher in women than men.
Now there’s a thing!
Oxford And Cambridge Compared On COVID-19
In Is There A Link Between Historic Coal Mining And COVID-19?, I mentioned this article in The Times, which is entitled Pressure To Free London From Lockdown As Cases Fall.
The article gives an interactive table, which is entitled Number Of Cases By Area.
Three figures are given.
- Registered cases
- Cases per 100,000 of the population.
- Cases in the last two weeks.
These figures are for areas around Oxford.
- Oxford – 615, 399, 90
- South Oxfordshire – 358, 255, 36
- West Oxfordshire – 324, 295, 50
And these figures are for areas around Cambridge
- Cambridge – 222, 177, 20
- South Cambridgeshire – 206, 131, 10
- East Cambridgeshire – 111, 124, 12
- West Suffolk – 205, 115, 18
So why are COVID-19 cases in Cambridge so much lower than Oxford?
Consider.
- Both cities and surrounding counties have a similar character.
- Both have well-respected hospitals, medical schools and medical research.
- Air pollution appears to be low in both areas.
- Both cities probably have a similar ethnic mix and large student populations.
As I used to live near Cambridge, I have my own mad personal theory.
Addenbrooke’s Hospital
I have used several hospitals in my life, but only two changed my life totally.
- I had my vasectomy in the old Hackney Hospital.
- Addenbrooke’s, who with a simple blood test decided I was probably coeliac.
So perhaps, I’m biased.
But consider these possible facts.
- My coeliac consultant at Addenbrooke’s told me, that he had more patients with the disease than any other in the UK.
- The manager at Carluccio’s in Cambridge, told me that they sold more gluten-free food, than any other restaurant in the group.
- In 1997, I was diagnosed fast, because Addenbrooke’s were using a new genetic test. I was later checked using an endoscopy.
Could it be that someone at Addenbrooke’s had decided they wanted to find all the coeliacs in and around Cambridge?
What would be the effects of diagnosing as many coeliacs as you could find in an area?
- A doctor of my acquaintance talked of coeliac disease as the many-headed hydra, as it led to so many other medical problems. So extra diagnosed coeliacs might improve health statistics in an area.
- Personally, I have said good-bye to migraines, nail-biting and lots of joint pains, after going gluten-free.
- I also haven’t had a serious dose of flu since diagnosis. Since 2005, I’ve probably had the flu jab.
- Joe West at Nottingham University, has shown that coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have lower cancer rates than the general population.
Consider.
- Immunotherapy is a medical technique, where the patient’s immune system is activated or suppressed to help them fight a disease.
- Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease, where gluten causes damage to the gut.
So could coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a more powerful immune system?
Undiagnosed Coeliacs
Coeliac disease is genetic, with mine coming from an Ashkenazi Jewish ancestor from Konigsberg in the Baltic.
- Other roots of coeliac disease are Irish, Italian and black people, who have slaves as ancestors.
- There was no test for coeliac disease in children until 1960.
- There was no genetic test for coeliac disease until the late 1990s.
- Research has shown that coeliacs are at least 1-in-100 of the UK population, but could be higher.
If coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a good immune system, do undiagnosed coeliacs have a poorer one?
Oxford And Cambridge Compared
Is the large number of diagnosed coeliacs around Cambridge, the reason the area has a lower COVID-19 rate than Oxford?
Conclusion
What do I know?
I’m just a mad engineer and mathematician with coeliac disease.
Got A Migraine, Have Sex!
Research from the the University of Munster in Germany has shown that sex may be a better cure for migraine than painkillers. It’s all here in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph.
I wonder what Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells thinks of this?
Incidentally, I used to get the odd migraine, until I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free.
Painkillers Can Make Headaches Worse
This has been said on the television this morning. There’s more here.
I used to suffer from bad migraines brought on by flashing lights and exercise, but since being diagnosed as a coeliac and going on a gluten-free diet, I don’t get them any more.
I haven’t taken a painkiller since C died, except when I was suffering two years ago from bad pain in my face due to a tooth and when I had the tooth out.
If I have a slight pain, I use a measure of Scottish falling down liquid, diluted with London tap water.
Too Many Allergies
NICE thinks that too many children are labelled with food allergies, according to reports like this.
I might agree, as I think so many people these days have vanity or lifestyle allergies.
I don’t, as I am a coeliac, that was properly diagnosed at Addenbrookes, when I was over fifty. Since avoiding gluten, I’ve had no diarrhoea, no migraines, no joint pain and no chronic dandruff. I’ve also stopped biting my nails.
Probably about 1-in-100 are coeliacs like me, according to researchers at Nottingham University, Coeliac-UK and the NHS.
But I’ve had all sorts of cranks and quacks tell me that such things as homeopathy can cure my allergy. They are talking crap. But they are the same sort of people who imagine and test for all sorts of things in their children. Often, they are so stupid and paranoid that they don’t believe in vaccination and won’t allow their children to play outside.
But why are we getting so many allergy sufferers. With coeliac disease, a lot of the increase has come because, those born before 1960 are now being properly diagnosed. I was found to have a problem from a simple blood test, which showed I had a vitamin B12 deficiency. Remember that children with coeliac disease couldn’t be diagnosed until the early 1960s.
Also there is more awareness of coeliac disease and how it is passed on through the genes.
Can Influenza Cause Strokes?
I ask this question in an enquiring fashion, not actually wanting to prejudice the answer. After all I’ve criticised medical researchers on this blog a couple of times for trying to prove a theory rather than solve a problem.
So let’s start with some facts about me.
- I had a stroke on Monday and this winter despite having a flu jab, I got a bad dose of flu. I also remember saying to my housekeeper and she confirmed it, that I thought that the flu was coming back.
- As I write, I have a runny nose and my head feels just like it does when you are getting over a cold.
- I have also had another small stroke in the last perhaps couple of years. This I don’t remember, but I think I can remember a time when I woke up dribbling. But then I had no slurred speech. I vaguely remember telling my wife that I felt odd, but that was it. When exactly it was I do not know.
- I also remember two incidents where I blacked out for perhaps a second whilst driving. Incidentally, both times it was in the Lotus and in one, I know I was getting over the flu and put the incident down to that. Both days were days with a lot of sunlight. I just put them down to the usual migraines that I occasionally get and one to the flu.
So were the last two incidents TIAs.
Two of these incidents definitely involved recent flu.
Now this may all be conjecture and two out of four is not good statistics, so you can make what you want out of them.
But!
This article in the New England Journal of Medicine, which is a respected journal seems to show that if you are vaccinated against flu, then you are less likely to be admitted to hospital with a heart attack or a stroke.
This large study definitely shows that if you don’t get flu, then you are less likely to have a stroke.
But is the reverse true?
Keeping Your Brain Healthy
Look at any list of symptoms for coeliac disease and you’ll find a lot of them are concerned with brain or mental problems.
- Mild Depression
- Feelings of Inadequacy
- Gait Ataxia/Apraxia
- Lightheadness and Fainting
- Migraine or Persistent Headaches
- Mood Swings
- Sleep Disturbance
I used to suffer from most of these except for sleep disturbance.
Once I went on a gluten-free diet all of these symptoms cleared up. Now I know that I am a special case in that I’m a coeliac, but once the B12 levels were back up to normal, all of the symptoms disappeared. Research at Oxford University has indicated that higher B12 levels may help brain health.
It would be interesting to repeat their experiments with coeliacs. When a hospital diagnoses a coeliac, they should immediately undergo the tests before starting a gluten-free diet. And then they should be tested at intervals after starting the diet. My body actually reacted quite quickly in that my dandruff cleared up after about two weeks.
Now I know several people who have MS. One has sent me a link to an article about a new treatment for the disease called The Liberation Treatment. Here are the first couple of paragraphs.
Amid the centuries-old castles of the ancient city of Ferrara is a doctor who has come upon an entirely new idea about how to treat multiple sclerosis, one that may profoundly change the lives of patients.
Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a former vascular surgeon and professor at the University of Ferrara in northern Italy, began asking questions about the debilitating condition a decade ago, when his wife Elena, now 51, was diagnosed with MS.
He found that in some patients, the blood flow to the head was restricted and by improving this using standard surgical procedures, their health improved. Here’s a couple of paragraphs from the article.
One of those patients was Buffalo resident Kevin Lipp. Lipp had MS for over a decade, and as part of the study, discovered he had five blocked veins in his neck. After undergoing the Liberation Treatment 10 months ago, he says he hasn’t had a single new MS attack.
Zamboni emphasizes that the Liberation Treatment does not make people in wheelchairs walk again. Rather, it seems to stop the development of further MS attacks, and in some cases, improves movement and decreases the debilitating fatigue that are the hallmarks of MS.
It may not cure MS, but it is all very interesting.
I tend to look on the body, as an engineer would look on a machine or a car. Machines don’t work well if they don’t have all of the things they need like fuel, electric power, oil, water and all the other necessities.
Is the body any different to my car in that respect?
And now today, it has been reported that those who develop Alzheimer’s are less likely to get cancer.
This would appear to push things in another direction, as research at Nottingham University has shown that coeliacs are less likely to get breast cancer. Diagnosed coeliacs have on the whole healthy brains because they eat well, so this research might show the opposite.
We need to do a lot more research to find all of these links.
Coeliac Symptoms
Before detailing how I was diagnosed, I will go through a list of symptoms that coeliacs can suffer from.
Coeliac disease has been called the Many Headed Hydra by doctors because it produces so many different symptoms. I think that this is because gluten strips your gut and then you don’t take up the vitamins and nutrients that you need. This is especially true with Vitamin B12, which is essential for good cell health.
Consequently, you will get a problem in any organ that needs that nutrient.
It’s a bit like expecting your car engine to run with low engine oil. You can’t be sure where the problem will manifest itself.
I have taken this quote from the précis of a paper by M Hadjivassiliou, R A Grünewald and G A B Davies-Jones called Gluten Sensitivity: A Many Headed Hydra, that appeared in the British Medical Journal in June 1999.
Marsh’s “modern” definition of gluten sensitivity is to be recommended: “a state of heightened immunological responsiveness to ingested gluten in genetically susceptible individuals.” Such responsiveness may find expression in organs other than the gut. Gastroenterologists, dermatologists, neurologists, and other physicians need to be aware of these developments if the diagnosis and treatment of the diverse manifestations of gluten sensitivity are to be advanced. The aetiology of such diverse manifestations presents the next challenge.
I would endorse that as my experience of moderating the UK-Coeliac Yahoo Group gives me the impression, that a lot of coeliacs are misdiagnosed in a first instance, because of their symptoms. The real cause is sometimes not found until many years later.
So what symptoms can you get?
- Abdominal Distension in Children – *
- Amenorrhea – Absence of menstrual periods in a woman
- Bone and Joint Pain, and Arthritis – *
- Constipation – *
- Dandruff – *
- Depression – Generally mild, but not always – *
- Dermatitis Herpetiformis – A serious skin disorder
- Dry Skin – *
- Failure to Thrive in Children – *
- Feelings of Inadequacy – *
- Gait Ataxia/Apraxia
- Gallstones – *
- Gum Disease – *
- Gut Problems – Abdominal pain, bloat, diarrhoea and wind – *
- Heartburn
- Inability to Lose and Gain Weight – *
- Infertility and Recurrent Miscarriage
- Itchy Scalp – *
- Lactose Intolerance – *
- Lightheadness and Fainting – *
- Liver Problems
- Low B12 and Folate Levels – Leading to anaemia – *
- Migraine or Persistent Headaches – *
- Mood Swings – *
- Mouth Ulcers
- Muscle Weakness
- Osteoporosis
- Sinus Problems – *
- Sleep Disturbance
- Small Stature – *
- Thyroid Problems
- Tinnitus
You can almost play that well-known game called Name That Symptom!
The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are ones that I experienced at some time or another.
A classic one is gallstones. I was diagnosed at about the same time as I was diagnosed as a coeliac. I was told to have an operation. Since then though they have been quiet and I hope they stay that way!
But whatever you say it’s a lot of possible things you can suffer from.
Coeliacs and Bi-Polar Disorder
I’ve been a coeliac all my life, but I was only diagnosed a few years ago. I wish I’d been diagnosed earlier.
The more I look at my condition, the more I find surprising links to other diseases.
As we all know, bi-polar disorder is something that is difficult to live with and control. It is not pleasant and in the worst cases it leads to all sorts of complications and trouble. So many families I know have all but been destroyed by mental illness of this type.
But type coeliac bi-polar disorder into Google and you get lots of stories about people who believe that the two are connected. Look at the snippet below from this article.
Sharla is a friend and a fellow blogger, her blog can be found at Jones Family Blog. Like myself, she suffers from bipolar disorder. But Sharla also suffers from celiac disease, as do two of her children.
Now is there a connection between coeliac disease and bi-polar disorder? And all of the other mental
problems, slight or otherwise?
Whilst I was undiagnosed, I didn’t suffer from too many mental problems, but I did suffer migraines, without any pain luckily, and various mood swings and temper problems. The migraines have gone and I’m a lot calmer, despite the other things that have happened to me.
But let’s look at the body and the mind from the point of view of an engineer. I was trained to be a control engineer, which is all about why systems work, so this might, or might not, give me a greater insight. You judge! Not me!
For any system to work well, and the brain is just a very complicated system, it needs to be supplied with everything it needs and all of the components must be in the best condition. Just think how poorly your car runs, when you haven’t topped it up with oil and water!
Now, coeliacs are often short on vitamin-B12 and folates, as their gut is damaged and these don’t get into the system. I still get an injection every three months to make sure my levels are where they should be.
This is what Wikipedia says about vitamin-B12.
Vitamin B12 is a water soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is one of the eight B vitamins. It is normally involved in the metabolism of every cell of the body, especially affecting DNA synthesis and regulation, but also fatty acid synthesis and energy production.
So if your vitamin-B12 is low, does this mean you might show all sorts of brain malfunctions, such as bi-polar disorder?
Type vitamin-B12 brain into Google and you get lots of interesting articles.
Like this one, where the research was done by the University of Oxford. And this article which says that the University of Highlands and Islands is researching the link between gluten and schizophrenia.
If there is one personal conclusion, then it is get your vitamin-B12 levels checked.
And on a general basis we need a lot more research, not just into this link, but into all the effects of gluten.
The Anonymous Widower 