Tea and coffee. One patient suffered repeated severe attacks of migraine, resistant to all forms of treatment. He was found to be highly sensitive to tea and when this was excluded from his diet he improved.Another sufferer who used to get severe pains had been labeled neurotic but, when given tea or coffee by a tube into her stomach (so that she could not taste it), she developed the pains and her pulse doubled in rate, whilst giving water through the tube had no such effect. After stopping these offending substances she had no further attacks.The active constituents of tea and coffee include caffeine and theophylline, substances which prevent the breakdown of a high energy compound, cyclic AMP. The build-up of this substance makes the body far more sensitive to the action of the sympathetic nervous system. This type of food allergy is an increased sensitivity of stimulation after taking tea or coffee.
Alcohol. This is the commonest ‘food’ taken. It is well known for its capacity to widen blood vessels. The ‘hangover’ headache following excessive intake is well known, but many migraine sufferers are particular sensitive to alcohol, especially red wine and port. This cannot be solely due to the content of pure alcohol but may well be related to other substances (higher esters) which accumulate during long-term storage.
Other foodsAlmost every other food has been said to cause migraine, the commoner examples being citrus fruits and meat.One migraine subject always had an attack of headache some hours after eating pork, but only when tired or under emotional stress, and could eat pork with impunity if in ‘good condition’. With skin tests he was found to be sensitive to pork but also many other types of food.Here we have an illustration of the fact that it is not necessarily a single factor that induces an attack. In addition to the sufferer having the propensity to develop the attack, one single stimulus-in this case, pork-may not be enough but another-in this case, fatigue-had to be present.
Food allergy’Allergy’ is a vague term but when used in its medical sense means an altered reactivity of the body to a stimulus in the environment. Because so many disorders are said to be allergic in origin, scientists are reluctant to accept this explanation unless confirmation is obtained by immunological tests. With migraine this is not often the case, partly because the allergic substance in the food is difficult to isolate.
*27/152/5*
Random Posts