The Headache in Your Gut
How your bowel issues could contribute to Migraines.
You wake up with a throbbing, pulsating, and painful feeling. It hurts to look into the light or to even think straight. Not to mention you’ve only been awake 10 minutes and you have a massive test today. Of course, it’s a headache. Nearly ⅓ of us will experience headaches at some point in our life, and ⅕ of us may experience Irritable Bowel type symptoms. IBS with a migraine, can you think of a better combo to annoy you to no end?
When compared to healthy people, those who get headaches are more likely to suffer from gut conditions such as IBS. Same goes for IBS patients with headaches. Those with IBS present with symptoms beyond that of the just the typical gut ones such as constipation, bloating, and diarrhea. These so called extra-intestinal symptoms can include joint pain, brain fog, and for our purposes, headaches. As a matter of fact, chronic headache is reported in nearly 50% of those with IBS (1). How can this be? How can my headaches be affecting my gut? Or could my gut be contributing to my headaches?
Gut-Brain Connection
As we develop inside our moms, aspects of our gut and our brain arise from the same tissue. Think of the phrase, “I have a gut feeling on this one.” Naturally, they share some similarities, neurons for example. When people hear the word neuron, they automatically think of them as brain cells. But as a matter of fact, there are more neurons in the gut than our brain. Neurons are excellent communicators, and when there’s someone or something that’s hanging around causing a ruckus in the gut (harmful bacteria, undigested food particles from inflammatory foods), neurons will tell your body about it. When they tell your body what’s up, you start to feel the symptoms of bloating, abdominal pain, and fatigue. The neurons in the gut then communicate with the neurons in the brain, saying “Hey, there’s some not good stuff that might be headed your way.”
There’s also the Vagus Nerve, the longest cranial nerve (meaning it originates in the head), that travels down and connects with our intestines. The vagus nerve is one way the neurons in our gut communicate with the ones in our brain.
Neurotransmitters, such as Serotonin, can also travel from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve (more on this later).
Serotonin
Many of us have heard of this “feel good” chemical that our body produces. Some of you may even be taking it as a sleep aid (Serotonin is the precursor molecule for Melatonin). But, did you know that nearly 90% of our bodies Serotonin is produced within our gut. If you have an inflamed gut, your body will have a reduced ability to produce Serotonin. This is important because Serotonin plays a big role in headaches. First, we need a brief physiology discussion on Serotonin and our vascular system.
Our arteries (you know, the things that carry that red wine looking stuff we call blood) have the ability to constrict and dilate themselves. Think of the arteries like a hose, if you press on (constrict) the hose you reduce the flow of water, then once you let go and take the pressure off (dilate) the water, flow returns. One of the roles of Serotonin is to constrict our blood vessels. Now you might be saying to yourself, “Self, Serotonin is a feel good chemical, so then why does it constrict our blood? Wouldn’t that be bad?” The answer is, it depends.
Let’s return to the hose model; if someone is about to shoot water at you, would more water be coming at you if the hose was constricted or dilated? Dilated. Think of the arteries supplying blood to the brain in the same way. If they are too dilated (blood overflow) pain signals can become activated, aka you get a headache (This is one reason people get headaches from caffeine withdrawal. Caffeine causes mild constriction of blood to the brain, then once you take caffeine away you get this massive rebound effect and an overflow of blood that flows to the brain). Serotonin helps keep a good ‘balance’ on the flow of the blood to the brain.
Great. Stop too much blood from getting to the head. How’s the Gut involved?
Like I previously mentioned, 90% of Serotonin is produced in the gut. In order to produce Serotonin, we need the amino acid Tryptophan (Everyone thinks of this as what makes you sleepy on Thanksgiving, not even close. It’s the blood sugar swings from all the sugar and calories we eat on Thanksgiving that make us feel tired). This means we need to absorb tryptophan from our food, which means we need to be able to digest protein properly. Tryptophan is found in protein (amino acids are the building blocks of protein). If we have impaired digestion from low stomach acid, gut dysbiosis (too many harmful bacteria/not enough beneficial ones), or chronic stress, we will not be able to obtain proper amounts of Tryptophan.
Improper digestion = Not enough Tryptophan = less Serotonin produced = less control of arteries = blood overflow to head = potential headache.
Differences in the microbiome have also been implicated with headaches. In a group of older women, those who suffered from migraines had lower microbial diversity and altered metabolic pathways when compared with the healthy control group (2). When looking at differences in the microbiome in disease populations (IBS, IBD, migraine sufferers), it makes sense that their microbiome would be different than that of a disease free individual. From a clinical standpoint, changes in the microbiome are cool to observe, but what one should really care about is if those with migraines would benefit from gut microbiome support.
Support Options
Probiotics have shown great benefit for migraines. In one study, patients underwent probiotic treatment for 12 weeks, and saw a reduction in migraine frequency per month, along with a reduction in the severity of those migraines (3). The probiotic used was multi-strain; I recommend multi-strain probiotics from Apex Energetics and Functional Medicine Formulations. Multi-strain probiotics have more than one Lactobacillus Acidophilus or Bifidobacterium Longus strain, they may also have S. Boulardi or Bacillus strains. If you want to know more about probiotics check out my article ‘Why Kombucha isn’t Fixing Your Gut Health.’
In another study, patients with both IBS and migraines underwent elimination diets, probiotic therapy, and both treatments combined. What they found was that those patients who underwent an elimination diet + probiotics saw a reduction in both frequency and severity of migraines (4). The researchers used a similar multi-strain probiotic as the one previously mentioned.
The gut-brain connection, altered microbiome, and altered Serotonin can all play a role in the formulation of a headache. Nothing will ruin your day, quite like a terrible migraine. Add to that some digestive discomfort, and you’ve got yourself a top 10 exciting day. However, with the right dietary intervention, probiotic supplementation, and overall healthy lifestyle, you can live your life and manage headaches and IBS. If you’re looking for specific guidance on how to manage these conditions, seek out a Functional Medicine Practitioner near you.
If you did enjoy this article, I’d really appreciate it if you looked at the upper left hand corner, and gave the article an applause. If you’d like further information on optimizing your gut health, living with autoimmunity, and listening to me rant, make sure to give me a follow as well or hit the email notification button to get notified whenever I publish a new article.
As always, trust in Your Gut.
Disclaimer: This is not meant to convey medical advice, if you’re looking for such, please consult a qualified medical practitioner.
References
- Camara-Lemarroy C, Rodriguez-Gutierrez R, Monreal-Robles R, Marfil-Rivera A. Gastrointestinal disorders associated with migraine: A comprehensive review. Wor J of Gastro. 2016;22(36): 8149–8160.
- Chen J, Wang Q, Wang A, Lin Z. Structural and Functional Characteristics of the Gut Microbiota in Eldery Women with Migraine. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020;9: 470.
- De Roos NM, Giezenaar CG, Rovers JM, Witteman BJ, Smits MG, van Hemert S. The effects of the multispecies probiotic mixture Ecologic®Barrier on migraine: results of an open-label pilot study. Benef Microbes. 2015;6(5):641–646. doi:10.3920/BM2015.0003
- Xie Y, Zhou G, Xu Y, et al. Effects of Diet Based on IgG Elimination Combined with Probiotics on Migraine Plus Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Pain Res Manag. 2019;2019:7890461. Published 2019 Aug 21. doi:10.1155/2019/7890461
