obesity

17 November 2022

Another Sugar-Migraine Link

James Discoveries & Stats, Resources, Tips 0

A new study is once again linking migraine and sugar – and yes, there’s something you can do about it.

We’ve talked a lot about the link between migraine and eating, in particular, sugar and refined grains. But how your body responds to foods is actually very complex, so there’s a lot more to say.

A diet that gives you a lot of spikes in sugar certainly seems to trigger more migraine attacks. For example, liquid sugar – drinking a lot of juice or carbonated sugary beverages, for example.

The study recently posted in BMC Neurology, entitled The potential impact of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome on migraine headache characteristics, investigates various indications that your body may not be handling sugar properly.

Insulin Resistance

The study talked a lot about “insulin resistance”. Imagine it this way. There’s a lumber mill out in the forest, and trees are being cut down and made into planks for building houses, and so on. I might add that this is a very sustainable operation, and trees are being replanted and habitats protected. 🙂

The lumber mill salesman goes into the city with his planks and sells them to all the people, and the people go into action, building houses using wood for fuel and making little toys and whatever else they do with the wood. Wood is amazing.

But after a while, the lumberjack starts getting a little greedy and starts cutting down more and more trees. The lumber mill is having trouble keeping up, but it’s giving a lot of work to the salesman. The salesman, also getting greedy, is in the city constantly, shouting to all his clients about what they could do with more and more and more wood! More salesmen are trained for the “growing market”.

After buying the wood for a while, and storing the extra in the garage, the people in the city get fed up. They have too much wood, the salesman is simply annoying – they’re done. They get so fed up, they call the police on the salesman, put out a restraining order, and start putting up posters warning everyone to stop buying from this guy.

You can understand their concerns – but now a system that was working well is completely broken. A very useful system is ending up with unused wood gathering dust in the garage, and at the same time a supply-chain problem. But now the salesmen have too much wood – so the storehouses are getting full of wood, that’s simply not being used for anything.

Now, imagine that the wood is food you eat with sugar. It’s processed by the body, and a salesman – let’s call him Mr. Insulin – gets the sugar to the city (or perhaps stores some of the wood properly in the lumber storehouse – like the liver, for example). The city (cities) is like your cells.

Sometimes, for various reasons, the cells can become “resistant” to the salesman, Mr. Insulin. The salesman gets more aggressive – in fact, more salesmen are trained at the Pancreas School of Insulin, because obviously, something isn’t working. But more salesmen aren’t helping.

For a while, the sales trucks are full of wood, but eventually there’s too much wood (sugar) for the insulin. The body is simply getting overwhelmed.

The excess sugar is stored in the storehouses – we call it “fat”, and you might see this right around your waist.

Insulin Resistance and Migraine

With the system broken, you end up with all kinds of problems. Diabetes…. it may cause problems in the brain – dementia – and … migraine?

This particular study, as you may guess, did find a link between insulin resistance and migraine, as well as metabolic syndrome and migraine. Metabolic syndrome is defined by the Mayo Clinic as “a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. These conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.”

Researchers looked at various indications of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. For example, fat around the waist. Yes, more likely in the migraine group. Insulin resistance? More likely in a migraine patient. Higher levels of insulin? Yes. Metabolic syndrome? Same thing.

And looking at the situation in reverse, migraine patients with insulin resistance were more likely to have worse migraine disease – more disability, worse attacks, and so on. Metabolic syndrome, in this case, was not as closely related to worse attacks.

Now we need to remember that there are a number of things that can cause “supply chain” issues in the body. Think of our lumber mill. Maybe one city just tends to build houses more slowly and carefully. Maybe the lumberjack gets a more efficient chainsaw. Maybe the weather is bad for a season.

In the same way, problems people with certain genetics or medical histories – or family medical histories – may be more susceptible to “supply chain” problems.

This study doesn’t show that insulin resistance causes migraine, but it is another clue (along with many other studies) that general health should help fight against migraine.

If you’re tempted to go and spend a fortune on that new exercise equipment, or that pill promising to “melt” fat around your waistline, think twice. Before getting to “next level” options, you have the power to make a huge difference in your own health.

That’s right – we’re back to exercise and diet.

Consider “quitting sugar” (that is, drastically reducing the added sugars and refined grains in your diet). For tips, see How To Quit Sugar (1) and How To Quit Sugar (2). If you spend most of your time in a chair, start by adding some movement to your day. In other words, take small steps to get your body moving. This does not mean going from the armchair to 6 hours at the gym tomorrow. Small steps, but consistent, regular steps.

For more information, check out Insulin Resistance and Diabetes from the CDC and Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes from the NIH. Regarding regulating sugar from the perspective of migraine, a useful resource is The Migraine Miracle: A Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, Ancestral Diet to Reduce Inflammation and Relieve Your Headaches for Good by neurologist Dr. Josh Turknett.

1 March 2022

Childhood Headache Increasing?

James Information 0

Last year, Dr. Marc DiSabella of Children’s National Hospital shared a report at the American Headache Society Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting regarding headache in children between the summer of 2020 and the winter of 2021. Although the report as seen online may raise more questions than it answers, it does give us a lot of food for thought.

Regarding headaches, researchers found that episodic headaches tended to decrease over this time, but that chronic and daily headaches increased. Nearly half of the patients said that their headache symptoms worsened. 12% said that their stress levels went down, whereas about half experienced worse stress and anxiety.

A further breakdown of information would be interesting. For example, most children reported that they ate and drank more over that time. Don’t you want to know – did they drink more water? Milk? Soft drinks? That question could make a drastic difference.

When did they eat? Snacks? Meals? And what was the difference between those who ate more, and those who ate less? For example, for some poorer children, the only half-decent meal they had many days was at school. So many children home from school due to COVID-19 restrictions found their nutrition decrease, not increase.

A CDC reported on weight gain:

…the rate of body mass index (BMI) increase approximately doubled during the pandemic compared to a prepandemic period. Persons with prepandemic overweight or obesity and younger school-aged children experienced the largest increases.
Longitudinal Trends in Body Mass Index Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Persons Aged 2–19 Years — United States, 2018–2020

Doubled! And this study once again confirms that problems we had in 2019 tended to get worse by 2021.

More than half of children reported less physical activity, and 62% said that added screen time contributed to their headaches.

This report does tell us some things. Yes, many chronic headaches did get worse, and this certainly may relate to a lack of exercise. But every situation was different. And some differences could be the involvement of parents, opportunities in the community, economic levels, and so on.

A recent article at Akeso Health Sciences reported on this study and others. Like anything else, the changes and instability that children have been experiencing over the past 2 years bring risks. In other words, some children may have thrived, others not so much. But it helps when parents are aware of the risks and finding ways to mitigate them.

Are children eating nutritious meals? Getting exercise out of doors? Do you notice changes in symptoms (headaches, stomach problems, paleness, irritability)? How about mental health? Are families finding creative, fun, and educational things to do together?

16 December 2021

Migraine and Irregular Heart Beat

James Discoveries & Stats, Information 0

Patients who have migraine with aura are more likely to suffer from a certain type of irregular heartbeat, according to a recent study out of Switzerland.

The condition is known as atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation occurs when the heart’s upper chambers beat out of sync with the lower chambers. You end up with an irregular, and often rapid, heartbeat.

The study does not show that migraine is causing the problem, only that the two conditions often come together. And there are a number of reasons why this may be – a medication you’re taking may increase your risk of heart problems, or obesity, or even a genetic disposition. A next step would be to try to figure out what the connection is between migraine and atrial fibrillation.

However, multiple studies have suggested that patients with migraine, and especially those with migraine with aura, have an increased risk of heart conditions. Studies like these are another reminder that migraine patients should especially take care of their heart health.

Now many people may not even notice this heart problem. If you do, you may or may not feel your heart “fluttering”. But you may notice weakness or fatigue, lightheadedness or dizziness, and maybe some chest pain.

Atrial fibrillation can be dangerous because it can lead to blood clots and stroke. The researches in this study review explain the practical steps you and your doctor may take:

In practical terms, screening for atrial fibrillation in patients who have a long history of migraine might be reasonable, whereas in patients with stroke or other disorders and migraine extensive screening for atrial fibrillation should be performed like in all patients without migraine.
Migraine and Atrial Fibrillation: a Systematic Review

In other words, it might be something you want to ask your doctor about, especially if you’re a long-term migraine with aura sufferer. If you know you have increased risk of heart disease, your doctor can help you lower your risk.

5 August 2021

Headaches and Vision Loss – Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

James Discoveries & Stats 0

A new study provides more clues about a condition that can give you headaches – and might also cause permanent vision loss. The condition? Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

Image from a retinal scan — *retinal scan*

“Idiopathic” means that the cause is unknown, although we are learning about risk factors. “Intracranial hypertension” refers to pressure in the skull.

Everyone has protective fluid around their spinal column and around the brain, called cerebrospinal fluid. But sometimes this fluid starts to build up in the skull, leading to symptoms such as headaches, vision changes (such as double vision), and a rhythmic sound in the ears (pulsatile tinnitus). It’s important to get symptoms such as these checked by your doctor as soon as possible, because they could have a number of causes, including a tumour.

In fact, intracranial hypertension itself could be a result of a brain tumour. But again, what we’re talking about today is idiopathic – we’re assuming that your doctor or specialist has already ruled out various direct causes.

Headaches from this condition are another example of why you need to get to the doctor if you have new headaches, or a significant change in your symptoms. In this case, you may start to have headaches, or the “normal” headaches you have might start to get significantly worse.

One of the possible consequences of being misdiagnosed or not getting early treatment could be a permanent loss of vision. The pressure involved actually puts pressure on your optic nerve. Vision symptoms may include partial blindness, “blind spots”, or double vision.

A recent study in the journal Neurology suggested two key risk factors. First, areas in which it was more likely for patients to be “deprived” of certain economic factors such as housing, education, and access to services, tended to have a higher risk. But even more clear was another link.

Cases of IIH have been rising – and that rise has followed the rise in obesity. This confirms an earlier study.

We also know that IIH is more common in women, ages 20-50. Both doctors and patients need to be aware of this strong link, so that they can diagnose early and get the proper treatment (which involves surgery, using a shunt to release the pressure).

Learn more:

What is idiopathic intracranial hypertension? (National Eye Institute)
Headache attributed to idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) (International Classification of Headache Disorders 3)
Incidence, Prevalence, and Health Care Outcomes in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (Neurology)
Preserving vision, easing headaches: Timely multidisciplinary care for idiopathic intracranial hypertension (Mayo Clinic)
Brain pressure disorder that causes headache, vision problems on rise (ScienceDaily)

16 July 2019

Early Puberty, Sugar, and Migraine

James Discoveries & Stats 0

Could sugar be triggering a chain-reaction that leads to early puberty – and migraine – in some girls?

Could sugary drinks be more dangerous than we once thought?

A recent study took a look at various stages of puberty in girls and its relationship to migraine. The bottom line is that girls who enter puberty early may have a higher risk of migraine.

Puberty is a complex change, and it happens in stages. In girls, the change includes breast development, the menstrual cycle, and changes in hair growth, for example. Each change is related to different chemical messages that are sent throughout the body.

The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine hosted this particular study, which was presented last week at the American Headache Society 61st Annual Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia. Generally speaking, breast development and menstrual periods began earlier in girls who developed migraine.

Although we often think about the menstrual cycle and its relationship to migraine (and the connection is very clear in some women), there may be other changes that trigger migraine in the first place. As the doctor who presented the finding explained (note – pubarche refers to first growth of pubic hair, thelarche to first breast growth, and menarche to periods):

At each of these stages, different hormones are starting to appear in girls. During pubarche, testosterone and androgens are present, and during thelarche, there is the very first exposure to estrogen. Menarche is when a more mature hormonal pattern emerges. Our study implies that the very first exposure to estrogen could be the starting point for migraine in some adolescent girls.
Dr. Vincent Martin [source]

Early breast development may happen even at the age of 6 or 7, and is not necessarily a sign of early puberty. Variations are normal, and not necessarily a sign of a problem. However, the study results have led doctors to ask the question – if certain stages of early puberty increase the risk of migraine (as seems to be the case), is early puberty itself the cause somehow? Or is something causing both?

Interestingly enough, there has been a lot of interest in the connection between early puberty, obesity, and sugar. There does seem to be a connection between early puberty and obesity (as the researchers in the above study also mentioned). But even without the obesity, too much sugar may also cause early puberty.

This combined with the current interest in the sugar-migraine connection does raise some suspicious questions. Might refined sugar not only increase your changes of migraine attacks – might it also cause migraine to start at an earlier age?

Take for example this study on girls and sugary drinks. Even if obesity was taken out of the equation, the sugary drinks were still linked to early onset of puberty.

Then again, although obesity seems to be the clearest possible link, many other things have been blamed, from plastics to shampoos to processed foods.

Again, early signs of puberty are no reason to panic. However, these studies are causing us to think again about why and when migraine begins in some girls, and how “normal” refined sugar should be in our diets.