Gut brain connection

I have a 10 day migraine cycle that nothing budges. And I'm grateful my pattern isn't as severe as so many others. My husband has advanced cancer, failing kidney, etc coupled with too many antibiotics which resulted in the gut issue cdiff. Basically, all the good bacteria our body uses to digest and eliminate food waste are wiped out via antibiotics. Many rounds of medical treatments and the life threatening cdiff was still there.

A cdiff treatment used in Europe and Canada involves transferring a small amount of donor fecal material via an enema to repopulate the gut and colon with healthy bacteria. Very simple to do at home via a process that anyone having a colonoscopy has done. We did the transfer and within 24 hrs the cidiff was gone. Wonderful!

10 days after the transfer of the good bacteria from my body to my husbands body, he came down with a migraine. Because he has so many other medical issues, dx of migraine followed after 2 ER visits and a stay in hospital. He's still in hospital being treated for the head pain with fioricet with about an 80% reduction in migraine.

This is his first migraine and he has 70 years worth of no headaches. Is this wild or what?

Wow... that is crazy, and rather suspicious! They still don't know what causes migraine so it could be anything.

Makes sense when you take abdominal migraines into consideration.

Could be that childhood abdominal migraines are caused by a gut flora imbalance.

I wonder how many hormones are found in fecal matter, after all your body disposes of them somehow. I work in the zoo field and I know they can test an animal's poo for pregnancy by measuring hormones. I wonder if some hormonal signature of the migraines would show up.

This connection is truly fascinating to me. I wonder if a week or two of eating yogurt several times per day and taking probiotics would change the gut flora enough to get rid of migraines for good. I just may give this a try....

Hi,

Wow! Ok, this is a new one!

I can think of only one possible explanations. It is possible that hormones and chemical imbalances get eliminated from the body in waste and since everyone's chemistry is unique-his brain reacted to your chemicals when the procedure was done.

I hope we haven't accidently performed the first migraine transplant here! (Kidding)

Anyway, I very glad your husband is being treated for this and for everything else. I hope the reduction in pain continues, that he stays c-diff free and is able to come home.

You two sound like you love each other very much. I will definitely send prayers up for both of you! And like Dora, my service dog says, "HEEL"

Pain free days,
sailingm

I discussed this idea briefly with a research doctor and he was very interested in the plan to eliminate all grains from my diet and do a course of intensive probiotics for a trial period of at least a month or more. He said there is really no downside to that and encouraged me not to give up too early. I have been doing gluten free for about 3 weeks but not completely grain free. It will be a challenge but daily migraines are more of a challenge so I'm determined to do it.

Check this article out - bacteria and brain connection. Not very competent with computers and apologize in advance if link doesn't work.


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bacteria-may-transfer-moms-stress-fetus

Cassie, thank you! The link worked fine and the article was very interesting indeed. I book marked it for future reference.

Cassie, how is your dh doing and how are you?

Hi Kim. I'm beginning my migraine cycle, right on schedule. My DH is much better. He's feeling good enough to yell and scream at new computer.

I have been experimenting with a no grain diet and on day 10 of my cycle I start getting my auras but I then have aura for 3 more days and day 4 take Zomig. So no grain diet gets me 4 more days before have to take Zomig. I've done the 14 day cycle twice now. Got to keep trying new things,

Another thought, I checked the calendar for my husbands headache. This is my husbands day 10 from his migraine and he is headache free. So hopefully he will not have another one.

Very glad to hear your husband is doing well Cassie. I do pray you would find relief also. If I understand correctly the low carb diet has given you a couple more pain free days? So far I haven't found any relief by following grain free and dairy free and adding probiotics. Still it is early days for this so I will keep following the protocol and let you know if I see any improvement.

Hi Kim. You are right. I've got 4 extra days migraine free, but not headache free. I have headaches day 10 to 13 treated with Alieve or relafin. Truly just headache. Then day 14 an intense migraine treated with Zomig nasel and sleep. Day 15 is the recovery day feeling I've been hit by a truck with no IQ evident.

I am also following a low fat diet, for past 5 years, which got me to 10 days between migraines. I think COQ10 gell caps, 300 mg a day, lowered the intensity of the pain. But, I still needed Zomig.

My instinct on my migraine management, is that the migraines are minimized if I eat fewer types of food and around 1200 calories a day for my 5' 6" body. Restricting both calories and types of food is the holy grail I can seldom reach as we are away from home so much dealing with my husbands illness.

I wish you strength in your struggle.

Cassie

This is not exactly the same thing but still related...
I find the gut-brain connection to be very fascinating! I was just looking up IBS (which commonly occurs in migraineurs) and found this:

An emerging theory focuses on the neurotransmitter serotonin. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit messages between nerve cells. Most of us have heard about the relationship between depression and serotonin in the brain, but the gut also produces serotonin, which in turn acts on nerves in the digestive tract. Some research suggests that IBS patients who suffer mainly from diarrhea may have increased serotonin levels in the gut, while those with constipation-predominant IBS have decreased amounts.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Understanding_and_treating_an_irritable_bowel.htm

I haven't researched this specifically, though I have a hunch that if neurotransmitters are active in the gut, they are probably still present in the stool, and thus triggered your husband's M.

Hi CGrape, thanks for info. We are still away from home but new cycle of 14 days still on track but it is very difficult to travel and remain grain, dairy free and low fat. But really trying!

Book by Gershon, The Second Brain, goes into all this gut brain connection. And, for 40 years of migraines I've been telling neurologists and headache clinics that needing to have a BM and having to hold is a sure trigger. It's a lot easier to regulate that now that I'm retired.

I'm also beginning to correlate IBS treatments, preventatives, diets, etc with migraine. Once I've got 2 more months of this new 14 day cycle I'm going to try an IBS Diet. My instinct is that both low cal and fewest foods or food types are my best bet for control.