Celiac Disease Linked with Migraine

Celiac disease (CD) is associated with a variety of neurologic disorders. Furthermore, preliminary findings from a recent study reported in the American Journal of Gastroenterology suggest a possible link between CD and migraine.

The study examined the prevalence of CD in patients with migraine and in control patients. The results indicated that migraine patients have a significantly higher occurrence of serologic markers of CD, compared with controls. Once patients with migraine were diagnosed with CD, they were put on a gluten-free diet, and they reported improvements in migraine frequency, intensity, and duration. No patient on the diet reported any gastrointestinal symptoms. If a larger study confirms these findings, serologic screening for CD may be proposed as part of migraine management, along with a gluten-free diet as first-line therapy for the subgroup of migraine patients with CD.