Dr. V.S. Madan

Maintaining good oral hygiene has now become all the more important. A new study has linked the cause of migraines to be a specific type of bacteria present in mouth and gut. People complaining of splitting headaches is fairly common place nowadays. Statistics in india show that nearly one third indian women and one fifth of indian men suffer from this type of headache.

Symptoms of migraine include:

    Moderate to severe pain that affects the whole head or may shift to one side
    Increased sensitivity to light, sound and pungent odour
    Blurring of vision
    Nausea and/or vomiting
    Dizziness, fatigue
    Seeing dark spots in front of eyes

There are three different types of headaches- severe headache, cluster headache and migraine.

Headache is simply unpleasant pain in the head region of varying intensity. Cluster headache is intense one sided headache with tearing in the eye of the side of the pain. Migraines are moderate to severe pain in the head, usually diffuse and presents along with the above stated symptoms.

Causes of migraine:

Knowing what causes migraine can help avoid it. Common causes that affect different people are as follows:

    Stress
    Hormonal changes and supplements
    Over use of contraceptive pills

Food that triggers migraine:

Many people experience migraine because of different food items. Identify your trigger and then try hard to avoid it.

    Chocolates
    Wine
    Processed and canned meat products
    Onions, potatoes, spinach, and over eating of rice

Since many years now, nitrate medicines have been used to maintain cardiovascular health and previous research has revealed that heart patients who were given medications containing nitrates routinely complained of headaches. The migraineurs had high nitrate levels, but the actual connection to link the two had not been established until now.

Researchers at the university of california-san diego investigated this further to identify the connection between what the migraineurs eat that alters their experience with migraines. Bacterial sequencing was done on the 172 participants of samples collected from their mouth and gut. Tests showed an abundance of nitrate reducing bacteria in their faecal samples, but even more in their mouth bacteria.

The study published in the journal msystems has identified the link between oral bacteria and migraine, but it is still not evident whether these bacteria are the cause or a result of migraine. But even then it is best to stay safe from our side by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a good oral hygiene. Migraine is often neglected by the patients and hence becomes difficult to treat. Identify the above triggers and causes of migraine and consult a physician if you have any of them.