TRIALS INVOLVING MIGRAINE: ONE OF THE MOST UNEXPECTED FEATURES OF THIS TRIAL

April 20th, 2009

One of the most unexpected features of this trial was the extent to which other symptoms cleared up during the diet. These symptoms – such as epileptic fits, hyperactivity and aching limbs – were generally assumed to be unconnected with the migraine. Yet in the majority of children, they disappeared during the initial stages of the diet, and reappeared when incriminated foods were eaten. So too did symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhoea, flatulence, mouth ulcers and vaginal discharge. The atopic symptoms – rhinitis (runny nose), asthma and eczema – only cleared up in about half the children, suggesting that unidentified airborne allergens were playing a part. The only major symptoms not to clear up in any of the children were those due to permanent nervous-system damage.

One interesting feature of this trial is that four of the five researchers involved were highly sceptical about the importance of food at the outset. The exception was Professor John Soothill, who wished to set up the trial and persuaded the others to assist him. Their report of the. experiment records that they ‘embarked on this study believing that any favourable response, such as that claimed to substantiate the dietary hypothesis, could be explained as a placebo reponse. The positive double-blind controlled trial… provides clear evidence that a placebo response was not the explanation.’

Migraine in adults may not be the same as migraine in children and there is a danger in extrapolating from one to the other. But positive results have been obtained in other trials assessing elimination diets in adults with migraine. In these trials, 60-70 per cent of patients responded to the elimination diet and were later able to identify culprit foods that provoked their migraines.