Question:
This is a mighty complicated subject...in general, migraine and allergies have
relatively little to do with each other, and food testing, or allergy testing,
rarely really helps...the allergies are often worse in spring and fall, and
that coincides with the worst season for most migraine sufferers, but it is
largely from other factors(weather changes, our brain chemistry is different,
etc.)....bad allergies can produce a stuffy nose and slight or mild frontal
headache, but rarely much worse...the allergy meds do help many people's
headaches, at least a bit, but because they affect histamine, etc., not a
direct anti-allergy effect.
The food sensitivities that people with migraine suffer from are a chemical
sensitivity to certain substances, such as tyramine, not an allergy. In my
experience, with thousands of headache patients, treating the allergies helps
the allergies, but only rarely the headaches. these are just my 2 cents, and I
know that there are many other legit views on the subject.
Answer:
My problem has been that if I get a headache for ANY reason, and keep it
awhile, it often triggers a migraine later. While I sat in the allergy
clinic, getting injected with the various substances, a lot of them gave
me an allergy headache. After keeping a dull allergy headache for most
of the day, complete with both runny nose AND stuffed up sinuses, I went
home and got a full blown migraine, complete with visual aura, nausea,
vomiting, the works...That is my allergy/migraine connection, not so
much that allergies CAUSE migraine. Do you have any patients who can have a sinus headache "trigger" a
migraine?
My worst sinus time was actually at the time when my migraines were
relatively
calm but I could end up with a killer throwing up migraine if I have sinus
pressure and pain for more than 2 days or so. My husband seems to have
even less tolerance--if he gets a sinus headache, he has a migraine within
3-4 hours. We are both of the "pain begats pain" group of migraine
sufferers.
I am having a horrible sinus year (talking to the doctor today about switch
antihistamines). I had a horrible sinus headache Friday and Saturday and
ended up with a full blown migraine yesterday. Today, I am back to just
a sinus headache (actually, I think I have a sinus infection finally. I was
running a fever yesterday and today). I'm in this camp. Along with all the other triggers, sinusitis is one
that wreaks havoc. Recently had to take antibiotics to shift a sinus
infection, and the migraines were the most severe I've experienced for
years.
