Migraines and gastroparesis

[Bethw]

Someone wrote about gastroparesis (GP) and migraine. There does seem
to be a connection between the two. I was part of a parents’ group on
Yahoo and was surprised to notice about half of the active posters had
children that also got migraines. My 11 yo daughter developed GP
after a virus, but had previously had migraines, plus had family
history of migraine, plus the migraines were worsened by the chronic
GP that gave her anxiety!

Grace’s GP was called “benign post-viral.” We presume a virus damaged
the vagus nerve, which controls movement of food through the stomach.
GP is a motility disorder. Until the damage began to heal (about 10
months), she had severe reflux, heartburn, abdominal pain, and
diarrhea. She was initially treated as if it were GERD
(gastroesophageal reflux disorder), but symptoms worsened and didn’t
improve with OTC or Rx treatment. You can take OTC histamine
antagonists (H2 antagonist) like Axid AR, Pepcid AC, Tagamet HB,
Zantac 75; and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Prilosec. Grace had
no luck with antacids like Maalox.

Definitive diagnosis is made with GI imaging tests (upper and/or
lower), gastric emptying test (radioisotope scintography), and finally
an endoscopy. My daughter’s endoscopy, done 5 months after she first
started symptoms, showed a full stomach of food 14 hours after her
last meal! Her meds were quadrupled immediately. Meds include:
Prevacid, Reglan, Levsin for pain. Note, though, some stomach meds
have side effects including headaches (!) and depression. We are just
now stopping Reglan for this reason. Grace has had chronic daily
headache since March, and increasing deep depression. We expect
Zoloft to help her out now.

You must change your diet with GP: no acid, no fried, no spicy, watch
dairy, don’t eat within 2 hours of bedtime, no alcohol, no caffeine,
avoid stress. My daughter slept on a wedge, so gravity helped at
night. Improvement occurred gradually, until we could reduce her
meds.

Other causes of GP are diabetes, trauma, surgery, etc. My daughter
was lucky hers was post-viral and healed. Other GP sufferers, and
infants, sadly, need tubes and other interventions and may not
recover.

Beth

[Martha]

Beth, and Karen,

I may be the only person who posts here who has gastroparesis irrespective
of the migraines. It's not all that common. I, too, got it after a virus,
but mine never went away. (I also got nerve damage in my hands from the same
virus, which also never went away.) My stomach always goes south, or
farther south, when I have a migraine, but it's basically a mess all the
time.

The gastroenterologist who diagnosed (via endoscopy and then gastric
emptying study) gave me the standard gastroparesis diet. Very unhealthy!
Lots of white flour and sugar, very few fresh fruits and veggies, no fat,
lots of other restrictions. I tried that for a while and continued to wake
up almost every night vomiting. If you Google gastroparesis diet you'll find
the same diet everywhere. One guy invented it, everybody with a web site
picked it up and duplicated it, and that's pretty much all that gets
recommended, except it doesn't work for everybody, and after reading posts
on the gastroparesis group on Yahoo I'm not sure it works for most.

After some trial I discovered I could eat almost everything except wheat and
sugar. The very things that were making me sick all the time were a large
part of the recommended diet. Wheat sits in my stomach like lead. Sugar
gives me very acid reflux in spite PPIs and acid blockers. So this
"gastroparesis diet" was actually making me sick. What helped me more than
anything was essentially a low-carb diet, and staying away from stringy and
fashionably undercooked veggies. I also take a high quality digestive enzyme
with meals.

My point is that this "gastroparesis diet" is not for everyone and sometimes
you just have to experiment. It's really considered an orphan disease so
nobody does research on it, especially the diet aspect because there's no
money in it. So try rotating foods or types of foods in your daughters'
diets and see if you can catch some foods which might be causing gastric
problems. Who knows - you might also find foods which are triggering
migraines.

Martha

[Leenie]

Post by Martha
Beth, and Karen,
I may be the only person who posts here who has gastroparesis irrespective
of the migraines. It's not all that common. I, too, got it after a virus,
but mine never went away. (I also got nerve damage in my hands from the same
virus, which also never went away.)  My stomach always goes south, or
farther south, when I have a migraine, but it's basically a mess all the
time.
The gastroenterologist who diagnosed (via endoscopy and then gastric
emptying study) gave me the standard gastroparesis diet. Very unhealthy!
Lots of white flour and sugar, very few fresh fruits and veggies, no fat,
lots of other restrictions. I tried that for a while and continued to wake
up almost every night vomiting. If you Google gastroparesis diet you'll find
the same diet everywhere. One guy invented it, everybody with a web site
picked it up and duplicated it, and that's pretty much all that gets
recommended, except it doesn't work for everybody, and after reading posts
on the gastroparesis group on Yahoo I'm not sure it works for most.
After some trial I discovered I could eat almost everything except wheat and
sugar. The very things that were making me sick all the time were a large
part of the recommended diet. Wheat sits in my stomach like lead. Sugar
gives me very acid reflux in spite PPIs and acid blockers. So this
"gastroparesis diet" was actually making me sick. What helped me more than
anything was essentially a low-carb diet, and staying away from stringy and
fashionably undercooked veggies. I also take a high quality digestive enzyme
with meals.
My point is that this "gastroparesis diet" is not for everyone and sometimes
you just have to experiment. It's really considered an orphan disease so
nobody does research on it, especially the diet aspect because there's no
money in it. So try rotating foods or types of foods in your daughters'
diets and see if you can catch some foods which might be causing gastric
problems. Who knows - you might also find foods which are triggering
migraines.
Martha

Hi -- I can tell I'm getting a migraine when I start to feel bloated
or have an acid stomach. In Chinese medicine the brain and stomach /
intestines are related (I can't remember either on the same meridian
or they are paired somehow) any way. A few years back on the unit I
worked they did a study using Reglan and Aspirin (I think- well it was
one of those analgesics) when a headache started and the headache was
relieved with that analgesic because it was able to get through to the
small intestine etc rather than just sitting in your stomach. I have
been told there is more serotonin in the gut that in your brain and
who knows what happens when those neurotransmitters start going
around. This is nothing new of course. Reading Breaking the Vicious
Cycle was v.helpful to me. Good luck- Arlene

[Leenie]

Post by Leenie

Post by Martha
Beth, and Karen,
I may be the only person who posts here who has gastroparesis irrespective
of the migraines. It's not all that common. I, too, got it after a virus,
but mine never went away. (I also got nerve damage in my hands from the same
virus, which also never went away.)  My stomach always goes south, or
farther south, when I have a migraine, but it's basically a mess all the
time.
The gastroenterologist who diagnosed (via endoscopy and then gastric
emptying study) gave me the standard gastroparesis diet. Very unhealthy!
Lots of white flour and sugar, very few fresh fruits and veggies, no fat,
lots of other restrictions. I tried that for a while and continued to wake
up almost every night vomiting. If you Google gastroparesis diet you'll find
the same diet everywhere. One guy invented it, everybody with a web site
picked it up and duplicated it, and that's pretty much all that gets
recommended, except it doesn't work for everybody, and after reading posts
on the gastroparesis group on Yahoo I'm not sure it works for most.
After some trial I discovered I could eat almost everything except wheat and
sugar. The very things that were making me sick all the time were a large
part of the recommended diet. Wheat sits in my stomach like lead. Sugar
gives me very acid reflux in spite PPIs and acid blockers. So this
"gastroparesis diet" was actually making me sick. What helped me more than
anything was essentially a low-carb diet, and staying away from stringy and
fashionably undercooked veggies. I also take a high quality digestive enzyme
with meals.
My point is that this "gastroparesis diet" is not for everyone and sometimes
you just have to experiment. It's really considered an orphan disease so
nobody does research on it, especially the diet aspect because there's no
money in it. So try rotating foods or types of foods in your daughters'
diets and see if you can catch some foods which might be causing gastric
problems. Who knows - you might also find foods which are triggering
migraines.
Martha

Hi -- I can tell I'm getting a migraine when I start to feel bloated
or have an acid stomach. In Chinese medicine the brain and stomach /
intestines are related (I can't remember either on the same meridian
or they are paired somehow) any way. A few years back on the unit I
worked they did a study using Reglan and Aspirin (I think- well it was
one of those analgesics) when a headache started and the headache was
relieved with that analgesic because it was able to get through to the
small intestine etc rather than just sitting in your stomach. I have
been told there is more serotonin in the gut that in your brain and
who knows what happens when those neurotransmitters start going
around. This is nothing new of course. Reading Breaking the Vicious
Cycle was v.helpful to me. Good luck- Arlene- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

I want to add the headache the person had that was treated with Reglan/
ASA--I'm sure wasn't a migraine like the whoppers we get. -- Best
wishes- Arlene

[Martha]

Post by Leenie

Post by Martha
Beth, and Karen,
I may be the only person who posts here who has gastroparesis irrespective
of the migraines. It's not all that common. I, too, got it after a virus,
but mine never went away. (I also got nerve damage in my hands from the same
virus, which also never went away.) My stomach always goes south, or
farther south, when I have a migraine, but it's basically a mess all the
time.
The gastroenterologist who diagnosed (via endoscopy and then gastric
emptying study) gave me the standard gastroparesis diet. Very unhealthy!
Lots of white flour and sugar, very few fresh fruits and veggies, no fat,
lots of other restrictions. I tried that for a while and continued to wake
up almost every night vomiting. If you Google gastroparesis diet you'll find
the same diet everywhere. One guy invented it, everybody with a web site
picked it up and duplicated it, and that's pretty much all that gets
recommended, except it doesn't work for everybody, and after reading posts
on the gastroparesis group on Yahoo I'm not sure it works for most.
After some trial I discovered I could eat almost everything except wheat and
sugar. The very things that were making me sick all the time were a large
part of the recommended diet. Wheat sits in my stomach like lead. Sugar
gives me very acid reflux in spite PPIs and acid blockers. So this
"gastroparesis diet" was actually making me sick. What helped me more than
anything was essentially a low-carb diet, and staying away from stringy and
fashionably undercooked veggies. I also take a high quality digestive enzyme
with meals.
My point is that this "gastroparesis diet" is not for everyone and sometimes
you just have to experiment. It's really considered an orphan disease so
nobody does research on it, especially the diet aspect because there's no
money in it. So try rotating foods or types of foods in your daughters'
diets and see if you can catch some foods which might be causing gastric
problems. Who knows - you might also find foods which are triggering
migraines.
Martha

Hi -- I can tell I'm getting a migraine when I start to feel bloated
or have an acid stomach. In Chinese medicine the brain and stomach /
intestines are related (I can't remember either on the same meridian
or they are paired somehow) any way. A few years back on the unit I
worked they did a study using Reglan and Aspirin (I think- well it was
one of those analgesics) when a headache started and the headache was
relieved with that analgesic because it was able to get through to the
small intestine etc rather than just sitting in your stomach. I have
been told there is more serotonin in the gut that in your brain and
who knows what happens when those neurotransmitters start going
around. This is nothing new of course. Reading Breaking the Vicious
Cycle was v.helpful to me. Good luck- Arlene- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

I want to add the headache the person had that was treated with Reglan/
ASA--I'm sure wasn't a migraine like the whoppers we get. -- Best
wishes- Arlene


Arlene, in my humble experience how the headache is treated has little, if
anything, to do with how bad it is. Just ask 80% of the people who post
here!

Anyway, did want to add that when gastroparesis is present, whether it's
temporary from the migraine or more or less permanent, use of NSAID drugs
should be very judicious, if at all. If aspirin, ibuprofen, etc. goes into
the stomach and just sits there, it can cause a whopping case of gastritis
with repeated use.

Martha

[t***@gmail.com]

My daughter has post viral gastroparesis. She took reglan for one month and is now taking omeprazole. She does not vomit anymore but does have occasional bloating, tummy aches, and burps often. She was diagnosed two months ago. She is on a no fat diet with small meals. How do I know if she is getting better?

[skunkgyrl]

Post by t***@gmail.com
My daughter has post viral gastroparesis. She took reglan for one month and is now taking omeprazole. She does not vomit anymore but does have occasional bloating, tummy aches, and burps often. She was diagnosed two months ago. She is on a no fat diet with small meals. How do I know if she is getting better?

H there,

Hardly anyone posts here anymore. There are some Facebook groups that are pretty active. I have no idea how to answer your question. I wish you the best. Here is one Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/44862763771/

Beth

[friendlytxtech]

Thank you for posting. I'm not on here much anymore as it was in my Outlook
Express that I got here, but now use my iphone for the email. In any case,
great to see one of the pages with a lot of members.

I hope all is well with everyone!
Michelle

Post by t***@gmail.com
My daughter has post viral gastroparesis. She took reglan for one month
and is now taking omeprazole. She does not vomit anymore but does have
occasional bloating, tummy aches, and burps often. She was diagnosed two
months ago. She is on a no fat diet with small meals. How do I know if she
is getting better?

H there,

Hardly anyone posts here anymore. There are some Facebook groups that are
pretty active. I have no idea how to answer your question. I wish you the
best. Here is one Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/44862763771/

Beth

[s***@gmail.com]

Gastroparesis is caused by damage to the vagus nerve, which as any migraine patient knows is also involved in migraines. I get hemiplegic and abdominal migraines. I also recently noticed permanent neuro damage on the right side when I put both hands in hot water and one side was noticeably hotter than the other. Less sensation on my right side. I believe migraines damaged the vagus nerve in my stomach as well causing gastroparesis.

Post by Bethw
Someone wrote about gastroparesis (GP) and migraine. There does seem
to be a connection between the two. I was part of a parents’ group on
Yahoo and was surprised to notice about half of the active posters had
children that also got migraines. My 11 yo daughter developed GP
after a virus, but had previously had migraines, plus had family
history of migraine, plus the migraines were worsened by the chronic
GP that gave her anxiety!
Grace’s GP was called “benign post-viral.” We presume a virus damaged
the vagus nerve, which controls movement of food through the stomach.
GP is a motility disorder. Until the damage began to heal (about 10
months), she had severe reflux, heartburn, abdominal pain, and
diarrhea. She was initially treated as if it were GERD
(gastroesophageal reflux disorder), but symptoms worsened and didn’t
improve with OTC or Rx treatment. You can take OTC histamine
antagonists (H2 antagonist) like Axid AR, Pepcid AC, Tagamet HB,
Zantac 75; and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Prilosec. Grace had
no luck with antacids like Maalox.
Definitive diagnosis is made with GI imaging tests (upper and/or
lower), gastric emptying test (radioisotope scintography), and finally
an endoscopy. My daughter’s endoscopy, done 5 months after she first
started symptoms, showed a full stomach of food 14 hours after her
Prevacid, Reglan, Levsin for pain. Note, though, some stomach meds
have side effects including headaches (!) and depression. We are just
now stopping Reglan for this reason. Grace has had chronic daily
headache since March, and increasing deep depression. We expect
Zoloft to help her out now.
You must change your diet with GP: no acid, no fried, no spicy, watch
dairy, don’t eat within 2 hours of bedtime, no alcohol, no caffeine,
avoid stress. My daughter slept on a wedge, so gravity helped at
night. Improvement occurred gradually, until we could reduce her
meds.
Other causes of GP are diabetes, trauma, surgery, etc. My daughter
was lucky hers was post-viral and healed. Other GP sufferers, and
infants, sadly, need tubes and other interventions and may not
recover.
Beth