TITLE:
A pilot study eliminating immunologically-reactive foods from the diet and its effect on symptomatology and quality of life in persons with chronic migraines and headaches
AUTHORS:
John E. Lewis, Johanna Lopez, Adam Ganuza, Judi M. Woolger, Lawrence Chen, Angelica B. Melillo, Yaima Alonso, Soyona Rafatjah, Janet Konefal, Amine Sarabia, Susanna M. Leonard, Evan G. Long, Eduard Tiozzo
KEYWORDS:
Migraine Headaches; Food Sensitivity Testing; Elimination Diet; Food Intolerance; MTAQ; SF-36
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Internal Medicine,
Vol.3 No.1,
March
27,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Purpose: Chronic migraines and headaches are significant public health problems, and their symptomatologies have been positively linked to diet. We explored if individuals suffering from chronic migraines/ headaches who required medication treatment had improvement in symptomatology and subjective ratings of QoL when following an immune-reactive food exclusion diet based on the results of the ImmunoBloodprint test, an IgG-mediated food sensitivity assay. Methods: Thirty-seven subjects, aged 18 and over, took part in the study. Subjects had to eliminate all reactive foods from their diet for 90 days. Migraine intensity and frequency were measured using the MTAQ, and QoL was assessed with the SF-36 survey at base- line and 30-, 60-, and 90-day follow-up. Results: Sub- jects who eliminated IgG-mediated reactive foods from their diet had reductions in migraine symptomatology and had improvements in nearly all indicators of QoL, according to the SF-36, from baseline to 90-day follow-up. Conclusions: Subjects were able to improve their migraine symptoms and QoL in response to eliminating IgG reactive foods from the diet. This test may represent a strategy to help mediate chronic migraine symptomatology without the use of medication.