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Current Pain and Headache Reports
Published in: Current Pain and Headache Reports 7/2015

01-07-2015 | Episodic Migraine (R Cowan, Section Editor)

What the Gut Can Teach Us About Migraine

Authors: Nada Hindiyeh, Sheena K. Aurora

Published in: Current Pain and Headache Reports | Issue 7/2015

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Abstract

During gestation, cells of the brain and gut develop almost simultaneously into the central nervous system (CNS) and enteric nervous system (ENS), respectively. They remain connected via the vagal nerve lifelong. While it is well known that the brain sends signal to the gut, communication is in fact bidirectional. Just as the brain can modulate gut functioning, the gut, and likely what we ingest, can in fact influence our brain functioning. We will first review both gastrointestinal (GI) function and migraine pathophysiology and then discuss evidence linking the migraine brain to various GI disorders. Lastly, we discuss the effects of gut microbiota on brain functioning and speculate how the gut and particularly diet may affect migraine.
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Metadata
Title
What the Gut Can Teach Us About Migraine
Authors
Nada Hindiyeh
Sheena K. Aurora
Publication date
01-07-2015
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Pain and Headache Reports / Issue 7/2015
Print ISSN: 1531-3433
Electronic ISSN: 1534-3081
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-015-0501-4

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