Research Article
Migraine and Lactose Malabsorption: Is there Any Relationship?
Del Zompo F, Mangiola F, Petruzziello C, D’Angelo G, Di Rienzo TA, Franceschi F, Gasbarrini A and Ojetti V*Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy.
- *Corresponding Author:
- Veronica Ojetti
Department of Internal medicine and Gastroenterology
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy
Tel: 00390630153188
E-mail: veronica.ojetti@tin.it
Received date: November 18, 2015 Accepted date: January 21, 2016, Published date: January 28, 2016
Citation: Del Zompo F, Mangiola F, Petruzziello C, D’Angelo G, Di Rienzo TA, et al. (2016) Migraine and Lactose Malabsorption: Is there any Relationship?. J Gastrointest Dig Syst 6:385. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.1000385
Copyright: © 2016 Zompo DF, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background/Aims: Lactose malabsorption (LM) consists in the incomplete absorption of lactose, due to lactase deficiency. According to previous studies, headache can be triggered by food intolerance. We investigated the onset and severity of headache during the LBT and a correlation with LM. Patients and Methods: We enrolled 93 (74F/19M; mean-age 42 ± 16 yrs) outpatients who performed a LBT according to the guidelines. Patients reported on a Visual-Analogue-Scale the intensity of headache before and at the end of the test. We considered as significant an increase of headache in VAS peak >10mm. Results: 67/93 (72%) resulted LM, while 53% (49/93) referred a headache worsening. Within the group of LM headache worsened in 50.7%, compared to 57.7% in non-malabsorbers (p=0.36). In the subgroup of patients with habitual headaches there is a significant worsening compared to non-habitual ones (70.7% vs 38.5%; p=0.003) regardless of the LBT result. Conclusion: The present study denies the existence of an association between LM and headache. We found that headache significantly worsened in patients usually suffering from headache, regardless LM. We think that this data should be considered, since we suppose that the onset of headache during a LBT could affect the correct execution of the test.
