Research into the causes of irritable bowel syndrome have often highlighted the fact that people who suffer from this digestive disorder have more headache Where migraines than those without abdominal pain. Dr. Derya Uluduz, from the University of Istanbul in Turkey, and his colleagues, therefore sought to find out if there was a link between the two pathologies.
For this study, which will be presented at the next Annual Congress of Neurology to be held in Vancouver (Canada) in April, the researchers recruited 107 patients with episodic migraines, 53 patients with episodic tension headaches107 patients with irritable bowel syndrome and 53 “healthy” control patients.
A common genetic origin
By assessing the health of these patients, they found that those who suffered from migraine were almost twice as likely to also suffer from an irritable bowel (54.2% versus 28.3%). And among patients with irritable bowel syndrome, 35.2% also had migraines and 22.4% tension headaches.
The Turkish researchers then looked for a possible genetic link and found that people with migraine, tension headaches and irritable bowel syndrome had at least one gene that differed from the genes of healthy participants: the serotonin transporter gene or the serotonin receptor 2A gene.
“Further studies are needed to explore this possible link but it could lead to new treatment strategies for these chronic diseases” said Dr. Uluduz.
Source :American Academy of Neurology
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