 |
 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Foods Containing Tannin May Trigger Migraine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WESTPORT (Reuters) -- Tannin appears to be one of the substances that can trigger migraine, a Canadian physician reports in the September issue of the journal Headache. "There have been many reports of food triggers for migraine attacks, but there seems to be no mention of tannins in general or of apple juice in particular," Dr. Michael Mather of Toronto notes. However, his experience with two patients whose migraine attacks appeared to be triggered by tannin consumption leads him to believe these substances should be added to the list. Both patients were adult women, one with frequent migraine, the other with "almost continuous migraines for most of her life." The first patient reported the onset of a migraine shortly after she consumed two glasses of cloudy apple juice. Following discussion of this episode, the patient agreed to avoid foods containing tannins such as apple juice, coffee, tea, and red wine. Shortly thereafter, her migraines stopped. The second woman, who found it necessary to take potent analgesics almost continuously began a tannin-free diet. After she began the diet, the woman did not have a migraine attack for 10 days, and the overall frequency of migraine was reduced to once a month. Mather suspects that tannin acts by mechanisms unrelated to allergens, which can make them difficult to identify as migraine triggers. He concludes that there is an association between migraine and tannin consumption, and believes this relationship merits further investigation. SOURCE: Headache (1997;37:529) [1997, Reuters Health eLine] <http://www.medscape.com/reuters/tue/t1110-5f.html> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- janet [log in to unmask]