Constipation and Migraines
Please Leave Any Comments HERE on the blog I made just for this post
Is the medical establishment’s continued denial that constipation CAUSES migraines merely a way to keep people paying for medications that may or more likely may not ease the pain? How many off-label prescriptions are written for migraine sufferers for medicines that aren’t actually for treating migraine pain? How much revenue comes from those prescriptions? If people knew that more fiber and the occasional laxative when needed could end much of the misery of migraines they would no longer need to take expensive medications to treat the migraine pain. No, I don’t mean that every migraine is caused by constipation but I suspect many are.
The term constipation here doesn’t necessarily mean constipation where you actively feel the need to poop but are unable – for people in whom constipation triggers a migraine it is usually an unnoticed constipation, and the onset of the migraine is often the first clue that there is any constipation at all.
Those who have migraines triggered by this constipation are absolutely positive that there is a connection. Further, they are positive that constipation causes migraines – that it’s not some sort of coincidence – it is NOT that constipation gives you “stress” and that stress in turn triggers a migraine, it’s the constipation itself that directly triggers the migraine.
If you suffer from migraines, or even just occasional severe headaches, start to pay attention to the way the pain changes before or after you poop. Sometimes elimination can trigger the migraine, (onset can happen very quickly, some have described the migraine forming before they finish their bowel movement) sometimes elimination can end the migraine (relief can begin immediately and the migraine is totally gone in about 20 minutes.)
How? Why? Nobody is really bothering to find out. And it’s a goddamn shame. My personal theory is that the poop is collecting and pressing against something that triggers the migraine… I suspect that if you shoved a pole up your ass and managed to hit the same spot you’d get yourself a whopper of a migraine in a matter of hours. Is it a biological reaction, merely a way our intestines tell us that it’s time to empty out, or tell us that we need to empty at least some out, in order to adjust whats in there into a more comfortable position?
Something to think about is acupuncture, or even just the way certain nerves trigger a feeling in a nerve nowhere near the nerve being stimulated. We’ve all scratched an itch and have felt a sensation somewhere else on our skin than where we are actually scratching, and then we have to move and start scratching the area where that “phantom” sensation occurred…
That is the general working of acupuncture and over thousands of years acupuncture points were mapped out, and the triggering or blocking of sensations through nerve stimulation was achieved. If you read about acupuncture you learn that the points where they, well, puncture you are believed to correspond to organs and systems inside the body.
I believe it is the same concept at work with this constipation migraine connection, that there is a pressure point of some sort inside us, and that this constipation in certain people pushes matter against the pressure point, and that pressure point sends sensations to the same receptors that give us headaches – the same way your fingernails scratching an itch on your arm can send a sensation to the bottom of your foot, which now requires scratching too.
An interesting Q&A on the subject here
And if you’re reading this, have you noticed this connection? And did you get here by specifically searching the phrase “constipation and migraines” because you already KNOW there is a connection and came here looking for evidence?
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There is a connection between constipation and headaches but it’s not because there’s a pressure spot.
When you don’t cleanse waste properly there is a metabolic imbalance that is created. This leads to disease. If you don’t allow your body to cleanse waste, the toxins will enter back into your blood stream. The headache is your body’s way of telling you the need to get rid of waste build up.
So, if you get a headache it would help to take a laxative.
Keep up the good work.
republicofhealth
June 21, 2009 at 12:52 pm
The medical establishment and the many doctors I saw over my lifetime were all plagued with Seinfeld Syndrome or the inability to discuss unpleasantries, like fungus and poop. I am now disabled because no doctor could or would address the cause of my inability to have a bowel movement on my own from when I was a baby. I discovered in the last years that I have Hirschsprung’s disease, and am still searching for a knowledgable gastrointestinal surgeon. I still can’t understand how doctors can simply ignore two CT scan reports with, among other findings, that I have “a stool-filled colon.” I’ve lost count of the number of medical professionals who dismissed the reports by simply advising me to increase fiber intake and drink more water. If you have a kinked or blocked hose, no amount of water pressure is going to fix the problem. But doctors didn’t want to discuss the problem. Yes, I eat lots of fiber, drink gads of water and take supplements. I can have diarrhea and still need an enema. I must say none of the doctors were surgeons, so I guess, not being able to find a way of making money on my dilemma, they chose to ignore the issue rather than refer me to a surgeon. I’ve chronicled my experiences with doctors leading to my disability in a series of blogs at http://doctorblue.wordpress.com. Thanks for bringing the issue to the forefront.
doctorblue
June 21, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Both of these comments nail it. Sorry this reply is so long, but these comments got me thinking…
“The kinked hose” – That is such a perfect, absolutely perfect term for it. – and I imagine there are all kinds of ways that the hose could get kinked, some people say they’ve had the problem forever, some say it started after they had kids or after certain injuries (ha, the after-kids folks are usually women)
yes that must be why it’s not really a noticable traditional constipation – and why I, and the people I’ve heard from, will seem to have a blockage, but then for whatever reason – the blockage eases and out comes diarrhea (when I was little my mother used to call diarrhea “melted poo-poos” which I think is a wonderful term) and we are left wondering what was blocking that in the first place?
Personally, I’ve suspected for a long time that it’s a kinked hose that causes the constipation – suspected? no, I’ve been convinced for a long time, because I figured out how to unkink it adequately enough to ease my pain. And it was pain. It was not wanting to live. It was literally thinking that if the next 20 or 30 of my life was going to be constant back pain, inexplicable exhaustion, and terrible pounding headaches – I would rather have died. In fact, I feel as if I may have died, or would have become disabled myself, if things continued as they did ….
Which leads right into the previous comment posted… about the bodys signals that we need to get the waste out of us – the back pain, the tiredness, the headaches, these are all signals (and I know they are very clear and very loud signals)…. But if you go to the doctor and say “I have back pain and headaches, and I’m tired all the time, and Doc, I think it’s because I haven’t been able to poop so good.” they start listing off the reasons why your suspicions are wrong… they go about treating the back pain, or the headache and tell you that your ass problem is a result of the backache. When it’s so COUNTERINTUITIVE it’s ridiculous.
It simply makes more sense that for whatever reason, and I’ll be explicit here: If your tubes are of packed full of shit that won’t come out, after long enough it starts causing trouble and it results in excessive pressure against your lower back. It makes less sense that your back just decided to slowly get stiff and painful for some other reason and because your back hurts your shit is stuck. Add to that how we can actually tell the doctor that the pain is significantly reduced immediately if we are able to go poop. And the doctors still don’t believe it. Do they want to come live with us for a month and watch as we contort and probe ourselves in order to unkink our hoses before they will trust that we know what we are talking about. Sienfeld Syndrome indeed!
The only way I figured out that my headaches were because of my “kinked hose” was because I had the back pressure/pain problem first, and the headaches started slowly. My back slowly became tight and stiff, I was always contorting, trying to stretch it or make it snap out of the stiffness, I started to notice how sometimes I couldn’t seem to get any poop out, then because I was noticing, I realized that I was only getting on average one tiny poop per week. I started to suspect that my lack of pooping had something to do with my back problems. Then slowly the headaches started. I’d have one every couple months or so, they were pounding whoppers and I didn’t think they were related to my back or my poops because it wasn’t as if the back pain got any worse or anything else changed as the headache came on. Then they came more often. I’d have to go to sleep because of my pounding head, sometimes I would sleep for 12 hours, wake up, and within the first 10 minutes awake the headache would start again, and after a few hours I’d go back to sleep for another 8 hours. And the sleep was natural, I was so tired all the time, when I absolutely shouldn’t have been tired.
One day I found myself literally “shuffling” to the kitchen for something. Slowly shuffling like I was an 80 year old – Shuffling because if felt like my back was encased in a slowly hardening glue, and my head pounded – the light hurt, sounds hurt, and I was so so so tired down to my bones… and I knew something was seriously, life-or-death style seriously wrong. I thought, one of these days, I’m not going to be able to wake up at all anymore. That’s when I thought not waking up might be better if I had to live through more of whatever was happening to me.
And then a friend brought me some laxative suppositories and insisted I try them, and it completely reversed everything. And I should note that these symptoms, the backache, exhaustion, and headaches – they developed slowly over 3 or 4 years before I got to the point where I felt like walking death, and after I started using the suppositories and really investigating what my body needed – within a couple of months I was feeling about 80% better…. It still happens, my shit still doesn’t want to come out, but I learned how to make it come out, I’m still learning, and sometimes I still get a headache or a stiff back, but I know where it’s coming from, and I am able to mostly stop the pain. Sometimes I still get a headache that will last for a couple of days, but they aren’t as severe as they used to be, and they go away once I’m able clear stuff out – and I suspect those headaches may also be tied to menstruation in my case.
AF
June 22, 2009 at 3:35 am
AF, I’ve been there too — feeling so bad you think it might not be such a bad thing if you didn’t wake up. I just wanted to add one more analogy to explain what I think is going on in our bodies when it’s not functioning properly.
Think of what happens to that baked lasagna that you put in the refrigerator and forgot about — for months. It starts growing things like fungus and bacteria. The same thing happens in our intestines with undigested food. As we get older, our pancreas stops efficiently making the enzymes we need to properly digest certain proteins, etc. When this happens, our intestines develop enterotoxins that circulate throughout the body wreaking havoc with free radicals and oxidation, etc. This leads to “leaky gut” syndrome and malabsorption…Bacteria begins to grow in the tissues and impinges on the nerves which tightens the muscles, particularly around the spine. That leads to back pain. I know because this is what happened and is still happening to me. And don’t let me forget to add that your arteries are clogging with plaque from all the debris, inflammation and infection the whole time.
Doctors don’t have a clue, so they take your money for a referral to another doctor and some tests. This pattern repeats until you stop going to doctors.
Now being disabled, I’ve done a wealth of research on my own and through supplementation, enemas and laxatives, I’m working on unclogging my veins, detoxing and trying to correct nutritional imbalances. Until I can clear my partial obstruction through surgery and get the IV antibiotics and antifungals I need to fight my infections, it’s a losing battle.
At least there is some conciliation in knowing what is wrong with you and what it will take to get better. It’s frustrating not being able to get any medical professionals to understand the same, however.
doctorblue
June 23, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I found this article when googling the opposite idea that my migraines make me poop a lot. To me this makes total sense and I feel there is a definite connection as well. Unfortunately, like you said, I don’t actively feel constipated before the onset of the migraine. I actually feel like I have very regular movements. However, when I get a bad migraine I will have to go to the bathroom a TON. I have sometimes noticed an almost immediate relief of the migraine after. Other times I can feel a change after, but not enough and I will continue to suffer. It makes me feel like my body has something toxic in it that it needs to get rid of. I can’t figure out if it was something I ate like too much red meat or anything else or if it is just a general build up.
Honestly, I’ve never taken a laxative and might be afraid to do that while simultaneously suffering from a migraine. Just might be too much to deal with at once. I think drinking more water might help a lot of people too.
Thanks for the article and for making me feel like I’m not alone in this!
Jet
August 20, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I got here by googling “headaches caused by being full of poop”. These are not from being constipated, I actually have very regular movements. But when I get this kind of headache there is one of two reasons, 1. caffeine withdrawal (about 1 every year) or 2. full of poo (about 2-3 a month). After going to the john my headache will ease and usually fade quickly with help of 2 naproxin and a glass of water.
The fact that being full of shit causes me a major headache is without a doubt, and has been for 20+ years. It will sneak up on me because I never feel constipated before I get the headache. This happens to me a couple of times a month. Not a problem for me but I’ve always been curious why this occurs. I guessed built up toxins but that guess is just a guess.
Walt
August 28, 2009 at 4:58 am
[...] from original post: republicofhealth said, on June 21, 2009 at 12:52 pm [...]
Constipation and Migraines « The Kinked Hose
September 5, 2009 at 1:54 am
For anyone reading this – if you are constipated and sufffering from headaches – take magnesium – not magnesium oxide, but the citrate (and not the bottles full of salty stuff at the drugstore) – something like Nature’s Calm (which is magnesium). There is a huge link between migraines and low magnesium and constipation and low magnesium. It is shocking that doctors don’t talk about this or seem to know this.
I like Nature’s Calm personally because it is powdered, can be added to orange juice or just added to water and you can titrate the dose to what works for you. Once you find the dose you need, don’t stop taking it or some form of Magnesium (other than oxide which will just make you gassy and miserable). I guarantee that your constipation and headache problems will virtually disappear. If I forget and don’t stay on the magnesium, then I need to use a higher amount and also take Konsyl (or some other psyllium fiber) to clear me out.
Hope this helps – good luck.
Yana
October 20, 2009 at 9:17 am