It’s turning out that a great many things are linked to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, especially to either a leaky gut or abnormalities in the colon microbiota (bacteria).

Most people, even doctors, think that migraine problems are related only to the head, but in a large number of sufferers, GI problems either are present or even predominate. Migraine headaches are significantly more common in people with celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroparesis, and ulcerative colitis.

The common link between these conditions is inflammation. When the contents of the intestines leak out into the bloodstream, there is an inflammatory reaction that can reach the brainstem and trigeminal ganglion (a nerve cluster in the brain), triggering a migraine attack.

When probiotic organisms in the GI tract are abnormal, we see increased inflammation systemically, as well as in the brain.

In one study, researchers supplied some participants with probiotics and found that the migraine patients who received the probiotics improved; 60 percent enjoyed complete relief. And quality-of-life scores among those who took probiotics increased from 38 percent to between 80 percent and 100 percent.