As sufferers know, migraine headaches are intensely painful. Furthermore they can have a number of unpleasant associated symptoms such as nausea, sensitivity to light and even vomiting.

For many years, researchers have claimed that migraine headaches are caused by changes in a person's serotonin levels. When serotonin levels drop they can cause blood vessels to swell which can result in a migraine headache.

Alterations in serotonin levels can be caused by hormone changes and the body's blood sugar. Recently however, it has been discovered that intolerance to certain foods can also produce to migraines.

Yorktest Laboratories has just published the results of a clinical test that it carried out to investigate the relationship between migraines and food intolerance.

Yorktest studied sixty one people who suffered from migraines over two months. The company used its patented foodscan tests to identify whether any of these people had a food intolerance.

The foodscan food intolerance test analyses a small sample of blood (no more than a pin prick) to test for antibodies and their reactions to food. This shows whether a subject has a food intolerance.

Following these food intolerance tests, those who were found to have a food intolerance were asked to eliminate the problem food from their diet. 80% of these people said that there had been some improvement in their migraines.

They were then asked to re-introduce the problem foods into their diets. Over 60% of the people who did so said that their migraines had returned to their original level of severity.

According to Yorktest:

This research shows that food intolerance testing can point patients in the right direction to avoid the long-winded, trial and error nature of removing a food from your diet for a few days, noting a reaction, and then either banning it from your diet if you get a headache, or eating it if you don't.”

The research demonstrated that in many cases migraine victims could benefit from having food intolerance testing to identify whether a particular type of food is contributing to their suffering.