Abstract
MIGRAINE afflicts some 10–15% of the population, which includes a subgroup of dietary migraine sufferers, all of whom specifically exclude certain foods from their diet. When Hanington1 studied this group extensively all subjects reacted adversely to chemically pure tyramine. Indeed, an oral dose of 100 mg of the pure chemical precipitated a migraine attack entirely indistinguishable from the classic migraine of the subjects concerned1,2. Because of this significant correlation, we decided to investigate the metabolism of tyramine in normal and dietary migraine subjects using large doses of tyramine and, separately, tracer doses of 14C-tyramine.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hanington, E., in Background to Migraine, Second Migraine Symp. (edit. by Smith, R.) (Heinemann, London, 1967).
Smith, I., Kellow, A. H., and Hanington, E., in Background to Migraine, Third Migraine Symp. (edit. by Cochrane, A. L.), 134 (Heinemann, London, 1970).
Oates, J. A., in Methods of Medical Research (edit. by Quastel, J. H.), 9, 169 (Year Book Medical Publications, Chicago, 1961).
Karoum, F., Ruthven, C. R. J., and Sandler, M., Clin. Chim. Acta, 20, 427 (1968).
Lemberger, L., Klutch, A., and Kuntzmann, R., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 153, 183 (1966).
Häggendal, J., Acta Physiol. Scand., 59, 255 (1963).
Morgan, C. D., Ruthven, C. R. J., and Sandler, M., Clin. Chim. Acta, 26, 381 (1969).
LaBrosse, E. H., and Mann, J. D., Nature, 185, 40 (1960).
Axelrod, J., Kopin, I. J., and Mann, J. D., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 36, 576 (1959).
Goodall, McC., and Alton, H., Biochem. Pharmacol., 17, 905 (1968).
Davis, V. E., and Walsh, M. J., Science, 167, 1005 (1970).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
SMITH, I., KELLOW, A., MULLEN, P. et al. Dietary Migraine and Tyramine Metabolism. Nature 230, 246–248 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/230246a0
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/230246a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Headaches: a Review of the Role of Dietary Factors
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports (2016)
-
Differences in kinetics of formation of killers and producers of macrophage migration inhibition factor in the primary and secondary response in mixed lymphocyte cultures
Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine (1979)