Randomised controlled trial of food elimination diet based on IgG antibodies for the prevention of migraine like headaches

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Research suggests that food intolerance may be a precipitating factor for migraine like headaches.</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>To evaluate the effectiveness of the ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay) Test and subsequent dietary elimination advice for the prevention of migraine like headaches.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>Randomised controlled trial.</p> <p>Setting</p> <p>Community based volunteers in the UK.</p> <p>Participants</p> <p>Volunteers who met the inclusion criteria for migraine like headaches and had one or more food intolerance were included in the study. Participants received either a true diet (n = 84) or a sham diet (n = 83) sheet. Participants were advised to remove the intolerant foods from their diet for 12 weeks.</p> <p>Main outcome measures</p> <p>Number of headache days over a 12 week period (item A MIDAS questionnaire). Other measures includes the total MIDAS score and total HIT-6 score.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results indicated a small decrease in the number of migraine like headaches over 12 weeks, although this difference was not statistically significant (IRR 1.15 95% CI 0.94 to 1.41, p = 0.18). At the 4 week assessment, use of the ELISA test with subsequent diet elimination advice significantly reduced the number of migraine like headaches (IRR 1.23 95%CI 1.01 to 1.50, p = 0.04). The disability and impact on daily life of migraines were not significantly different between the true and sham diet groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Use of the ELISA test with subsequent diet elimination advice did not reduce the disability or impact on daily life of migraine like headaches or the number of migraine like headaches at 12 weeks but it did significantly reduce the number of migraine like headaches at 4 weeks.</p> <p>Trial registration number</p> <p>ISRCTN: <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRTCN89559672">ISRTCN89559672</a></p

Letters to the Editors

"By way of word games and schematics, Anna M. Szaflarski searches for the ‘emergent properties’ that materialize between texts. This book compiles the issues from Letters to the Editors: a self-printed black and white bi-weekly journal dedicated to text-based practices, written and distributed by Szaflarski between October 2014 and November 2015. Each issue combined Szaflarski's texts with contributions from artists, writers, family, friends, librarians, and colleagues, ranging from poetry and fiction to essays and manifestos. As the project progressed the letters came together and the body of LTTE formed: It had arms and legs, perhaps a brain but above all, a heart and a stomach, often aching, rarely satisfied." -- Publisher's website

A 235-bp region from a nutritionally regulated soybean seed-specific gene promoter can confer its sulfur and nitrogen response to a constitutive promoter in aerial tissues of Arabidopsis thaliana

The seed-specific promoter of the β subunit gene of β-conglycinin, a major seed storage protein of soybean, is upregulated in response to both sulfur and nitrogen nutrition. This response was studied in non-seed tissues of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana by fusing the β subunit promoter (Pβ) downstream of an enhancer from the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S RNA promoter (P35S) and using the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene. The chimeric promoter was upregulated by sulfur deficiency (ΔS), indicating that the Pβ is able to direct the ΔS response in non-seed tissues. Deletion analysis of the Pβ revealed that, in seeds, the -307 - -73 bp region is sufficient for the ΔS response. Insertion of the 235 bp region into the P35S conferred the ΔS response on this constitutive promoter in both seed and non-seed tissues. The extent of upregulation by ΔS was more evident when three of the 235 bp fragments were tandemly inserted into the P35S. The findings presented here suggest that a common mechanism exists for sulfur-regulated expression of the Pβ in both seed and non-seed tissues and that this 235 bp region of the Pβ is sufficient for regulation by both sulfur and nitrogen nutrition