In 1987 I was somewhat convinced that the immune system played a major role in headache; we embarked on a long study of the immune system in migraine patients, where we looked at NK cells, helper suppressor cells, etc..we published this in Headache. We found the “opposite” of AIDS, that people with migraines have higher helper cells to suppressors(interestingly enough, when people do have full blown AIDS, they have much fewer migraines….they have other headaches, related to the immune system and drugs, but pre-existing migraines may go down).
I am now, more than ever, convinced that the immune system has quite a bit to do with headaches; there has been 24 years(actually longer) of research on this; it appears as if even some of our drugs(nsaids, triptans, and Botox) probably work via decreasing the “inflammatory soup” around the head that feeds into the brain, starting and continuing headaches; more on this later….L.Robbins