Diet Changes Reduce Migraine Headaches
/By Pat Anson, PNN Editor
There are many new treatments available for migraine sufferers; everything from CGRP inhibitors to neuromodulation to green light therapy. But there may be a simpler and less expensive way to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine headaches: changing your diet.
A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that migraine sufferers who ate more fatty fish and reduced their consumption of polyunsaturated vegetable oils had fewer headaches.
The findings are similar to another recent study that found foods containing healthy omega-3 fats – such as fish, flaxseed and walnuts – can reduce inflammation and neuropathic pain. Researchers say the two studies suggest that dietary changes can affect pain levels for other types of chronic pain.
“It may ultimately be possible to integrate targeted dietary changes alongside medications to improve the lives of patients with chronic pain,” said Chris Ramsden, MD, a clinical investigator and adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Biochemical findings from both studies support the biological plausibility for this type of approach and could open the door to new approaches for managing many types of chronic pain. What is needed now is more evidence from randomized controlled trials in other populations with chronic pain.”
Ramsden is lead author of a study, published in the British Medical Journal, in which 182 adults with frequent migraines were broken into three groups and put on special diets for 16 weeks.
One group received meals that had high levels of fatty fish and low amounts of linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid commonly found in American diets of corn, soybean and other vegetable oils. A second group received meals that had high levels of fatty fish and higher linoleic acid. The third control group received meals with high linoleic acid and low levels of fatty fish to mimic what an average American consumes.
"Our ancestors ate very different amounts and types of fats compared to our modern diets," said co-first author Daisy Zamora, PhD, an assistant psychiatry professor in the UNC School of Medicine. "Polyunsaturated fatty acids, which our bodies do not produce, have increased substantially in our diet due to the addition of oils such as corn, soybean and cottonseed to many processed foods like chips, crackers and granola."
When the study began, participants averaged over 16 headache days per month and over five hours of migraine pain each headache day -- despite taking multiple headache medications.
Those who consumed a diet low in vegetable oil and high in fatty fish had 30% to 40% reductions in total headache hours per day, severe headache hours per day, and overall headache days per month compared to the control group.
Blood samples from this group also had lower levels of pain-related omega-6 fatty acids found in processed foods.
“The effect we saw for the reduction of headaches is similar to what we see with some medications.”
“Our trial is the first moderate sized controlled trial showing that targeted changes in diet can decrease physical pain in humans,” Ramsden told PNN, noting that fatty acids appear to regulate the production of calcitonin gene-related peptides, the same protein targeted by CGRP medications.
“Diets alter the amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the nervous system and other tissues linked to chronic pain. These fatty acids are converted by the body into biochemical mediators of pain. Several of these biochemical mediators act on receptor channels to regulate CGRP release,” he said in an email.
"I think this modification in diet could be impactful," Zamora added. "The effect we saw for the reduction of headaches is similar to what we see with some medications.”
Zamora, Ramsden and their colleagues are currently working on a new study to test diet modification for other chronic pain syndromes.
