ergo-log.com

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

08.06.2022

Avoiding carbohydrates is preventing migraines

According to some case studies, migraine patients benefit from a low-carbohydrate diet. [Funct Neurol. Oct-Dec 2013;28(4):305-8.] Are these coincidences, or can drastically reducing carbohydrate intake actually protect against migraines? According to a trial in which nearly a hundred volunteers participated, the latter is the case.

Study
Italian researchers published a trial in 2015 in the European Journal of Neurology in which 96 women who regularly had migraines participated as test subjects. The women were overweight and went on a diet for six months.

The researchers divided the women into two groups. The women in the control group reduced their energy intake [SD]. The women in the experimental group ate as much as the women in the control group, but switched to a low-carbohydrate diet for a month [KD].

The women consumed no more than thirty grams of carbohydrates per day. After the low-carb month, the researchers gradually reintroduced the carbohydrates into the diet of the women in the experimental group.

Results
The low-carbohydrate diet reduced the number of migraine attacks and the number of days that the subjects suffered from migraine.

Mechanism
The researchers suspect that a low-carbohydrate diet inhibits inflammation in the brain and reduces the production of aggressive molecules by the mitochondria. This may reduce the risk of migraine attacks.

Conclusion
"Although far from considering our data suggestive for the introduction of ketogenic diets as an alternative prophylactic treatment for migraine, our results may shed light on an interesting, but neglected, biological phenomenon, i.e. ketogenesis seems to improve migraine headache", summarize the Italians.

"Nonetheless, they may provide a useful strategy for migraineurs who need to treat headaches and who are overweight and/or experience a weight increase as a side effect of cyclic prophylactic treatments for migraines."

"Besides, since other ketogenic diet schemes (e.g. the modified Atkins diet) are suitable for very long diet periods, it cannot be excluded that ketogenesis might be used in the future as an additional therapeutic strategy for migraines, as it is in paediatric epilepsy."

"Further controlled studies are needed to confirm our preliminary findings."

Source:
Eur J Neurol. 2015 Jan;22(1):170-7.

More:
More omega-3, less omega-6, fewer migraines 21.07.2021
Less frequent migraines due to zinc supplements 12.11.2020
Cinnamon fights migraines 04.08.2020

Archives:
Headache & Migraine
Low Carb Diet
Pain Killers

Q10 and L-carnitine effective against migraine Supplementation with 30 milligrams of Q10 and 500 milligrams of L-carnitine per day can drastically improve the lives of people with migraine.	Less migraine with 80 mg vitamin B6 daily Vitamin B6 not only reduces the severity but also the duration of migraine attacks.	Magnesium, vitamin B2 and co-enzyme Q10 combo soothes migraine This supplement doesn't reduce the number of days that a migraine lasts, but it does reduce the severity of an attack.