chocolate

24 February 2021

Does Migraine Change the way You Eat?

Does migraine change your diet?

Now wait a minute. I don’t just mean that you don’t drink wine because you’re afraid that it might trigger an attack. I mean, does migraine itself somehow change your food choices – maybe unconsciously? In other words – maybe migraine itself changes your diet, not just that you change your diet because of migraine.

Yes, there’s a lot more to this than what we normally discuss. And a review published in the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment has raised a lot of interesting questions, even though we don’t have a lot of answers yet.

Of course we know that many people avoid certain foods because they might trigger attacks. But then there are more curious food studies. Take, for example, chocolate.

Chocolate was once a well-known “trigger”. But after various studies, it seems that it may actually trigger attacks only in rare cases. How can that be? So many people complain of headaches after eating chocolate! Well, the answer seems to be that an oncoming migraine attack sometimes comes along with a craving for chocolate. So, someone without a headache eats chocolate, and then gets a headache – but the headache was the cause of the chocolate, not the other way around!

Or, maybe there are food choices related to migraine. Such as, you may be taking a medication that causes weight gain, and so you start choosing food that you think will not cause more weight gain.

Maybe your body knows it needs salt – so you choose more salty foods. Or there is some kind of deficiency that your body is somehow trying to fix, and it’s related to or caused by migraine itself.

Besides specific food choices, there may also be changes in your decision about food portions. Or, as you probably know, many migraine patients are much more careful about their eating schedules – eating at the same time every day.

Maybe you feel a migraine coming on, and you commonly reach for this food. Why? Is it a craving? Or a decision based on evidence? (Either one could be good or bad – depending on the reason for the craving, the validity of the evidence, and what you reach for!)

This is a fascinating paper that you can delve into for yourself if you would like – A Bidirectional View of Migraine and Diet Relationship. But I would like you to start thinking about what the relationship may be between your migraine and your food choices. And, better yet, I would like you to comment!

Of course we’re not aware of unconscious choices, unless we or someone else notices a pattern over time. But what have you noticed? Has your diet changed because of migraine? Why? For example:

I heard that this diet has helped many people with migraine.
I avoid x because it seems to trigger migraine attacks.
I can’t eat x because of the medication I take.
I have a comorbid condition that affects my diet choices.
I’m simply more aware of my diet because of migraine, and so I eat healthier, or cook for myself more.
I’m exhausted because of migraine, so I choose simpler and easier meals.
I find I often crave x.
I have less of an appetite because of migraine.
Other.

Let’s compare notes!

12 September 2018

I cut this out of my diet – and had fewer migraine/headache attacks

James Website news 0

That was the topic of our recent poll. It was an interesting one, to be sure! Let’s look at the results…

Foods avoided poll Well, first of all we can see that this was’t a vegetarian’s dream. “Meats” came in last – with only 2% of respondents saying that it helped to cut meats.

The two at the top were close – surprisingly, “Alcohol” came out #1. 21% said that cutting alcohol from their diets made a significant difference.

Alcohol is a tricky subject when it comes to headache and migraines. We have discussed some tips here: Wine, Beer, and Headache Tips. But we also discussed the continuing controversy in Wine & Headaches: Why We’re Still Confused.

#2, with 19% of the votes, was “Processed foods”. I don’t think that one will come as a big surprise to any of us. Processed foods are just full of landmines for migraine and headache patients.

Next came “Sugar”, at 12%. Maybe lower because fewer people have really tried to cut out sugar.

So between alcohol, processed foods, and sugar, we have covered 52% who have had significantly fewer attacks.

“Caffeine” came next, at 10%. Then tied were “Chocolate”, “Gluten” and “Bananas”. Close behind those were “Dairy” and “Cheese”. And then with a rather low success rate was “Grains” and “Meat”.

Of course this is a very unscientific poll, and doesn’t take into consideration a million things like – what combinations of the above work?

That being said, it tells me two things. First, it confirms the dangers of processed food, something we’ve probably known for a long time.

Second, it should make us take another look at alcohol and sugar in our diets. Check out Sugar and Migraines? for a look at one aspect of the link between the two.

How about some comments? Have any of these worked for you? Combinations? Something else? Let’s talk!

20 October 2016

Flavonoids – Could they fight fatigue and headache?

James Discoveries & Stats, News 1

Flavonoids have a bad name in the world of migraine and headache because of concerns that certain flavonoids found in tannins (found in wine, for example) may actually trigger migraine attacks.

Concord grapes - packed with flavonoids But flavonoids are actually very important to health, and they may actually help to fight fatigue, cancer, and neuropathic pain.

Right now, research is being focused on using flavonoids as a treatment for Gulf War Illness (also known as Gulf War Syndrome, and Gulf War Veterans’ Medically Unexplained Illnesses). Gulf War Illness (GWI) may not even be one disease – very little is known about what it is. However, fatigue, headaches, cognitive dysfunction, and pain are all typical symptoms.

A new study wants to focus in on cognitive problems (such as memory and attention), as well as fatigue. Certain foods are especially high in flavonoids – chocolate and grapes, for example. Chocolate does seem to help with fatigue, and Concord purple grape juice may fight fatigue and cognitive problems.

So, the grape juice study is now recruiting volunteers with GWI (for more information see Development of a Polyphenol-rich Dietary Preparation for Treating Veterans With Gulf War Illness).

Although both chocolate and grape juice have been traditionally thought of as migraine triggers, there has been a lot of questions recently about just how much evidence there is behind this for the general population of migraine patients (see Can Eating Chocolate Cause Headaches?). It may actually be that regular intake (regular – not 6 cups of grape juice tonight!) may actually fight migraine symptoms.

It will be interesting to see how this and other studies turn out. Meanwhile, let’s hope that this approach can at least provide some relief to those with GWI.

More information: Development of dietary polyphenol preparations for treating Veterans with Gulf War Illness (pdf)

2 June 2016

Can Eating Chocolate Cause Headaches?

James Information 3

Short answer? Maybe. In some people. But it’s probably not a common trigger.

The question – can eating chocolate cause headaches – needs to be asked more, and investigated more seriously. Instead, chocolate has been listed regularly as a major migraine trigger, without anyone taking time to investigate the evidence.

Of course we’re actually talking about “triggers” here. The “cause” of headache conditions is a totally different topic.

It’s not easy to study the affect of chocolate on people prone to headaches, but in 1997 a study was attempted using carob as a alternative to chocolate. The result? Neither one seemed more likely to provoke a headache. (See A double-blind provocative study of chocolate as a trigger of headache.)

A study of the links between chocolate and migraine in the paper Chocolate and migraine: the history of an ambiguous association, published in 2014, suggested that we avoid calling chocolate a migraine trigger altogether.

Even in those studies reporting a more convincing association, the risk of migraine after chocolate ingestion was found to be 2- to 3-fold lower than that reported for exposure to other conventional triggers such as stress, fasting, lack of sleep and alcohol beverages. The results of the double-blind studies are instead unequivocal, and clearly demonstrate that the risk of developing a headache attack after ingestion of chocolate is as likely as administering placebo in patients with migraine. It can hence be concluded that the widespread belief that chocolate and cocoa-containing foods should be absolutely avoided by migraine patients lacks of a reliable scientific basis.
emphasis mine

In other words, there is as much change of developing migraine after taking a placebo as there is after taking chocolate.

But – “everyone” says that eating chocolate can cause headaches!

Actually, not everyone does, but more on that in a moment.

If you ask many headache sufferers – can eating chocolate cause headaches? – they will say – of course! It has happened to me more than once.

And I’m not about to suggest that eating chocolate can never trigger an attack in anyone ever.

But neurologist and headache specialist Dr. Noah Rosen points out another common connection:

Chocolate may be getting a bad rap as a migraine trigger. Many people with migraines have increased appetite and food cravings just before their headaches start.

To make things more interesting, many women with menstrual migraine experience chocolate cravings during the perimenstrual days of the month. Since the monthly cycle can also be connected to migraine attacks, the craving often comes before an attack.

Some people also associate the danger with the high amounts of caffeine in chocolate. Actually, there is an odd debate out there about just how much caffeine chocolate has. But ordinary chocolate actually has – at most – not much caffeine. If you take a huge bar and gobble it down all at once – well, even then you’re not getting huge amounts of caffeine. And you need to savour and eat more slowly anyway. 🙂

A recent report from the migraine-fighting app, Curelator, suggested that chocolate protected people from migraine as much as it triggered it – in either case, rarely.

(This isn’t the first time that researchers have suggested that chocolate may be a migraine-fighter.)

So – should I eat chocolate?

First of all, remember that moderation is very important for someone prone to headaches. Drastic, sudden changes in sleep, schedule, and diet can indeed trigger an attack. Spike in sugar are a real danger.

Can chocolate cause headaches? Well, assuming you’re eating chocolate in moderation, and eating quality chocolate without a lot of other ingredients that may be a danger to you – for most people chocolate probably won’t bring on an attack.

In fact, a small amount of quality dark chocolate once in a while is probably good for you.

Chocolate for Migraine?

James Discoveries & Stats 2

Chocolate has a notoriously bad reputation when it comes to migraine. But much of that reputation isn’t deserved. Although chocolate may trigger migraine in some, it may actually be ingredients accompanying the chocolate that cause the problem.

As a matter of fact, as you’ve probably heard before, cocoa has some health benefits. And a recent study from Missouri State University, USA, shows it may have some benefits for headache sufferers in particular.

Now before you get too excited, this was an animal study – on mice. The mice were fed a cocoa enriched diet for two weeks. The mice were shown to have less inflammation than those who were deprived of cocoa (poor things!).

The authors of the study felt that a cocoa supplement may help with diseases of the head and face that involved the trigeminal ganglion (part of the trigeminal nerve), not just migraine.

The researchers feel cocoa could be an important part of an anti-inflammatory diet: Cocoa enriched diets are able to repress the stimulated expression of proteins associated with the promotion and maintenance of inflammatory … responses said the researchers.

This is a very preliminary study, but it may lead to some helpful research in the future – possibly some new supplements that may be very effective. Of course we shouldn’t all go out and start eating chocolate bars. However, if chocolate isn’t a trigger for you, adding dark chocolate, low in sugar, and cocoa to your diet may decrease inflammation, as well as being an antioxidant, and a source of magnesium and folic acid.

More ideas and tips regarding chocolate and headache here. And this video shows a healthy way to add cocoa to your diet, and why.

More on the study here: Chocolate may ease migraines: Study