Joy Healey asked:




Another common trigger of migraine is chocolate, the link between chocolate and migraine headaches was considered during a large study, and the results were published in the Lancet(1).

Chocolate is one of the few foods which has been investigated in double blind controlled studies, to determine how much of a trigger it really is – unlike many other food products, which have merely been included as part of larger studies using a wide range of possibilities.

These double blind, focused studies seem to leave some ambiguity in the subject. A 1974 study undertaken at the London Hospital apparently concluded that whilst chocolate may be a trigger, it wasn’t a significant one(2). This was a full five years prior to the Lancet study, which ranked chocolate near the top of the list along with other triggers, considered predominantly to cause migraines.

Another study done in 1997 also used a double blind protocol and placebo to try and pinpoint chocolate as an aggressive migraine trigger – again with inconclusive results. The study, carried out at the University of Pittsburgh, Pain Evaluation and Treatment Institute, concluded there was no difference between patients given chocolate and others given the carob placebo in either occurrence or severity of migraines(3).

Of course, one must take into account the overwhelming amount of anecdotal and testimonial evidence from hundreds of thousands of migraine sufferers who report chocolate as a trigger. Many of these claim that removing it from their diet caused instant cessation – whereas accidental or careless reintroduction caused just as immediate recurrence of symptoms.

There does exist an unpublished study, on which correspondence exists, involving a trial with 20 patients who, believing chocolate to be a migraine trigger, were subsequently challenged with either chocolate or a placebo. The 8 receiving the placebo had no incidence of migraine – five out of the 12 who received chocolate did have a typical migraine attack. The small number of people in the test group meant that the subsequent results were not completely conclusive.

As is so often the case with food intolerances, what one person can eat without an ill-effects, can create an unpleasant or even harmful reaction in another. Consider the simple peanut – a killer for some, a harmless snack for another.

Obviously scientific studies are interesting and essential, but however much we crave it, chocolate is something we can live without. The most effective method to discover if it’s a trigger food for the individual, is to cut it out from their diet for a few weeks. If your migraines are bad enough, it’s a simple sacrifice to make.

(1) Grant ECG; Food, Allergies and Migraine; Lancet, May 5 1979;966-969

(2) A. M. Moffett, M. Swash, and D. F. Scott – Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1974 April

(3) Marcus DA, Scharff L, Turk D, Gourley LM – Cephalalgia 1997 Dec; 17(8):855-62

(4) CM Gibb, V Glover, M Sandler, Bernhard Baron Memorial Research Laboratories

Research by Grace-Alexander



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Dave Simpson asked:




Did you know that nearly 25 million people in the United States alone regularly suffer from migraine headaches. Its a worrying statistic, and the numbers are rising steadily every year. Although migraines aren’t fatal they can still be debilitating for a large number of sufferers and can impact seriously on their work, home and social lives. A migraine attack is more than just a severe headache. As well as a throbbing or pulsing headache, usually focused over one eye, the sufferer also experiences feelings of nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to certain lights, sounds and even in rare cases smells. Although migraines do seem to reduce in severity with age, they are a long term condition that most sufferers simply have to learn to revolve their lives around.

In fact, not only do different people experience different symptoms, but migraines are also triggered by a large number of external factors. Migraines have been linked to stress, diet (particularly in people who take a lot of caffeine or dairy products) and environmental factors such as fluorescent tubes. Add to this, the fact that they vary in frequency from once a month to an almost daily occurrence and you can see why they are so difficult to treat with any success.

In the past most sufferers have just taken time off work, popped a pill and gone to bed, but this is simply not a n option for many people with today’s hectic lifestyles. A growing number of people have also become very worried about the long term effects of taking migraine medicines. This is why many migraine sufferers are now looking for a natural migraine cure to help them with their condition.

With so many different triggers and symptoms, it can be quite a tricky and time consuming process to obtain a natural migraine cure, but the long term benefits of successfully obtaining one are significant. One reason why it’s sometimes important to get a natural migraine cure is because they are often free or very cheap, and many involve simply removing the migraine trigger. By recognising the early symptoms and identifying the things that cause the onset of an attack, you can often avoid getting a migraine altogether.

However, financial issues aside, most people are worried about taking synthetic migraine cures over an extended period of time. When you consider that the average migraine sufferer starts getting these headaches aged around 10 and continues getting them into old age, its not hard to see why you would want to avoid taking regular medication. The long term side-effects of taking any medicine are usually uncertain at best, and migraine cures are no exception.

I would always recommend that you consult a doctor if you get serious recurring migraines but on a day to day basis you should also try and seek out the best advice and natural holistic treatments to help combat your condition.

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