Health experts call for more research on diet and migraines after doctors revealed that a patient who had severe and debilitating headaches for more than a decade eliminated them completely after eating a plant-based diet.
He had tried prescribed medication, yoga, and meditation, and omitted potentially triggering foods to reduce the severity and frequency of his severe headaches – but nothing worked. The migraines made it almost impossible to do your job, he said.
But within a month of starting a plant-based diet with lots of dark green leafy vegetables, his migraines went away. The man has not had migraines in more than seven years and cannot remember the last time he had a headache. The case was reported in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
Doctors in the United States treating the photographer suggested that it might be worth adopting a plant-based diet to help relieve chronic migraine symptoms.
However, other independent experts warned that since the report was an isolated incident, it is impossible to generalize and that it should not be viewed as a solution for all people with migraines.
More than a billion people worldwide suffer from migraines. While medications can help prevent and treat them, increasing evidence suggests that diet can also be an effective alternative without the side effects associated with some of the medications, the report’s authors said.
In BMJ Case Reports, the 60-year-old patient, whose identity was not disclosed, wrote: “Before I changed my diet, I suffered from six to eight debilitating migraines a month, each lasting up to 72 hours. Most days I either had or recovered from migraines. “
After 12 years of migraines nothing had changed. “I was desperate,” he said.
Six months before he was referred to a lifestyle medicine clinic in New York, the man’s migraines had become chronic, occurring between 18 and 24 days a month.
“But within a month of starting a nutrient-rich, plant-based diet that consisted of mostly dark green leafy vegetables, fruits, beans, oatmeal, and a daily green smoothie, I was able to stop both drugs.
“Now the migraine medication has expired and I haven’t had migraines in seven years. I can’t even remember the last time I had a headache. I am no longer a prisoner in my own body. I have my life back. “
The report’s authors advised the man to take the Low Inflammatory Foods Everyday (Life) diet, a nutrient-rich, plant-based, whole-food diet.
This includes eating at least 142g of raw or cooked dark green leafy vegetables daily, drinking a green smoothie (946ml) daily, and limiting your intake of whole grains, starchy vegetables, oils, and animal protein, especially dairy and red meat.
Within two months, the frequency of his migraines had dropped to just one day a month. The length and severity of the attacks had also subsided. After three months, his migraines stopped completely. You haven’t returned in over seven years.
Prof. Gunter Kuhnle, Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Reading, who was not involved in the case, said, “This is a case report and therefore it is impossible to generalize about the finding. Migraines are a debilitating condition and finding ways to manage and manage them is important. Diet can play an important role in treating many illnesses, and some foods are known to trigger migraines.
“Bioactive compounds found in dark green leafy vegetables and other foods could play an important role in the treatment of many diseases, but much more research is needed to make definitive conclusions and recommendations.”
Dr. Duane Mellor, a registered nutritionist and senior lecturer at Aston University’s medical school, said the report was “interesting” but “cannot be seen as a solution for all people with migraines”.
“The diet used largely corresponded to the nutritional recommendations of many countries and included the consumption of more vegetables – especially dark green leafy vegetables.
“The problem with this type of report is that there is no control or comparison intervention, it could be an effect of the diet you started, but it could also be a reaction to something you stop eating, or even just the behavioral effect of one Diet that may have led to a reduction in migraines. “
A separate analysis published Thursday in the journal BMJ Global Health shows that the global surge in red and processed meat trade over the past 30 years has been linked to a sharp rise in diet-related diseases.
