Do chronic migraine sufferers have more knowledge about nutritional triggers for migraine or different diet habits? A case-control study

Abstract

Background: Migraine is ranked as the second most disabling clinical condition. Some authors suggest that diet may play an important role in the disease-related mechanism. This work aimed to understand whether patients with chronic migraine have more knowledge about the potential correlation between nutritional triggers and migraine and to describe the food habits of chronic migraine patients. Methods: Case-control study, including 26 female patients with chronic migraine under botulinum toxin treatment, followed in a headache outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital, and 26 sex and age-matched-controls. An online questionnaire (Likert scale) including the potential migraine food triggers described in the literature was applied. The validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) in its portuguese version, evaluating diet in the last 6 months, was presented to both groups. Data was analysed using SPSS-v26 (significance value <0.05). Results: The mean age of the sample was 43.65±12.92 years. In general, having migraine was associated with a greater knowledge about foods that aggravate or precipitate headache (80.8% vs. 53.8%, p=0.039), specifically a greater knowledge about alcohol (p=0.008), chocolate (p=0.006), instant food (p=0.011), butter/margarine (p=0.046) and canned fruit (p=0.046). Patients with chronic migraine reported a significantly higher consumption frequency of white or savoy cabbage (p=0.027) and carrots (p=0.029); on the other hand, this group reported a lower consumption frequency of animal viscera (p=0.043), chocolate snacks (p=0.012), as well as white wine (p=0.002) and beer (p=0.008). Conclusions: Preliminary results showed that patients with chronic migraine have a broader knowledge of the nutritional triggers of migraine. They seem to present a more frequent consumption of vegetables, and less frequent consumption of viscera and recognized migraine triggers, such as chocolate snacks, beer and white wine. New studies with larger samples and including episodic migraine would be helpful to identify subgroups less aware of the relation between their diets and migraine.