Patients with food-provoked headache can obtain relief by avoiding a few
commonly eaten foods. Mansfield LE: Food allergy and headache. Whom to
evaluate and how to treat. Postgrad Med 83(7):46-51, 1988.
Test subjects were given a single dose of caffeine or a placebo. Headache
resulted 24-30 hours after the caffeine was consumed, confirming that headache
is a specific caffeine withdrawal effect. Tiredness was also an indicator of
caffeine withdrawal. Bruce M et al: Caffeine withdrawal: A contrast of
withdrawal symptoms in normal subjects who have abstained from caffeine for 24
hours and for 7 days. J Psychopharmacol 5(2):129-134, 1991.
Two post-menopausal women with migraine were treated with a combination of
vitamin D and calcium, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the frequency and
duration of their migraine headaches. Thys-Jacobs S: Alleviation of migraines
with therapeutic vitamin D and calcium. Headache 34(10):590-2, 1994.
Of 43 migraine sufferers given a trial diet free of allergens, 13 experienced
a 66% or greater reduction in headache frequency. 6 became headache free.
Mansfield LE et al: Food allergy and adult migraine: double-blind and mediator
confirmation of an allergic etiology. Ann Allergy 55(2):126-9, 1985.
Dietary treatment has been shown to be effective in most children with severe
migraine. Carter CM et al: A dietary management of severe childhood migraine.
Hum Nutr Appl Nutr 39(4):294-303, 1985.
93% of 88 children with severe frequent migraine recovered on a few-foods
diet in a double-blind trial. In most of the children whose migraine was
triggered by factors such as blows to the head, exercise and flashing lights,
these factors did not produce migraine attacks while the children were following
the diet. Egger J et al: Is migraine food allergy? A double-blind controlled
trial of oligoantigenic diet treatment. Lancet 2(8355):865-9, 1983.
Of 7 migraine patients placed on a high-carbohydrate, low tryptophan diet, 3
of the 4 with classic migraine but none of those with common migraine reported
an improvement. Hasselmark L et al: Effect of a carbohydrate-rich diet, low in
protein-tryptophan, in classic and common migraine. Cephalalgia 7(2):87-92,
1987.
Patients suffering from cluster headaches, with low serum magnesium levels,
experienced clnically meaningful improvements when treated with intravenous
magnesium. The authors suggest that measurements of magnesium status may prove
useful in determining the cause of some headaches, and in identifying those
patients who would benefit from magnesium treatment. Mauskop A et al:
Intravenous magnesium sulphate relieves cluster headaches in patients with low
serum ionized magnesium levels. Headache 35(10):597-600, 1995.
81 migraine patients were randomized to receive magnesium supplements or
placebo daily for 12 weeks. In weeks 9-12 the attack frequency was reduced by
41.6% n the magnesium group and by 15.8% in the placebo group. The number of
days with migraine and the use of medications to control symptoms per patient
also decreased significantly in the magnesium group. Peikert A et al:
Prophylaxis of migraine with oral magnesium: Results from a prospective,
multi-center, placebo-controlled and double-blind randomized study. Cephalalgia
16(4):257-63, 1996.
