Nutritional intervention may improve migraine severity: a pilot study

Although some studies have investigated the role of nutritional intervention on migraine, they had focused on triggers or on weight change and, to the best of our knowledge, none studied diet quality.

To investigate whether nutritional intervention focused on improving diet quality and healthy weight can promote improvement in clinical parameters of women with migraine.

Non-controlled and non-randomized intervention study conducted for 90 days. Women received an individualized diet meal plan and nutritional orientation according to their nutritional diagnosis. Anthropometric, clinical and nutritional data were measured once a month. Diet energy content and macronutrients were evaluated using 24-hour dietary recall. Diet quality was assessed through the Brazilian Healthy Eating Index-Revised (BHEI-R). The Migraine Disability Assessment and Headache Impact Test version 6 were used to assess the severity of migraine, and the Beck Depression Inventory evaluated depressive symptoms.

Fifty-two women aged 44.0 ± 13.0 years were enrolled. Anthropometric characteristics, energy, macronutrients and fiber intake did not change after intervention. However, the BHEI-R scores improved after 60 and 90 days of intervention. Concurrent to this, the Beck Depression Inventory scores and Headache Impact Test scores decreased after 60 and 90 days, respectively. The change in the BHEI-R score was negatively correlated with the migraine severity as assessed by the Headache Impact Test at the end of the intervention.

We concluded that the management of diet quality may be a good strategy for improving migraine severity, regardless of the nutritional status and weight change.