{"id":7309,"date":"2021-07-04T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T01:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=7309"},"modified":"2021-07-04T09:40:10","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T01:40:10","slug":"diet-rich-in-omega-3-fatty-acids-may-help-reduce-headaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/diet-rich-in-omega-3-fatty-acids-may-help-reduce-headaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids may help reduce headaches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eating a diet rich in omega 3 (n-3) fatty acids reduces the frequency of headaches compared with a diet with normal intake of omega 3 and omega 6 (n-6) fatty acids, finds a study published by\u00a0<\/strong>The BMJ<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern industrialised diets tend to be low in omega 3 fatty acids and high in omega 6 fatty acids. These fatty acids are precursors to oxylipins – molecules involved in regulating pain and inflammation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oxylipins derived from omega 3 fatty acids are associated with pain-reducing effects, while oxylipins derived from omega 6 fatty acids worsen pain and can provoke migraine. But previous studies evaluating omega 3 fatty acid supplements for migraine have been inconclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So a team of US researchers wanted to find out whether diets rich in omega 3 fatty acids would increase levels of the pain-reducing 17-hydroxydocosahexaenoic acid (17-HDHA) and reduce the frequency and severity of headaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their results are based on 182 patients at the University of North Carolina, USA (88% female; average age 38 years) with migraine headaches on 5-20 days per month who were randomly assigned to one of three diets for 16 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The control diet included typical levels of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Both interventional diets raised omega 3 fatty acid intake. One kept omega 6 acid intake the same as the control diet, and the other concurrently lowered omega 6 acid intake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the trial, participants received regular dietary counseling and access to online support information. They also completed the headache impact test (HIT-6) – a questionnaire assessing headache impact on quality of life. Headache frequency was assessed daily with an electronic diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the 16 weeks, both interventional diets increased 17-HDHA levels compared with the control diet, and while HIT-6 scores improved in both interventional groups, they were not statistically significantly different from the control group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, headache frequency was statistically significantly decreased in both intervention groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high omega 3 diet was associated with a reduction of 1.3 headache hours per day and two headache days per month. The high omega 3 plus low omega 6 diet group saw a reduction of 1.7 headache hours per day and four headache days per month, suggesting additional benefit from lowering dietary omega-6 fatty acid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Participants in the intervention groups also reported shorter and less severe headaches compared with those in the control group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a high quality, well designed trial, but the researchers do point to some limitations, such as the difficulty for patients to stick to a strict diet and the fact that most participants were relatively young women so results may not apply to children, older adults, men, or other populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While the diets did not significantly improve quality of life, they produced large, robust reductions in frequency and severity of headaches relative to the control diet,” they write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This study provides a biologically plausible demonstration that pain can be treated through targeted dietary alterations in humans. Collective findings suggest causal mechanisms linking n-3 and n-6 fatty acids to [pain regulation], and open the door to new approaches for managing chronic pain in humans,” they conclude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These results support recommending a high omega 3 diet to patients in clinical practice, says Rebecca Burch at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in a linked editorial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She acknowledges that interpretation of this study’s findings is complex, but points out that trials of recently approved drugs for migraine prevention reported reductions of around 2-2.5 headache days per month compared with placebo, suggesting that a dietary intervention can be comparable or better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s more, many people with migraine are highly motivated and interested in dietary changes, she adds. These findings “take us one step closer to a goal long sought by headache patients and those who care for them: a migraine diet backed up by robust clinical trial results.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The high omega 3 diet was associated with a reduction of 1.3 headache hours per day and two headache days per month. The high omega 3 plus low omega 6 diet group saw a reduction of 1.7 headache hours per day and four headache days per month, suggesting additional benefit from lowering dietary omega-6 fatty acid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[1347,772,2254,2255,1260,2048,89,2218],"class_list":["post-7309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","category-nutrition","tag-food-trend","tag-foodie","tag-fresh-food-industry","tag-fresh-goods","tag-good-heart","tag-good-life","tag-healthy-foods","tag-high-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7310,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions\/7310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}