A Functional Medicine Approach to Migraine

Headache disorders are among the leading causes of chronic pain-related disability worldwide,¹ and migraine and severe headache affect roughly one out of every six US adults.² Migraine and tension-type headaches are common headache disorders, and migraine, specifically, is associated with other physical and psychiatric health conditions like anxiety and depression.^3,4

Functional medicine practitioner Dr. Lisa Portera sees patients with a wide variety of structural and neuromuscular chronic illnesses, including chronic pain. 

I’m seeing more and more migraine patients come into my practice looking for help outside of the typical medications. Functional medicine is such an excellent tool to be able to discern the issues and the underlying mechanisms that keep our migraine patients caught in these [chronic pain] patterns.” 

— Lisa Portera-Perry, DC, IFM educator

Nutritional Approaches to Address Migraine

As part of a functional medicine approach to reduce migraine occurrence, lifestyle-based therapies may include personalized nutritional interventions that aim to reduce foods that may trigger symptoms as well as inflammation throughout the body while implementing nutrient-dense dietary plans.

Some individuals with migraine report that their symptoms can be triggered by certain foods, and IgG food sensitivities and intolerances may be involved.⁵ Evidence suggests that an IgG-based elimination diet may be a beneficial tool for healthcare practitioners to use in migraine treatments. For example, a controlled clinical trial of an elimination diet based on IgG antibodies for the prevention of migraine headaches showed a significant reduction in the number of migraines or migraine-like headaches after four weeks of the treatment.⁶

Other dietary approaches have been shown to be effective for the management of migraine. Adherence to the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet has been associated with lower headache severity and duration for those with migraine.⁷ In an additional study, those who had a higher adherence to a Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, with an increased consumption of vegetables, legumes, and nuts and decreased intake of refined grains, were up to 36% less likely to have severe headaches.⁸

Nutrients & Migraine Headache Symptoms

Specific vitamins and nutrients may also be related to migraine. Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency has been reported in some patients with migraine, and studies suggest that appropriate vitamin D supplementation may reduce the frequency of migraine attacks.⁹ In addition, several studies that included both pediatric and adult patients found that compared to placebo, those who received CoQ10 as a supplement had reduced migraine days per month and reduced migraine duration.¹⁰ Omega-3 fatty acids from food sources or supplementation may also be beneficial for migraine. A meta-analysis of clinical trials found that omega-3 intake may lead to a significant reduction in the duration of migraine.¹¹

Conclusion

Additional research on nutrition’s role in migraine prevention and treatment continues to develop. For instance, recent migraine research has explored the benefit of non-pharmaceutical treatments such as probiotics¹² and the impact of other nutritional factors such as adequate water consumption.¹³ Practitioners trained in functional medicine understand the beneficial impact that lifestyle-based therapies such as nutritional interventions may have for someone with migraine. To find a functional medicine practitioner near you and learn more about how the functional medicine approach may improve symptoms of migraine or other headache disorders, click below.