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‘Little evidence’ supports chocolate as migraine trigger
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PHILADELPHIA — Chocolate consumption resulted in migraine in only a small number of patients, findings that contradict oft-repeated claims citing a link, study findings presented at the American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting suggested.
“There is a widespread belief that chocolate can trigger migraine attacks but little evidence to support this,” researchers wrote in an abstract.
They facilitated a survey that found that 10.3% of 68 registered users of N1-Headache, an app intended to help individuals identify factors that trigger headaches or migraine, thought there was a strong association between chocolate and migraine. Another 14.7% classified the association as moderate, while 25% categorized it as mild. In addition, only nine of 109 registered users linked chocolate to pain severity and just two of the 55 registered users associated chocolate with “high” pain days.
The findings closely parallel previous study results, according to researchers.
“Results from a prior analysis in 774 individuals with migraine used a Cox model to demonstrate that chocolate was rarely statistically associated with migraine attack occurrence, and just as likely to act as a migraine protector (2.6%) as a migraine trigger (1.7%),” researchers wrote. – by Janel Miller
Reference: Is chocolate associated with more severe days in chronic migraine? Presented at: American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting; July 11-14, 2019; Philadelphia.Submission ID: 678087
Disclosures: Healio Primary Care was unable to determine the author’s relevant financial disclosures prior to publication.