A patient who had suffered severe and disabling headaches for more than a decade completely eliminated them after adopting a plant-based diet is prompting health experts to call for more research into diet and headaches.
He tried a number of remedies, but nothing worked to reduce the severity of his headaches. He said the headaches made it hard to do his job.
He started a plant-based diet that included lots of dark-green leafy vegetables and his migraines disappeared within a month. The man has not had a headaches in more than seven years, and can't remember the last time he had one. The case was reported in a journal.
Doctors in the US who treated the photographer suggested it might be worthwhile to adopt a plant-based diet.
The report was a single case, so it was not possible to generalize the finding, and it should not be taken as a solution for all people with migraines.
A billion people experience headaches. A growing body of evidence suggests diet may be an effective alternative to drugs without the side effects associated with them.
The 60-year-old patient wrote in the case reports that before he changed his diet, he was suffering from six to eight migraines a month. I was recovering from a migraine most days.
Nothing had changed after 12 years of headaches. He said he was desperate.
Six months before he was referred to a lifestyle medicine clinic in New York, the man had become chronic with his migraines, which would occur on between 18 and 24 days a month.
I was able to get off both of my medications after just one month of eating a plant-based diet that included lots of dark-green leafy vegetables, fruits, beans, oatmeal, and a daily green smoothie.
I haven't had a migraine in seven years because the migraine medications have expired. I don't remember the last time I had a headaches. I am no longer a prisoner in my own body. I have my life back.
The authors of the report advised the man to adopt a plant-based diet.
It includes eating at least five ounces (142g) by weight of dark green leafy vegetables every day, drinking one 32-ounce (946ml) daily green smoothie, and limiting intake of whole grains, starchy vegetables, oils, and animal nutrition.
The number of days he had migraines had fallen to one a month within two months. The attacks had been shorter. After three months, his headaches stopped completely. They haven't been back in seven years.
The case report is a case and it is not possible to generalize the finding according to Prof. Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Reading. It is important to find ways to treat and manage migraines. Some foods are known to cause headaches, and diet can play a role in the management of these diseases.
More research is needed in order to make definitive statements and recommendations about the role of active compounds in the management of many diseases.
The report is interesting, but it cannot be taken as a solution for all people with migraines, according to Dr Duane Mellor, a senior teaching fellow at the medical school.
The diet that was used was in line with many countries' recommendations and included eating more vegetables, especially dark-green leafy vegetables.
The problem with this type of report is that there is no control or comparison intervention, it could be an effect of the diet which was started, but also it could be a response to something they were no longer eating or even just the behavioural effect of a change in diet which may have led
The rise in the red and processed meat trade over the past 30 years is linked to a sharp increase in diet-related ill-health according to an analysis published in the journal BMJ Global Health.
