08/10/2021 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Good Life
Updated 08/10/2021 6:01 AM
For most of her life, Tanya Kamka suffered from weekly migraines.
The headaches used to come on gradually and then increased, causing
excruciating pain
and pressure behind her left eye that made her vomit or go to the emergency room.
Often the ordeal left her weak and exhausted for several days.
"Every time I had a migraine, I would
lose
my
strength
for three or four days," says Kamka, 58, a postal worker who lives near Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
"I was missing a lot from work because of my migraines."
But a few years ago, Kamka and 181 other people who regularly suffer from migraines joined a clinical trial, sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health, whose goal was to test whether a
special diet
could alleviate their frequent headaches.
Kamka's diet emphasized foods that contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, the oils found in some fish, while limiting foods that are rich sources of omega-6 fatty acids. like many vegetable oils.
Both omega-3 and omega-6 are considered essential fatty acids, that is, essential for health, and since our body cannot manufacture them, they must
be obtained from food
.
Historically, humans consumed roughly equivalent amounts of both fatty acids.
But the typical American diet today tends to contain a much higher proportion of omega-6 fats.
Some health authorities consider this to be a good thing: Vegetable oils and other sources rich in omega-6 fats are
beneficial for cardiovascular health
in many studies.
Others argue that this could be problematic because omega-6 fats have been shown to
promote pain and inflammation
, while omega-3 fats tend to have the opposite effect in studies.
The authors of the new study wanted to know this: Could a diet that boosts omega-3 fats and reduces omega-6 fats make life easier for people with frequent migraines?
Migraine attacks affect quality of life.
Photo Shutterstock.
Less headache
In Kamka's case, the benefits of the change in diet were surprising: After a few months of increasing her fish consumption and avoiding many common vegetable oils, she found that her headaches had all but disappeared.
Other people following the new diet also reported
fewer headaches
.
Although the trial ended after 16 weeks, Kamka has been on the diet ever since.
Gone are the days when you ate foods like fried chicken and French fries cooked with vegetable oils rich in omega-6 fats.
Now try to eat foods like
cod, tuna, sardines, spinach salad, hummus, and avocados
, and cook with olive oil instead of corn, soy, and canola oils.
"I haven't had a migraine, not even a mild one, in over two years," he said.
"Going from having one a week to having none
was incredible for me
."
Migraines are one of the most common causes of chronic pain, affecting 12% of Americans, most of them women.
For many people, this condition can be debilitating, causing severe pain, nausea, and other symptoms, and greatly increasing the likelihood of
depression and anxiety
.
Studies reveal that migraine attacks can also affect productivity at work, causing people to miss, on average, about four days of work per year.
Fatty fish are rich in omega 3. Photo Shutterstock.
Focus on diet
But the new study provides evidence that a proper diet may provide relief for some people with frequent migraine attacks, helping them reduce
the number and intensity
of headaches.
Similar studies are underway to assess whether dietary changes could help relieve other types of chronic painful conditions such as low back pain.
Dr. Christopher E. Ramsden, lead author of the study, said the results indicate that dietary changes could be a useful adjunct to existing treatments for chronic pain.
"Many people with chronic pain continue to suffer despite taking medication," said Ramsden, a clinical investigator in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Aging.
"I think this is something that could be integrated with other treatments to improve your quality of life and reduce your pain."
For the new trial, published in July in the journal BMJ, the participants were randomly divided into three groups and followed for 16 weeks.
One group, including Kamka, followed a diet rich in omega-3 fats and relatively low in omega-6 fats: they ate lots of foods like
wild salmon, albacore and trout
, while trying to minimize sources rich in omega fats -6, such as corn, soybean and canola oils.
To facilitate diet monitoring, all participants received meals, snacks, and recipes prepared by a nutritionist throughout the study.
Vegetable oils high in omega-6s are often used in cooking and are found in many packaged foods and restaurant meals.
To see if reducing these fats could have an impact on migraines, the researchers had a second group of people add more fish and other omega-3-rich sources to their diet without reducing omega-6 intake.
A third group of people, who served as controls, consumed typical amounts of both types of fats.
At the start of the study, the participants experienced, on average, about 16 "headache days" per month.
But after 16 weeks, the group that had increased fish consumption and avoided vegetable oils had an average of four fewer "headache days" per month compared to the control group, as well as a reduction of between 30% and 40% of the "headache hours" per day.
The group that increased omega-3 intake without reducing omega-6 intake also benefited, although they had a minor improvement: two fewer headache-free days per month.
Both groups reported
shorter and less severe headaches than
people in the control group.
They also used fewer pain relievers like acetaminophen.
The researchers also observed differences in important blood biomarkers.
The two groups that increased their fish consumption had higher levels of compounds known as oxylipines, which are involved in pain relief.
They had especially high levels of 17-HDHA, an oxylipine that has been shown in other studies to
reduce pain in people with arthritis
.
Dr. Rebecca Burch, a neurologist who was not involved in the new study, said
the results were surprising
.
He wrote an editorial in the BMJ noting that recently approved migraine medications have been shown in studies to produce two to two and a half fewer "headache days" per month compared to placebo, which is less than the reduction of four days due to the diet high in omega-3 and low in omega-6.
"Four days a month really
beats anything we've seen
of a drug preventative," said Burch, a headache medicine specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an adjunct professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Burch noted that people with migraines are often willing to follow restrictive diets to find relief from their condition.
But until now there wasn't much evidence that a particular diet worked.
"This is the first time that we have a
solid diet
that we can recommend to patients," he added.
More fish fat and less vegetable oils, the diet the study tested.
Photo Shutterstock.
Fatty fish
The researchers said that for people who want to try the diet on their own, the simplest way to increase their omega-3 intake is to eat more fatty fish, such
as sardines, anchovies, mackerel, salmon, albacore and trout
. Some of the more affordable options are canned and bagged fish. For vegetarians, good plant sources of omega-3 fats are ground flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts.
Another important component of the diet is to
avoid fried, processed and fast foods
, which are usually prepared with oils that are low in omega-3 and high in omega-6.
Beth MacIntosh, a co-author of the new study, says that extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia oil, coconut oil and butter tend to contain low amounts of omega-6 fats.
You can use these oils to cook meals or to make your own snacks, such as popcorn, hummus, and granola.
The researchers also encouraged study participants to eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables per day.
"Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in omega-6 fatty acids and are healthy," said MacIntosh, clinical nutrition manager at UNC Health's Nucleus of Metabolic and Nutritional Research in Chapel Hill.
Anahad O'Connor © New York Times
Translation: Elisa Carnelli
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