Chocolate And Migraine: A Potential Migraine Trigger?

Chocolate can affect migraine for some while for others, chocolate can actually help with migraine. Knowing this is important as past studies have not shown a conclusive link between how chocolate causes migraine or helps migraine. This means it is not definitely proven that eating chocolate causes migraine. Nevertheless, it is still helpful to understand some key ingredients in chocolate and their correlation to migraine.

What Is In The Chocolate You Eat (And Love)?

Chocolate is a complex food product. It contains sugar, milk, cocoa powder, and cocoa beans. Cocoa beans actually contain caffeine within them. This means that certain types of chocolates, such as dark chocolate will have a higher caffeine percentage compared to milk chocolate due to their higher ratio of cocoa bean composition. This is noteworthy and caffeine can affect migraine for some people. If you cut chocolate out of your diet and still experience the same amount of migraine days and intensity of attacks, you may exclude chocolate as a migraine trigger.

There is also a higher concentration of flavonoids and minerals found in dark chocolate. Cocoa is also a significant source of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, zinc, and fiber. It also contains polyphenols which are often associated with its high content of antioxidants. This is helpful to know as magnesium is known to help with migraine relief.

Despite the potential benefits of the components of chocolate, it’s important to remember that chocolate is high in sugar and it’s best not to eat it in excess. Maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle can help people manage migraine, and trying not to eat processed foods or refined sugars excessively keeps us healthy.

What Is The Correlation Between Chocolate And Migraine?

Chocolate Affects Migraine For Some..

There has been some feedback among individuals that when they consume chocolate they tend to have migraine attacks during the same period. One possibility could be the concentration of serotonin which is induced during a migraine attack. This is also more common for individuals who suffer from migraine aura as compared to those who don’t. It is also reported that chocolate is a trigger for migraine during the first 4 days of the menstrual cycle as compared to other days.

.. And Chocolate Help Migraine For Others

However, some individuals also reported that chocolate helped migraine. As mentioned, magnesium and riboflavin help to prevent migraine. Magnesium is a safe and inexpensive option for migraine prevention although it has limitations with tension and cluster headaches. As for riboflavin, it has been proven that consuming it helps to reduce migraine attacks to twice per month. Taking these vitamins and minerals found in chocolate helps to relieve the migraine pain experienced during migraine attacks.

Chocolate: Migraine Cause Or Relief?

With current research results, it is difficult to single out chocolate as a significant migraine trigger. For some, having chocolate combined with other triggers might cause a migraine attack but for others, it has been proven to help with migraine attacks. It is important to understand migraine triggers and keep track of them in a headache diary or tracking app.

Did you know: 5.4% of our Migraine Buddy users have indicated that chocolate causes migraine? You may also track other trigger factors too, such as food items, stress, and so on. A tracking app like Migraine Buddy is helpful as an objective record for your neurologist or doctor.

Find out what are the other triggers and relief methods for migraine attacks in the Migraine Buddy app. Download your Migraine Buddy app now!