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The Link Between Chocolates And Migraine

By Njideka Agbo
17 April 2018   |   7:00 am
Chocolates are yummy and loved by many. However, people who are migraine-prone have been advised to stay away from it because it is seen as a trigger. This long-held belief might not be true after all. There have been several failed attempts to link the relationship between the two. While stress, depression and hormonal imbalance…

Chocolates are yummy and loved by many. However, people who are migraine-prone have been advised to stay away from it because it is seen as a trigger. This long-held belief might not be true after all. There have been several failed attempts to link the relationship between the two.

While stress, depression and hormonal imbalance are the main factors that trigger migraines, several foods and drinks such as coffee have also shown to increase the ailment. Chocolate has been on this list because it contains amino acid tyramine. When people are about to be hit by a migraine, they start to crave chocolate.

Dr Audrey Halpern, MD of the Manhattan Center for Headache and Neurology and assistant professor at the New York University of Medicine, explains it this way:

“Some people have physiological cravings for chocolate anywhere from four to 24 hours before their migraine. Because of that association, people often assume that it triggers the attack—but in reality, it may be your body attempting to treat a migraine before it even begins. Caffeine, which is present in chocolate, actually gets rid of migraines when used sparingly.”

Also, Marcus DA and co, in 1997, carried out a research titled A double-blind provocative study of chocolate as a trigger of headaches on 63 women suffering from migraines. The findings revealed that “chocolate does not appear to play a significant role in triggering headaches in typical migraine, tension-type or combined headache sufferers.”

As much as the result of this research is still relevant today, we cannot rule out its possibility. People should be wary of the number of chocolates they consume to be sure of its trigger possibility. Care should also be taken of the other sensitive factors that combine with chocolates to bring out this migraine.

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