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Can a Ketogenic Diet help Migraines?

One of our favorite bloggers, Amy Berger, also writes for the KetoDietApp.
Her long analysis of how Diet may help migraines.

https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/c...-with-migraines

Quote:

If you or someone you know experiences migraines, then you know these debilitating attacks are far more than mere headaches. In addition to severe, throbbing pain, migraines often also involve visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch and smell, and tingling or numbness in the extremities or face.

As many as 25% of migraine sufferers experience a visual phenomenon called an aura. Attacks typically last between 4 and 72 hours and in 15-20% of cases, the head pain is preceded by the other neurological symptoms (1).

Because migraines are increasingly recognized as neurological in origin, it’s possible ketogenic diets may have a therapeutic effect for people afflicted with these attacks. Ketogenic diets exert their effects via several mechanisms that induce multiple biochemical changes in the body and brain that improve neurological function (2, 3). Some of the mechanisms that are beneficial for various neurological disorders may also make them effective for migraines.

Continues at link....

I'm reading Dr. David Perlmutter's 2013 book Grain Brain, and he has treated many migraine patients and tested their gluten sensitivity, found many levels high, recommended they cut it from their diet, and their migraines went away. Sort of what a LC diet does.

Being keto didn't save me from migraines, but it did reduce them. In order to be migraine-free, I had to cut all dairy, coffee and soy in addition to gluten. Basically if you have food intolerances these can lead to migraines. Also taking a daily magnesium supplement can prevent them. My experience.

Some years ago, I read about migraines having the same underlying mechanism as epileptic seizures.

I read several papers at PubMed, and read a lot at epileptic forums, the Charlie Foundation, and Dr. Eric Kossoff's papers. Dr. Russell Wilder's writings were fascinating, too. Here is his "The Threshold of Ketogenesis":
http://www.jbc.org/content/52/2/393.full.pdf

That got me to lower the protein and raise the fat.