Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, and Laryngological Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwik Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, M. Curie 9, 85-090 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, M. Curie 9, 85-090 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Nutrients. 2020 Feb 26;12(3):608. doi: 10.3390/nu12030608.
Migraine is a chronic disorder with episodic attacks, and patients with a migraine often report that certain factors can trigger their headache, with chocolate being the most popular type of food-based trigger. Many studies have suggested a link between chocolate and headaches; however, the underlying physiological mechanisms are unclear. As premonitory symptoms may herald migraine attacks, a question arises regarding whether eating chocolate before a headache is a consequence of a food craving or indeed a real trigger. Here, we aim to summarize the available evidence on the relationship between chocolate and migraines. All articles concerning this topic published up to January 2020 were retrieved by searching clinical databases, including EMBASE, MEDLINE, PubMed, and Google Scholar. All types of studies have been included. Here, we identify 25 studies investigating the prevalence of chocolate as a trigger factor in migraineurs. Three provocative studies have also evaluated if chocolate can trigger migraine attacks, comparing it to a placebo. Among them, in 23 studies, chocolate was found to be a migraine trigger in a small percentage of participants (ranging from 1.3 to 33), while all provocative studies have failed to find significant differences between migraine attacks induced by eating chocolate and a placebo. Overall, based on our review of the current literature, there is insufficient evidence that chocolate is a migraine trigger; thus, doctors should not make implicit recommendations to migraine patients to avoid it.
偏头痛是一种具有间歇性发作的慢性疾病，偏头痛患者常报告某些因素可引发头痛，其中巧克力是最常见的食物类触发因素。许多研究表明巧克力与头痛之间存在关联，但潜在的生理机制尚不清楚。由于先兆症状可能预示着偏头痛发作，因此出现了一个问题，即在头痛之前吃巧克力是由于食物渴望还是确实是真正的触发因素。在这里，我们旨在总结巧克力与偏头痛之间关系的现有证据。通过搜索临床数据库，包括 EMBASE、MEDLINE、PubMed 和 Google Scholar，检索了截至 2020 年 1 月发表的所有有关此主题的文章。包括所有类型的研究。在这里，我们确定了 25 项研究，调查了巧克力作为偏头痛患者触发因素的流行率。三项激发性研究还评估了巧克力是否可以引发偏头痛发作，并将其与安慰剂进行比较。其中，在 23 项研究中，巧克力在一小部分参与者（范围为 1.3%至 33%）中被发现是偏头痛的触发因素，而所有激发性研究均未能发现食用巧克力和安慰剂引起的偏头痛发作之间存在显着差异。总体而言，根据我们对当前文献的综述，没有足够的证据表明巧克力是偏头痛的触发因素；因此，医生不应向偏头痛患者提出隐含的建议来避免食用巧克力。
