Chocolate

CommentPost TriggerSave to My TriggersTrigger DirectoryRandom Trigger

Login is required to access that page

Chocolate ( Cocoa )

High Severity Potential Trigger
Contains: Tyramine (Related Triggers)  

There are currently two schools of thought on chocolate... It either causes migraines (Phenylethylamine, theobromine and caffeine may alter the cerebral blood flow) or it doesn't here are a list of resources to help you decide for yourself if they are the cause of your migraines.

More Info

Patients with migraine who believed that chocolate could provoke their attacks were challenged with either chocolate or a closely matching placebo. In a double-blind parallel group study, chocolate ingestion was followed by a typical migraine episode in 5 out of 12 patients, while none of the 8 patients challenged with placebo had an attack (p = 0.051). The median time to the onset of the attack was 22 h. This brief study provides some objective evidence that chocolate is able to provoke a migraine attack in certain patients who believe themselves sensitive to it.

More information

A provocative double-blind study of headache was performed using chocolate as the active agent and carob as the placebo. The chocolate and carob samples were formulated to duplicate products used in an earlier study (1) in which strong differential effects between the ability of chocolate and carob to trigger headache in migraine were shown. Sixty-three women with chronic headache (50% migraine, 37.5% tension-type, 12.5% combined migraine and tension-type) participated in the study. After 2 weeks of following a diet that restricted vasoactive amine-rich foods, each subject underwent double-blinded provocative trials with two samples of chocolate and two of carob presented in random order. Diaries were maintained by the subjects throughout the study, monitoring diet and headache. The results demonstrated that chocolate was not more likely to provoke headache than was carob in any of the headache diagnostic groups (chi2(2)=0.36, p=0.83). Interestingly, these results were independent of subjects' beliefs regarding the role of chocolate in the instigation of headache (chi2(1)=0.73, p=0.39). Headache diagnosis and the concomitant use of additional vasoactive amine-containing foods were also not associated with chocolate acting as a headache trigger. Thus, contrary to the commonly held belief of patients and physicians, chocolate does not appear to play a significant role in triggering headaches in typical migraine, tension-type, or combined headache sufferers.

• Comment by owendevaney on October 29, 2009 at 2:39 PM

  o