The Effectiveness of Diet Restriction in Elderly with Migraine

Introduction: Migraine type headache is a type of pain with a high socioeconomic burden that limits the activities of daily life of individuals of all ages. The pathogenesis is not fully understood. There are a lot of trigger factors for migraine and foods are one of them. In this study, we analyzed whether restricting migraine-triggering foods in elderly patients has an effect on preventing migraine attacks. Method: The study consisted of patients over the age of 65 with a diagnosis of migraine without aura according to International Headache classification. Thirty-one patients with a history of migraine triggered by certain foods were included in the study. Triggering foods were expelled from the diets of patients. Attack duration, the frequency of attacks in a month, pain intesity which was evaluated by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and the number of analgesics and triptans used were recorded in the period of 2 months before and after in implementation of the diet restrictions. Results: A total of 31 patients (8 male and 23 female) were evaluated. Pain severity, analgesic and triptan use, monthly frequency of attacks and duration of attacks, were significantly lower than the pre-diet period, after two months with dietary restrictions. Conclusion: Accoding to our results, we suggest that restricting migraine triggering foods may bean effective and reliable option in the prevention of migraine attacks and reducing the use of analgesics and triptans.