Can Omega-3 Fish Oil Be the New Migraine Solution?

Migraines are a prevalent neurological condition, affecting 9% to 18% of individuals globally. In addition to the pain and discomfort that migraine headaches cause, they are linked to a reduced quality of life and an increased risk of a variety of diseases and disorders, including depression, cardiovascular disease, and sleep disturbances. Furthermore, migraine can lead to pharmaceutical usage or abuse as individuals try to prevent and treat their symptoms. Unfortunately, existing pharmacological treatments and methods have had little impact in preventing and managing migraines.

Can Omega-3 Fish Oil Help Prevent Migraine?

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), two omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil such as herring, mackerel, and salmon, could be promising therapeutic agents for migraine prevention and therapy (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Can EPA and DHA Supplements Reduce the Incidence and Severity of Migraines?

Go to source). The evidence from randomized controlled studies, which are considered the gold standard of clinical trials, is mixed. For example, researchers have yet to discover the optimal dose. Furthermore, some research designs make it impossible to rule out the placebo effect.

In response, the authors of the efficacy of high-dose anti-inflammatory EPA/DHA for migraine prevention: A Network Meta-analysis included 40 randomized controlled studies with a total of 6,616 people to investigate the efficacy and safety of various combined dosages of EPA and DHA for migraine prevention and treatment. They next compared their findings to FDA-approved or guideline-recommended pharmacological therapies. This study's findings were published in Advances in Nutrition, the American Society of Nutrition's worldwide review publication (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
High Dosage Omega-3 Fatty Acids Outperform Existing Pharmacological Options for Migraine Prophylaxis: A Network Meta-Analysis

Go to source).

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Rather than performing a standard scientific review of the evidence, the authors chose a network meta-analysis to "improve the power of multiple comparisons of treatment efficacy and possible superiority of individual pharmacologic interventions of different doses, thereby providing potentially significant detailed evidence-based information to guide future clinical practice."

Migraine Prevention with Omega-3 Fish Oil Supplementation

This network meta-analysis's outcomes offer "compelling evidence that high-dose prophylactic EPA/DHA supplementation can be considered a first-choice treatment for migraine prophylaxis since this treatment displayed the highest efficacy and highest acceptability for all studied treatments." The scientists also discovered that EPA and DHA supplements had comparable acceptance (the percentage of patients who dropped out of a clinical trial for any reason) to other pharmacologic treatments or a placebo. Finally, EPA and DHA supplementation resulted in fewer adverse health events than a placebo or other pharmacologic therapies.

According to the study authors, "the most important result of the current network meta-analysis is that EPA/DHA supplementation is associated with a superior prophylactic effect on migraine frequency and severity compared to other FDA-approved and guideline-recommended medications."

The authors did note certain limitations in their analysis. Because of the small number of randomized controlled trials looking at the effect of EPA and DHA supplementation on migraine, "clinicians should avoid over-interpretation of the findings in the current network meta-analysis and apply them in a relatively conservative way." On the contrary, the outcomes "provide a rationale for designing future large-scale randomized controlled trials to investigate optimal dosing of EPA/DHA supplementation in migraine patients."

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References:

1. Can EPA and DHA Supplements Reduce the Incidence and Severity of Migraines? - (https://nutrition.org/can-epa-and-dha-supplements-reduce-the-incidence-and-severity-of-migraines/)
2. High Dosage Omega-3 Fatty Acids Outperform Existing Pharmacological Options for Migraine Prophylaxis: A Network Meta-Analysis - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110000/)

Source-Medindia