学进去

Migraine is a disease that has a number of symptoms (症状), including head pain that can stick around from four hours to several days. While migraines can happen partly because of genetic (基因的) problems, attacks may happen by chance, set off by a cause in the environment.

One common cause is food, and some common dietary causes include alcohol, salt, sugar, chocolate, and caffeine. But there are many others, and scientists continue to identify more. Last year, for example, a Brazilian study found that watermelons brought on a headache within minutes in about 30 percent of the participants.

Some new researches are looking at which foods and what kinds of diets can prevent or lessen migraines. A new study published last year by a team of researchers found that a diet higher in fish oils rather than vegetable oils helped people ease their headaches. In the study, those on a diet lower in vegetable oil and higher in fatty fish had a 30 to 40 percent reduction in total headache hours per day, serious headache hours per day, and overall headache days per month compared to the control group.

Tanya Kamka had suffered weekly migraines for most of her life. Then, in her 50s, she joined the NIH diet experiment and increased her intake of fish. After only a few months, “I haven’t had a migraine, not even a mild one, in over two years.” she says.

For others, the solution comes from plants, not fish. A 60-year-old man joined a study on the food-migraine link and turned to a diet, which includes a lot of dark, leafy greens. After two months he was experiencing only one migraine a month instead of the 18 to 24 a month he’d suffered before.

Clearly, people with migraines react to food in very different ways. What works for one person may not work for another.