Salt-Rich Diet Linked to Headache Severity, Frequency
Diets rich in salt were associated with an increased risk of headache, which offers healthcare providers a new approach to headache prevention, according to a recent study.
“Headaches are a common medical problem, yet few studies, particularly trials, have evaluated therapies that might prevent or control headaches,” said the authors of the study.
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“We, thus, investigated the effects on the occurrence of headaches of 3 levels of dietary sodium intake and two diet patterns (the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet (rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products with reduced saturated and total fat) and a control diet (typical of Western consumption patterns),” they said.
For the study, researchers randomized 390 participants to the DASH diet or a control diet. During randomized periods, participants were assigned food with high sodium content, an intermediate amount of sodium during a different period, and low sodium during a separate period.
Researchers determine frequency and severity of headaches manifested from self-administered questionnaires taken at the end of each randomized period.
The study showed that those who consumed food high in sodium (150 mmol daily) had approximately one-third more headaches compared to those who had a diet low in sodium (50 mmol daily).
The investigators noted that the difference in study results occurred despite diets crafted to lower blood pressure or one reflecting a typical North American diet.
The complete study was published in the December issue of BMJ Open.
-Michelle Canales
Reference:
Amer M, Woodward M, Appel, LJ. Effects of dietary sodium and the DASH diet on the occurance of headaches: results from randomized multicenter DASH-Sodium clinical trial. BMJ Open. 2014 December [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006671.