According to a new study, published online June 30 in The BMJ, a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids tends to decrease the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks per month.

The study noted that a diet having a high omega-3 content was associated with two fewer headache days per month, and a diet rich in omega-3 and low in omega-6 decreased the migraine days per month by four. Investigators assessed the effect of altering dietary omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids on migraine in 182 adults with chronic migraine (5 to 20 migraine days in a month). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three diets (two intervention, one control) for a period of 16 weeks. One diet raised omega-3 intake to 1.5 g/d and maintained omega-6 intake at around 7% of energy intake, while the second diet increased omega-3 to 1.5 g/d and decreased omega-6 to <1.8% of energy intake. The control diet maintained omega-3 at <150 mg/d and omega-6 at around 7% of energy.

Both intervention diets resulted in improvement in scores on the six-item Headache Impact Test (HIT-6), compared to the control diet, though the difference was not statistically significant… (Medscape)