7 Natural Remedies To Treat Migraine

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is often described as a vitamin or a vitamin-like substance. CoQ10 is involved in the creation of the important substance in the body known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP serves as the cell’s major energy source and drives a number of biological processes including muscle contraction and the production of protein. CoQ10 also works as an antioxidant.

Some food sources, such as meat and fish, contain CoQ10 but the amounts in food are naturally less than can be obtained from supplements. Primary dietary sources of CoQ10 include oily fish (such as salmon and tuna), organ meats (such as liver), and whole grains. Most individuals obtain sufficient amounts of CoQ10 through a balanced diet, but supplementation may be useful for individuals with particular health conditions.

If you use or are planning to use CoQ10 for any specific health condition, you may want to let your doctor know. It appears to be safe, and when taken by healthy volunteers in a trial at different doses over 4 weeks did not cause safety concerns or adverse events. Other safety assessments have been favourable, but it seems sensible to avoid supplementation in pregnancy.

No toxicity has been reported with supplements up to 600 mg for every kg of body weight. Minor side effects that may occur with supplementation (but are unusual) include a burning sensation in the mouth, loss of appetite, nausea and diarrhoea. In large studies, the incidence of gastrointestinal side-effects is less than 1%.

Interaction with other drugs

Cholesterol-lowering drugs such as lovastatin block the natural synthesis of CoQ10, so supplementation of 100 mg/day is recommended while taking these drugs.

Use for migraine

Thirty-two patients diagnosed as having migraine with or without aura were treated with CoQ10 at a dose of 150 mg per day in a controlled experiment (10). No adverse events were associated with CoQ10 therapy in any of the trial participants. As a result of the treatment, 61.3% of the patients treated had a greater than 50% reduction in the number of days with migraine headache. Only two participants showed no improvement with CoQ10 therapy in their migraine headache intensity compared with baseline (ie when the trial started). The average number of days with migraine headache during the baseline non-treatment phase was 7.34 and this decreased to 2.95 days by the end of the trial. The reduction in migraine frequency after 1 month of treatment was 13% and this improved to 55% by the end of 3 months of therapy. From this open-label (called “open” as participants were aware of whether they were taking CoQ10 or not) investigation, CoQ10 appears to be a good migraine preventive. The data presented in this trial suggest that CoQ10 starts to work within 4 weeks but usually takes 5 to 12 weeks to yield a significant reduction in days with a migraine. An important finding from this study is that taking CoQ10 appears to be associated with no significant adverse events and is extremely well-tolerated. In another study (11) migraine attack frequency after 4 months of treatment was reduced at least 50% in 48% of patients as compared to 14% for placebo. CoQ10 supplementation may be particularly effective in the treatment of childhood migraine