• Zeinab Ghorbani, Pegah Rafiee, Akbar Fotouhi, Samane Haghighi, Reyhaneh Rasekh Magham, Zeynab Sadat Ahmadi, Mahmoud Djalali, Mahnaz Zareei, Soodeh Razeghi Jahromi, Sahar Shahemi, Maryam Mahmoudi, and Mansoureh Togha.
• Department of Cellular and Molecular Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• J Headache Pain. 2020 Feb 24; 21 (1): 22.

BackgroundEmerging evidence showed promising effects of vitamin D on headaches characteristics. Thus, it seems there is still a need for more researches to clarify the mechanisms by which this vitamin exerts anti-migraine effects.MethodsThe present study was conducted as a 16-week randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial on 80 episodic migraine patients allocated in 2 parallel groups each consisted of 40 patients who received vitamin D 2000 IU/d or placebo. At baseline and after the intervention completion, headache diaries and migraine disability assessment questionnaire (MIDAS) were used to assess migraine related variables in patients. Also, interictal serum concentration of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) (as the dominant mediator of migraine pain pathogenesis) was evaluated using ELISA method.ResultsThe mean (SD) of age in the vitamin D and placebo groups was 37 (8) and 38 (12) years, respectively. ANCOVA test adjusted for baseline values, and confounders showed vitamin D supplementation resulted in a significant improvement in MIDAS score after 12 weeks in the intervention group (21.49 (16.22-26.77)) compared to placebo (31.16 (25.51-36.82) P value: 0.016). Moreover, after controlling for baseline levels, and other variables using ANCOVA, CGRP level was appeared to be significantly lower following vitamin D supplementation (153.26 (133.03-173.49) ng/L) than the patients in the placebo arm (188.35 (167.15-209.54) ng/L) (P value = 0.022).ConclusionAccording to the current findings, vitamin D supplementation in episodic migraineurs, particularly in those with migraine with aura, may potentially improve migraine headache characteristics and disability probably through attenuating CGRP levels. Therefore, these results could provide a new insight into anti-nociceptive effects of vitamin D; however, more studies are required to confirm our findings.Trial RegistrationThe trial is registered in the Iranian registry of clinical trials (IRCT) at 11 July 2018, with IRCT code: IRCT20151128025267N6.

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