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Research paper

Effects of probiotic and vitamin D co-supplementation on clinical symptoms, mental health, and inflammation in adult patients with migraine headache: a randomized, triple-blinded, placebo-controlled trial

BMC Medicine
Q1
Oct 2024
Citations: 10
Influential: 1
Interventional (Human) Studies
87

Study answer

What this study found

Twelve weeks of probiotic plus vitamin D co-supplementation improved migraine frequency and severity compared with placebo, but did not meaningfully improve headache duration, daily functioning, mental health outcomes, or hs-CRP. Migraine attacks fell from 7.76 ± 0.81 to 4.50 ± 0.56 per month, with a between-group difference of P = 0.039 and ANCOVA P = 0.031; migraine severity also improved, from 8.31 ± 0.28 to 6.75 ± 0.39 on VAS, with ANCOVA P = 0.017. Headache duration was not significantly different from placebo (ANCOVA P = 0.171), HIT-6 was not significant (ANCOVA P = 0.726), and hs-CRP…

Study & population
Randomized, triple-blinded, placebo-controlled trial in adults with migraine meeting ICHD-3 criteria and recruited from a neurology clinic in Isfahan, Iran.
Intervention
In the active arm, adults with migraine received a combined oral regimen of probiotic capsules (4.5 × 10^11 CFU per day) plus vitamin D pearls (50,000 IU every 2 weeks) for 12 weeks.
Key limitation
The trial was small, with only about 18 participants in the active arm, and lasted just 12 weeks, which limits precision and long-term interpretation.
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Original abstract

Migraine headache is a major public health problem. Routine medications for migraine treatment are not useful in treating all patients and may have some side effects. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin D and probiotic co-sup…