Have you tried everything to help ease your migraine headache with no real relief? If you haven’t tried vitamin B-2, read on! At the Department of Neurology at the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany, researchers found that high-dose vitamin B-2 may be beneficial for preventing migraines. At an outpatient clinic, patients received 400 mg of B-2 per day. Headache frequency, duration, intensity and the use of drugs were recorded before, during and after treatment. Researchers found that while migraine hours and intensity did not change, B-2 did significantly reduce migraine frequency from four days to two days per month, and that the use of migraine drugs decreased from seven units to 4.5 units per month.

In earlier research, scientists at the Department of Neurology at the University of Liege in Belgium also found B-2 to be effective prevention for migraines. In their study, 55 migraine sufferers took either 400 mg of B-2 or a placebo for three months. Researchers found that B-2 was superior to placebo in reducing migraine frequency and duration. Of those patients using B-2, almost 60% improved significantly compared to only 15% in the placebo group.

Sources: Eur J Neurol. 2004 Jul;11(7):475-7; Neurology. 1998 Feb;50(2):466-70