Higher Dietary Niacin Consumption Decreases Migraine Risk

by | Sep 19, 2022 | Brain Health, Headaches, Vitamin B - General

Written by Taylor Woosley, Staff Writer. Results of the large cross-sectional study show that compared to individuals with lower niacin consumption Q1 (≤12.3 mg/day), the adjusted OR values for dietary niacin intake and migraine in Q3 (18.4-26.2 mg/day) and Q4 (≥26.3 mg/day) were 0.78 (95%CI: 0.66-0.92, p=0.004) and 0.74 (95%CI: 0.60-0.92, p=0.009), respectively. 

headache - painMigraine is a cyclic disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of headache1. It is one of the most common neurological diseases with a possible cumulative lifetime incidence of up to 50% in women and 20% in men2. In some patients, attacks are accompanied by nausea, photo- and phonophobia, and focal neurological symptoms3. Migraine is associated with a number of comorbidities, including psychiatric disorders, sleep disorders, cardiovascular risk factors, and cerebrovascular diseases4.

Niacin, also known as vitamin B3, has been researched as a potential approach to migraines because of its role in regulating energy metabolism5. It is a functional precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), a bioactive coenzyme responsible for maintaining cell respiration, along with regulating methylation, DNA rehabilitation, and immune function6. NAD metabolite and its derivatives are fundamental for homeostasis in our tissues and are used as both cellular energy currency and as building blocks for growth and repair7. Past research on niacin has shown it as being effective in improving migraine headache symptoms, with researchers hypothesizing that niacin acts as a negative feedback regulator on the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism, directing it to the serotonin pathway, which is commonly low in those who suffer from migraines8.

Liu H et al. conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2004 to examine the association between dietary niacin consumption and migraine occurrence in adults. Subjects who experienced migraines were determined based on responses to the miscellaneous pain questionnaire. Dietary intake was gathered from the NHANES dietary survey, with subjects (n= 10, 246) being placed into four groups based on the amount of their dietary niacin intake. Potential covariates such as age, sex, marital status, race, physical activity, BMI, diabetes, hypertension, and calorie consumption were assessed.

One-way analyses of variance, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and chi-square tests were used to compare differences across groups. Logistic regression models were used to assess the odds ratios (OR) and 95 percent confidence intervals (95 CIs) for the association between dietary niacin consumption and migraine. Furthermore, restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression was performed with 4 knots at 5th, 35th, 65th, and 95th percentiles of dietary niacin consumption to evaluate linearity and observe the dose-response curve between dietary niacin consumption and migraine occurrence. 2064 (20.1%) subjects experienced migraines. The average age of participants was 50.5 years and 5087 (49.6%) were female. Significant findings of the study are as follows:

  • When analyzing dietary niacin consumption using quartiles, there was a significant inverse association between dietary niacin consumption and migraine occurrence after adjusting for potential confounders. Compared with individuals with lower niacin consumption Q1 (≤3 mg/day), the adjusted OR values for dietary niacin intake and migraine in Q2 (12.4-18.3 mg/day), Q3 (18.4-26.2 mg/day), and Q4 (≥26.3 mg/day) were 0.83 (95% CI: 0.72-097, p = 0.019), 0.74 (95% CI: 0.63–0.87, p < 0.001), and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.58–0.88, p = 0.001), respectively.
  • The association between dietary niacin intake and migraine exhibited an L-shaped curve (nonlinear, p=0.011) in RCS.
  • In the threshold analysis, the OR of developing migraine was 0.975 (95% CI: 0.956-0.994, p=0.011) in subjects with a niacin intake of <21.0 mg/day.

Results of this large cross-sectional study how that an L-shape relationship was noted between niacin consumption and migraine occurrence. The risk of migraine decreased with an increased niacin consumption in subjects with a niacin intake of <21.0 mg/day, while the risk of migraine no longer decreased with increasing niacin consumption in participants with a niacin intake of ≥21.0 mg/day. Study limitations include the inability to use migraine data from different time periods for further validation, the potential residual confounding effects from unknown factors, and the lack of generalizability due to use of American adult subjects.

Source: Liu, Huanxian, Lu Wang, Chunfu Chen, Zhao Dong, and Shengyuan Yu. “Association between Dietary Niacin Intake and Migraine among American Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.” Nutrients 14, no. 15 (2022): 3052.

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Posted September 19, 2022.

Taylor Woosley studied biology at Purdue University before becoming a 2016 graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a major in Writing. She currently resides in Glen Ellyn, IL.

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