Migraines: Fight Back with CoQ10

Anyone who suffers from frequent migraines will be thrilled to hear about a possible new way to prevent these awful head-pounders: taking a daily dose of coenzyme Q10.

In a three-month clinical trial involving 42 people who suffer from chronic migraines, Euro-pean researchers found that half of those who took 300 milligrams of coQ10 every day cut the number of headaches they got each month in half.

The coQ10 is thought to work by increasing energy stores in brain cells, says Peter S. Sandor, a neurologist at the University Hospitals in Zurich who coordinated the study. (No one knows exactly what causes migraines; it’s believed to be a complicated interplay of factors in the brain, which coQ10 seems to affect.) The supplement seems to work mainly as a long-term preventive strategy—not as treatment for headaches that have already taken hold.

The results are especially welcome since so many of the prescription drugs migraine sufferers rely on for prevention are expensive and can cause side effects, such as fatigue and weight gain. “The only side effect from coQ10 was an allergic skin rash in one patient,” says Sandor.

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