Common Weight Loss Medication Could Assist Deal with Migraines Too

Common diabetes and weight reduction drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro present potential for treating a slew of different well being points, from osteoarthritis to binge consuming. Now, new analysis means that these medication—which belong to a category often known as GLP-1s—may additionally assist relieve migraines.

Particularly, folks with weight problems and power migraine skilled considerably fewer complications after a three-month stint taking liraglutide, a GLP-1 at present used to deal with sort 2 diabetes, researchers reported June 17 within the journal Headache.

Migraine impacts roughly 14% of the worldwide inhabitants, making it a number one reason behind incapacity worldwide. The brand new research was small, with simply 31 folks, and specialists warning that extra analysis is required. Nonetheless, the findings trace at a promising new pathway for migraine aid.

“Regardless of many developments in migraine therapy lately, there are nonetheless many sufferers who are suffering from intractable migraines who might profit from rising therapy,” mentioned Samantha Flanagan, DO, an weight problems drugs doctor with Temple Well being.

To grasp how GLP-1s influence migraine, the researchers recruited 26 girls and 5 males with weight problems (a physique mass index over 30) and power migraine (complications on at the least 15 days per 30 days).

Contributors took a day by day shot containing 1.2 milligrams of liraglutide over 12 weeks. Every day, they crammed out a diary detailing the depth and frequency of their migraine signs. Roughly 38% of the members skilled gentle gastrointestinal unwanted effects like nausea and constipation.

On the finish of the research, members skilled a median of 11 fewer headache days a month. Most sufferers seen enhancements throughout the first two weeks. The members additionally recorded substantial boosts in high quality of life through a instrument referred to as the Migraine Incapacity Evaluation Take a look at.

These enhancements occurred regardless of the group’s BMI barely altering—on common, it dropped from 34.0 to 33.9. Due to this, the researchers concluded that GLP-1s might successfully cut back migraine signs, even within the absence of serious weight reduction.

Regardless of the promising outcomes, the research had a number of limitations. First, it was observational and lacked a management group, making it unclear whether or not the migraine enhancements had been immediately brought on by liraglutide or influenced by different elements, Richard Baron, MD, a neurologist with Stanford Drugs, informed Well being.

There was additionally no blinding—each the members and the researchers had been conscious that they had been taking the medicine, which might introduce bias.

That mentioned, the research, whereas small, opens up the door for future analysis, Flanagan mentioned. 

Wanting ahead, Baron mentioned he’d prefer to see randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials—thought-about the gold normal of scientific testing—look at the influence of GLP-1 medication on migraine frequency and depth.

Although it’s nonetheless too quickly to know if GLP-1s actually can alleviate migraine signs, researchers have some theories about how they may accomplish that.

One thought is that they might decrease intracranial stress, or stress that builds up from the presence of fluids throughout the cranium. Even barely elevated stress might sensitize the trigeminovascular system, a community of neurons within the mind carefully concerned in migraine. This will set off the discharge of headache-causing compounds referred to as calcitonin gene-related peptides, which decrease an individual’s threshold for ache and complications.

Earlier analysis helps this concept: GLP-1s have been discovered to scale back cerebrospinal fluid secretion and intracranial stress. Moreover, a number of small research counsel that GLP-1s might enhance migraine signs in folks with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a situation that causes chronically excessive intracranial stress, mentioned Deena E. Kuruvilla, MD, FAHS, a neurologist and medical director of the Mind Well being Institute. (Notably, the brand new research excluded folks suspected of getting this situation.)

One other chance, based on Baron, is that GLP-1s might counteract the consequences of weight problems which are thought to contribute to migraine assaults, resembling irritation and fluctuations in hormones like leptin and orexin.

“Provided that the GLP-1 agonists appear to scale back irritation related to weight problems, have an effect on obesity-related hormonal signaling, and reduce intracranial stress—even earlier than weight reduction is achieved—it is rather cheap to count on these drugs to be useful in decreasing migraine assault severity and frequency in sufferers with migraine and weight problems,” Baron mentioned.

Whereas there are a number of migraine remedies obtainable—together with oral drugs, injections, way of life adjustments, and neuromodulatory units—the situation is notoriously troublesome to deal with.

In accordance with the American Headache Society, insufficient preventative medicine and unidentified triggers are two of the most typical causes migraine remedies fail. As well as, many individuals proceed to expertise refractory, or intractable, complications which are resistant to straightforward remedies.

GLP-1 medication should not but accredited by the Meals and Drug Administration for migraine prevention, and treating migraine with them isn’t but the usual of care, Kuruvilla mentioned.

However Kuruvilla informed Well being that she’s had a number of sufferers with refractory complications “who had exhausted a number of conventional migraine preventives with out success” take GLP-1 s and expertise important migraine aid. “I at all times stress that migraine enchancment is a possible secondary profit, not a assured consequence,” she mentioned.