Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2023 Jan 6;15(2):289. doi: 10.3390/nu15020289

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2023 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/).

PMC Copyright notice

Cocoa is an example of a natural dietary nutrient that may exert beneficial effects against migraine, which may be partly underlined by its interaction with calcitonin-related gene peptide (CGRP) and represents mechanisms that may underline the action of other dietary nutrients on migraine and the CGRP systems. CGRP may be released after the depolarization of trigeminal nerve (TGN) neurons with the involvement of calcium signaling. Cocoa may disrupt calcium channels resulting in changing CGRP release, mediated by capsaicin and KCl. Cocoa may directly inhibit NO production, decreasing vessel impairment underlined by NO-induced endothelial damage. Coca may upregulate mitogen-activated kinase phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) and -3, which exert an anti-inflammatory effect, which is important in migraine prevention. Cocoa is also reported to break insulin resistance preventing diabetes, whose connection with migraine is discussed further in the main text.