The Herbal Remedy Which Decreases Frequency of Migraine Attacks By 68%, Scientists Reveal

Herbal butterbur may be considered as functional herb in protection of neurons against change in the brain and its surrounding blood vessels in initiated onset of migraine, some scientists suggested.

Migraine headache is one most common headache defined as condition of chronic neurological disorder of moderate to severe headaches, and nausea that usually develop gradually over 5–20 minutes and last for less than 60 minutes.

According to the statistic, the syndrome affects over 15% of the population in US.  If you are women your risk of migraine headache is at 2 times higher in compared to men.

Sadly, 1 in 7 people in the world population will develop migraine headache at some points in their life time, And, chronic migraine affects about 2% of the world population.

Some patients during migraine attack also suffer symptoms of visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch and smell, and tingling or numbness in the extremities or face.

Believe or not, 10% school age children also suffer from undiagnosed migraine headache.

Conventional medicine in reduced symptoms of pain during attack such as Sumatriptan, Rizatriptan,..and Eletriptan may be effective but they may induce certain side effects, including gastrointestinal discomfort, dizziness, drowsiness,… and muscle weakness.

Please make sure that you discuss these side effect with your doctor before taking.

Butterbur, found in wet, marshy, damp land, including wetland, riverside, forest, etc., is a creeping underground plant, genus Petasites of 15 -20 species, belonging to the family Asteraceae, native to Northern Hemisphere.

The herb has been used in herbal medicne used as an pain reliever in digestive system, including stomach, bile ducts, and duodenum, etc.

The Chemical constituents
The chemical constituents of Butterbur include Petioles, petasitene and pethybrene, quercetin 3-O-beta-D-glucoside, quercetin 3-O-beta-D-6”-O-acetylglucoside, and rutin, caffeic acid, alkaloids, S-petasin and iso-S-petasin, etc.

Although the herb is used as nutritional supplement in US, scientific studies suggested that it may be used as the prevention of allergic rhinitis and treatment of migraine.

In a three-arm, parallel-group, randomized trial comparing Petasites extract 75 mg bid, Petasites extract 50 mg bid, or placebo bid in 245 patients with migraine, satisfied the International Headache Society criteria, researchers found that by calculating the migraine attack frequency per month as percentage change from baseline over a 4-month treatment period

* Migraine attack frequency was reduced by 48% for Petasites extract 75 mg bid (p = 0.0012 vs placebo), 36% for Petasites extract 50 mg bid (p = 0.127 vs placebo), in compared to 26% of placebo group.

* The proportion of patients with a > or =50% reduction in attack frequency after 4 months was 68% for patients in the Petasites extract 75-mg arm and 49% for the placebo arm (p < 0.05).

* In compared to the baseline, patients, intake of Petasites 75 mg also also expressed a significant effect in reduced migraine at 1, 2, and 3 months.

* Mild adverse effects such as gastrointestinal events, predominantly burping. were also reported.

These results sugegsted that butterbur Petasites extract 75 mg bid is more effective than placebo and is well tolerated as a preventive therapy for migraine.

Furthermore, in the review to confirm the strength of evidence of effectiveness for Petasites hybridus in treating prophylaxis of migraine by searching several databases and other sources to identify randomised-controlled trials, the Headache Center Hirslanden in Zürich, Switzerland found 2 trials totalling 293 patients (60 and 233 patients).

According to the selected trials, oral administrated butterbur extract at higher dose (150 mg) expressed a greater decreased frequency of migraine attacks and a greater number of responders (improvement>50%) after treatment over 3-4 months in compared to the extract at lower dose (100 mg) and placebo.

Additional differentiation also found some evidences that higher than the recommended dose may be more effective in treating prophylaxis of migraine.  

More profoundly, in the study of 60 patients received either the special Petasites hybridus extract Petadolex or placebo at a dosage of two capsules (each capsule contains 25 mg) twice daily over 12 weeks, researchers found that 

* Oral injection of the capsules Petadolex reduces the frequency of migraine attacks decreased by a maximum of 60 percent in compared to the baseline.

* No adverse events were reported. Petasites was exceptionally well tolerated.

Taking altogether,  herbal butterbur extract may be considered as  therapeutic treatment in  acute and chronic migraine headache, however, exact dose should only be prescribed by herbalist.

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Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published on line, including world wide health, ezine articles, article base, healthblogs, selfgrowth, best before it’s news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
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Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bio science, ISSN 0975-6299.
References
(1) Petasites hybridus root (butterbur) is an effective preventive treatment for migraine by Lipton RB, Göbel H, Einhäupl KM, Wilks K, Mauskop A.(PubMed)
(2) An extract of Petasites hybridus is effective in the prophylaxis of migraine by Grossman W, Schmidramsl H.(PubMed)
(3) Effectiveness of Petasites hybridus preparations in the prophylaxis of migraine: a systematic review by Agosti R, Duke RK, Chrubasik JE, Chrubasik S.(PubMed)