Double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial of ginger ( Zingiber officinale Rosc.) addition in migraine acute treatment.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated the analgesic effects of ginger in different conditions, but evidence about its efficacy in migraine treatment is scarce. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the potential of ginger to improve acute migraine as an add-on strategy to standard treatment. METHODS: A double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial in the emergency room of a general hospital was conducted. Patients who sought medical care at the time of migraine attack were enrolled in this study. Only adults with episodic migraine (one to six migraine attacks per month) with or without aura were included. Sixty participants were randomized into two groups in which they received 400 mg of ginger extract (5% active ingredient) or placebo (cellulose), in addition to an intravenous drug (100 mg of ketoprofen) to treat the migraine attack. Patients filled a headache diary before, 0.5 h, 1 h, 1.5 h and 2 h after the medication. Pain severity, functional status, migraine symptoms and treatment satisfaction were also recorded. RESULTS: Patients treated with ginger showed significantly better clinical response after 1 h ( p = 0.04), 1.5 h ( p = 0.01) and 2 h ( p = 0.04). Furthermore, ginger treatment promoted reduction in pain and improvement on functional status at all times assessed. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of ginger to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may contribute to the treatment of migraine attack. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02568644).

Virgin coconut oil is effective to treat metabolic and inflammatory dysfunction induced by high refined carbohydrate-containing diet in mice.

The global rise in obesity rates is alarming since this condition is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation and secondary comorbidities as glucose intolerance, cardiovascular disease and liver damage. Therefore, a lot of dietary approaches are proposed to prevent and to treat obesity and its associated disorders. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is well known as a functional food due to its significant amounts of medium-chain triglycerides. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of VCO on adiposity, metabolic and inflammatory dysfunctions induced by a high-refined carbohydrate-containing (HC) diet in mice. Male BALB/c mice were divided into two groups and fed with control (C) or HC diet to induce obesity for eight weeks. At the 9th week mice fed with HC diet were randomly regrouped into four groups, and were kept this way until the 12th week, as following: (i) HC diet alone or HC diet supplemented with three different VCO doses (ii) 1000 mg/kg, (iii) 3000 mg/kg and (iv) 9000 mg/kg. Regardless of the concentration used, VCO supplementation promoted lower adiposity and also improvement in glucose tolerance, lower serum glucose and lipid levels and decreased hepatic steatosis. Moreover, VCO intake induced a lower inflammatory response due to decreased number of leukocytes and TNF-α and IL-6 concentrations in adipose tissue, as well as reduced counts of total leukocytes, mononuclear and polymorphonuclear circulating cells. Our data showed that VCO can be considered as an interesting potential dietary approach to attenuate obesity and its metabolic and inflammatory alterations.

Two opposite extremes of adiposity similarly reduce inflammatory response of antigen-induced acute joint inflammation.

OBJECTIVE: Acute inflammation is a normal response of tissue to an injury. During this process, inflammatory mediators are produced and metabolic alterations occur. Adipose tissue is metabolically activated, and upon food consumption, it disrupts the inflammatory response. However, little is known about the acute inflammatory response in joints that results from diet-induced adipose tissue remodeling. The objective of this study was to determine whether alterations in adipose tissue mass arising from food consumption modify the inflammatory response of antigen-induced joint inflammation in mice. METHODS: Male BALB/c mice were fed a chow diet, a highly refined carbohydrate-containing (HC) diet for 8 wk. They were then immunized and, after 2 wk, received a knee injection of methylated bovine serum albumin (mBSA). They were sacrificed at 6, 24, and 48 h after injection. The effect of the cafeteria diet for 8 wk, which also increases adipose tissue, or conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) supplementation for 4 wk, a model of lipodystrophy, was evaluated 24 h after knee challenge with mBSA. RESULTS: Cellular influx, predominantly neutrophils, in synovial fluid was attenuated in the HC diet group, as were levels of myeloperoxidase and IL-1ß in periarticular tissue and histopathological analysis. These responses were associated with reduced adiponectin and increased leptin in serum, which was pronounced in mice fed the HC diet. Cafeteria diet and CLA supplementation induced a profile similar to that seen with the HC diet in terms of inflammation, disease response, and metabolic alteration. Interestingly, after the injection of mBSA, the area of adipocytes in the infrapatellar fat pad increased in mice fed with chow diet similar to those fed the HC and cafeteria diet. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that attenuation of joint response induced by diet was independent of adipose tissue remodeling but could be associated with metabolic alterations.