MigraineMD vs Other Natural Migraine Supplements

As a neurologist with a special interest in headache disorders, I see migraine patients all the time. I always recommend evidence-based natural supplements to my patients, and I often see great results. I hear from my patients, however, that taking 5 separate supplements every day is understandably inconvenient and hard to maintain, and they tend not to continue taking all 5 supplements because of the high pill burden. Therefore, they end up not getting as much benefit as possible for their migraines.

To address this problem, I searched for a combination supplement that contained all the evidence-based ingredients for migraine prevention in a single convenient capsule or tablet. I found several products on the market, but each of them had various shortcomings I will detail below:

Migrelief – This product contains only 3 of the 5 recommended evidence-based ingredients for migraine prevention: riboflavin at the appropriate dose of 400 mg, magnesium at a suboptimal dose of 360 mg (the most effective dose is 600 mg), and feverfew. Feverfew, while effective for migraine prevention, is not recommended in pregnancy because it can stimulate uterine contractions leading to preterm labor. Making a supplement safe in pregnancy is so important because there are limited options for women to treat their migraines in pregnancy. In addition, people often assume that a natural product is safe and poses no risk to themselves or their baby, but as you can see that is simply not true. The other major problem with Migrelief is its long list of additives and inactive ingredients. There are a whopping 12 non-medicinal ingredients (read: fillers), which is 4x the number of actual medicinal ingredients. One of these ingredients is titanium dioxide, which has been banned from European markets due to several health concerns, such as causing damage to the nervous and reproductive systems, and increasing the risk of birth defects.

Dolovent – This product contains 4 of the 5 recommended evidence-based ingredients for migraine prevention: riboflavin at a suboptimal dose of 200 mg, magnesium oxide at a suboptimal dose of 300 mg (and this form of magnesium is not ideal compared to magnesium citrate, which has better absorption and is supported by stronger evidence), coenzyme Q10 at a low dose of 75 mg (ideal dose is 300 mg), and vitamin D3 at a tiny dose of 2 mcg (ideal dosing is 100 mcg, which is equivalent to 4000 IU). In addition to these ingredients, there are 16 other medicinal ingredients that are not supported by scientific evidence. While these additional ingredients are likely safe, you are not getting the best bang for your buck with this supplement if your goal is to reduce migraine frequency.

Migravent – This product contains only 3 of the 5 recommended evidence-based ingredients for migraine prevention: riboflavin at a low dose of 133 mg, magnesium at a very low dose of 57 mg, and a “proprietary blend” containing coenzyme Q10, butterbur, and BioPerine – a non-evidence-based black pepper extract. The dosage of this proprietary blend is 101 mg, meaning that the coenzyme Q10 dosage is too low. My main concern with this product is that it contains butterbur, which is toxic to the liver. This ingredient is no longer recommended by the American Headache Society for this reason.

Migra-T - This product contains only 3 of the 5 recommended evidence-based ingredients for migraine prevention: Magnesium citrate at a low dose of 100 mg, coenzyme Q10 at a low dose of 50 mg, and vitamin D3 at a low dose of 1000 IU/25 mcg. In addition, it contains feverfew which, as mentioned above, is not safe in pregnancy. It also has 6 additional ingredients that are not supported by migraine research. 

Migratone – This product has many of the same issues noted above: Its dosage of riboflavin, magnesium, and coenzyme Q10 are suboptimal, and it contains feverfew, butterbur, and high doses of vitamin B6, all potentially harmful ingredients as explained above. It also contains several non-evidence-based ingredients such as ashwagandha, folate, and black pepper extract.

So how is MigraineMD different?

MigraineMD - Our product contains all 5 evidence-based ingredients at evidence-based doses: Magnesium citrate 600 mg, riboflavin 400 mg, coenzyme Q10 300 mg, vitamin D3 4000 IU, and melatonin 3 mg. And importantly it does not contain anything else: no harmful ingredients and no unnecessary ingredients or fillers. Our product contains only one inactive ingredient, microcrystalline cellulose, which is a safe, natural plant-based ingredient that aids in absorption and is an industry standard. 

Key takeaways:

1. Not all natural migraine supplements are safe.
2. Natural migraine supplements do not always contain the right ingredients at the right dose for the advertised benefit, based on the medical evidence.
3. If you want an all-in-one, completely evidence-based, pure, safe and natural migraine supplement, choose MigraineMD, which I developed because there was no better alternative.

-Neurologist and Co-Founder of NeuroNaturals