Research Article Vitamin D Status in Migraine Patients: A Case-Control Study Alireza Zandifar, 1,2 Samaneh sadat Masjedi, 2 Mahboobeh Banihashemi, 2 Fatemeh Asgari, 2 Navid Manouchehri, 2 Homa Ebrahimi, 3 Faraidoon Haghdoost, 1,2 and Mohammad Saadatnia 1,4 1 Physiology Research Center, Department of Physiology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 81745-319, Iran 2 Medical Student Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 81745-319, Iran 3 Medical Student Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, NajafAbad Branch, NajafAbad 8514143131, Iran 4 Department of Neurology and Isfahan Neurosciences Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Hezarjarib Avenue, Isfahan 81745-319, Iran Correspondence should be addressed to Mohammad Saadatnia; mosaadatnia@yahoo.com Received 4 August 2013; Revised 10 October 2013; Accepted 16 October 2013; Published 2 January 2014 Academic Editor: Alessandro Landi Copyright © 2014 Alireza Zandifar et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Tere have been few studies on the relation between vitamin D and migraine. We investigated the prevalence of vitamin D defciency in migraine patients and compared it with a control group. We also evaluated the relationship of vitamin D defciency with severity of migraine. Methods. 105 newly diagnosed migraine patients and 110 controls, matched for age, sex, socioeconomic status, education, and sun exposure, were enrolled during the spring of 2011. 25-Hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] plasma levels were measured by chemiluminescence immunoassay. Results. Te mean ± SE concentration of 25(OH)D was 13.55 ± 0.91 ng/mL in cases and 13.19 ± 1.19 ng/mL in controls. Tere was no signifcant diference in 25(OH)D concentration between cases and controls. We found no relationship between severity of headache and 25(OH)D status. Conclusions. We did not fnd any association between migraine and vitamin D status; also, severity of headaches was not related to 25(OH)D level. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to confrm our results. 1. Introduction Vitamin D defciency is a global public health issue. Preva- lence of vitamin D defciency is about 30 to 50% in normal populations especially in young women [1, 2]. Despite high sun exposure in middle eastern countries, these countries are among the areas with high prevalence of vitamin D defciency in the world [3]. Vitamin D is not only important in mineral homeostasis but it is also an anti-infammatory hormone that can regulate immune responses, cell proliferation, and endothelial function [4, 5]. Also, vitamin D has a negative efect on proliferation of mast cells and can stimulate nitric oxide (NO) [6] (a vasoactive substance that interacts with blood vessels). With these mechanisms, vitamin D has a potent role in cardiovascular disease [7]. Growing but conficting evidence has shown a possible relationship between vitamin D and chronic or recurrent painful conditions such as migraine [8]. Migraine is a common hereditary chronic neurovascular disorder, characterized by dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. In some patients, it has been accompanied by nausea and vomiting with phonophobia, photophobia, and osmophobia [9]. Migraine aficts 18% of women and 6% of men and has a peak incidence in ages between 25 and 55 [10]. Tere is growing evidence for a role of endothelial dysfunction in migraine pathophysiology which suggests that migraine is attributed to vascular smooth muscle dysfunction [11]. Hypersensitivity of migraine patients’ arteries to vasoac- tive substance such as NO can be a cause of dysfunction [12]. A number of studies have suggested that migraine attacks increase in cold seasons and higher latitude which may be related to lower vitamin D serum level [13]. One study reported that 40% of migraine patients had vitamin D defciency [14]. Two case-report studies have shown that treatment with vitamin D and calcium in patients Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2014, Article ID 514782, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/514782