Migraine frequency plays role in increased stroke
Women who have migraines with aura may be more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than those who don’t have the condition, and the association varies by migraine frequency, according to research reported in the medical journal Neurology.
An aura is a visual or other sensory disturbance that occurs before the migraine starts, such as seeing bright lights. Statistics suggest that migraine headaches are three times more common in women than men, with 18% of all women and 6% of all men suffering from the painful and sometimes debilitating condition.
The study found that women with migraine with aura whose migraines occur at least once a week are more than four times as likely to have a stroke as women who do not have migraines.
Women with migraine with aura who have migraines even less than once a month were still more than twice as likely to have a heart attack and nearly twice as likely to have had heart procedures such as coronary artery bypass surgery or angioplasty.
“These results should be interpreted with caution, since the number of migraine and migraine features were self-reported and there were relatively low numbers of stroke and heart problems in the large study group,” said study author Dr Tobias Kurth, of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and INSERM, the French national research institute.
“Nonetheless, more research is needed to determine how and why these differences occur and whether preventing migraines could reduce the risk of stroke and heart problems.”
The Women’s Health Study, which was used in the migraine research, involved 27,798 United States women health professionals age 45 and older.
The women had no heart or cerebrovascular problems at the start of the study and were followed for about 12 years.
During that time, 706 women, or 2.5% of the group had cerebrovascular events, including 305 heart attacks and 310 strokes. In addition, 655 women had heart procedures such as bypass surgery.
