Migraine Linked with Heart Disease

Lisa Franchi June 08, 2016

New research suggests that women with migraines are more likely to suffer from heart problems than those who don’t have. They were also associated with a greater chance of dying from heart-related problems.

The study involved 115,000 female nurses, ages 25 to 42, who were enrolled in a large ongoing study. The researchers followed the participants for 20 years and found that women with migraines were about 50 percent more likely to develop major cardiovascular disease than women who never had migraines.

They also found that these women were more likely to undergo heart-related procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafting, compared with women who did not get the severe headaches

According to Rebecca Burch, an instructor in the department of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, the research provides good evidence that migraine in women is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Nonetheless, he notes that it has fairly small effect on cardiovascular risk than other known factors like smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

In previous studies, migraine has also been linked to an increased risk of developing both ischemic and haemorrhagic strokes in women. These are caused by a blockage of blood flow in the brain and are caused by a rupture in a blood vessel.

The new study shows that migraines is not only associated with increased risk of strokes but cardiovascular problems in general.

But more research is needed to understand the connection between migraines and cardiovascular disease. In the meantime, Burch recommends that women should continue to treat their migraines with existing therapies and learn about the ways in which they can lower their risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The findings were published in the British Medical Journal.

Source of this article:

Women with Migraines Are More Prone To This Scary Health Condition