Women who suffer from migraine may be at an increased risk of suffering from heart disease and stroke too. These are the findings of a new study conducted by a team of researchers from the Institute of Public Health at Charite-Universitatsmedizin in Berlin, Germany.
In the study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers explain how migraines can be considered as a marker of the cardiovascular disease, especially in women. However, the researchers cleared that the study results do not prove that migraine directly cause cardiovascular disease or a stroke, but it just increases the likelihood of such events.
During the study, the researchers evaluated the data derived from Nurses' Health Study II. More than 100,000 women aged between 25 and 42 participated in the study that continued for over a period of 20 years. None of the subjects had suffered from a heart disease at the beginning of the study.
The team found that during the study period, almost 15 percent of the women had a migraine and more than 1,300 participants suffered from a heart disease or a stroke. In addition, women who had migraine were also found to be at an increased risk of surgery for blocked arteries.
Researchers then compared the data for women with migraines with the ones who did not have the condition and discovered that participants who had severe headache were 50 percent more likely to suffer from heart disease and stroke.
More specifically, women with migraine suffered from a 39 percent higher risk of a heart disease and 62 percent higher risk of stroke. In addition, they were 73 percent more likely to undergo a heart surgery.
"Physicians should be aware of the association between migraine and cardiovascular disease, and women with migraine should be evaluated for their risk," lead researcher Dr. Tobias Kurth said, U.S. News reports.
Headaches associated with migraine are characterized by an intense and pulsating pain. The pain is often accompanied by a sensitivity of sound and light, nausea and vomiting. Migraine has previously been associated with an increased risk of stroke, but the recent study ties it with heart attack and the resulting death from it.
The following video explains the reason why people get migraine: