Migraine Can Trigger Heart Disease and Stroke

People that suffer from migraines with aura have a higher risk of dying from heart attack or stroke, a new research published today on bmj.com suggests.

The researchers found a link between migraine associated with aura (temporary visual or sensory disturbances before or during a migraine headache) and death from heart disease, but stress that there is a very low risk for people who simply have migraines.

The lead author of the study is Larus Gudmundsson from the University of Iceland, and along with his team, he analyzed the impact that migraines have on 18,725 men and women born between 1907 and 1935.

The subjects took part at the Reykjavik Study (set up in 1967 by the Icelandic Heart Association to study heart disease in Iceland) and were followed up for 26 years.

Gudmundsson and his colleagues used questionnaires to evaluate migraine with and without aura and they explored a total of 470,000 person-years of data.

The results confirmed that people suffering from migraines with aura had increased risks of dying from all causes, as well as heart disease and stroke, and that those with migraine without aura had a very low risk.

Also, women with migraine with aura have higher risks of dying from other causes that heart disease or cancer, but the researchers need to further study this matter.

Among the study's conclusions there is also the fact that the individual risk faced by migraine sufferers is low, and the efforts to reduce heart disease deaths should keep on focusing on conventional risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol.

Another paper related to the matter found that females suffering from migraines with aura have higher risks of hemorrhagic stroke, where bleeding occurs in the brain (around 20% of all strokes).

Nevertheless the study's lead author Dr Tobias Kurth, Director of Research at INSERM, says that the risk remains low and further research is necessary.