The risk of stroke and heart attach is higher for older women who suffer from migraines. Migraines pains are three to four times as frequent in women as in men. For around 12% of the people suffering from migraine headaches it can be characterized by severe pain and other symptoms like numbness, tingling, and auras.
A recent study suggests that middle-aged and older women who suffer from migraines with auras- for example flashing lights, a particular smell or other views or sounds that signals oncoming pain- appear to be more likely to suffer from the risk of strokes and heart attacks than from other healthy people that do not have to deal with the problem of migraines.
In addition, another study found that women that suffer from migraines are more likely than other women of the same age group to have brain infarcts. The latter refers to tiny areas of tissue death that is common in the aging brain. They however do not necessarily cause any health hazard.
On the other hand, experts caution that the number of women that were studied, who had endured strokes or heart attacks was relatively small. Moreover, the probability of having heart problems was seen to be more prevalent in woman who had either the most or the least frequent migraines. For instance, a woman having a migraine once a month with auras was not associated with high risk.
Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, and INSERM, the French national research institute, also the lead author of the study, explains that in general this study is not one that should scare women who suffer from migraines with auras.
It was a known fact that migraines with auras have been associated with a higher probability of stroke in women under the age of 55. Although strokes in young women are uncommon, the risk remains still very small. Nonetheless, it was not really clear if there exists any connection between older women or if recurrent headaches were more harmful.
Doctor Kurth says that his new research suggests that frequency of migraine has a role to play in the risk associated to stroke and heart attack.
The initial study by Doctor Kurth and his colleagues, published in the Neurology journal, looked at 27,798 female health professionals who were aged 45 or more, and that included 3,568 who suffered from migraines, from the Women’s Health Study. The women who suffered from migraines once a week due to auras – 5 percent of those studied- were four times as likely to suffer from a stroke during the twelve year study as compared to women who had no migraines.
Moreover, the women who had migraines with auras less than one time during a month (75% of the participants being studied) were doubly as likely as migraine-free women to suffer from a heart attack, and nearly twice as likely to have had a heart procedure, like a bypass surgery. On overall, only 2.5 percent of the women studied in the research had experienced a stroke, heart attack or any other heart related problem.
Ann Scher, PhD from Uniformed Services University, along her colleagues, in their second research that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association interviewed 4,689 men and women from Iceland, who were on average around 51 years old, regarding their migraines symptoms.
Brains scans carried out 26 years afterwards suggested that those people who suffered from migraine with auras at least once in a month were more at risk to have brain infarcts. In general, 23% of women having such migraines had to put up with the infarcts, compared to 15% of women who had no such migraines. The infarcts were found in the lower back of the brain, in the cerebellum. Around 20% of men had infarcts in the same part of the brain, not considering whether they had migraines.
The experts are not certain yet about its implications. However, the migraine patients do not seem to be at a higher risk of loss of memory or mental decline as they grow older. It also looks like that the infarcts are detached from the risk of a stroke, affirmed Doctor Kurth. The latter also wrote an editorial to accompany the second study. He writes that it would be early to make any conclusion regarding whether migraine has harmful effects on the brain.
He continues to explain that the lesions are clinically quite. It cannot be said with certainty whether they are harmful. According to him, based on actual knowledge, it can be assumed that they are not.
However what is sure is that some women who suffer from migraine with auras are at greater risks than others. For instance, smoking, high blood pressure, and using hormonal birth control or menopausal hormone therapy can actually augment the risk of a stroke.
Frederick Freitag, DO, of Diamond Headache Clinic and the National Headache Foundation, both in Chicago, states that women who suffer from migraines with auras can reduce their risk by adopting a lifestyle that comprises of exercising, eating healthy, and quitting smoking. He says that the stroke study is important to be kept in mind when the physicians are dealing with their patients. However he further adds that this study should not be taken as an alarm cry to the whole population.
It is still unclear as to why auras prove to be problematic and potentially more harmful than aura-free migraines. Since auras are basically neurological phenomena, it is yet unknown why they might influence the heart or increase the risk of heart attacks.
Doctor Kurth explains that it is an area of speculation. It is not sure what makes the auras so particular.
Source: Health
Sat, Feb 6, 2010
Gerontology, Health And Aging