Migraine Study Brings Men New Headaches
Men with migraines at higher risk of heart disease
Nov. 15, 2006— -- It's not as if migraine sufferers need another headache, but a new study suggests that men who suffer from migraines are at a higher risk of heart problems.
According to the new study, men who experience migraine attacks have a 24 percent increased risk of suffering from major cardiovascular problems and a 42 percent increased risk of suffering a heart attack.
The results of the study, presented at the 2006 American Heart Association meeting in Chicago, reflected the research on 20,084 men who participated in the Physicians' Health Study.
The research complements an older study that found that women who suffer from migraines are also more likely to experience major cardiovascular disease.
"This study and the study in women support the hypothesis that migraine is associated with heart disease," says Dr. Tobias Kurth, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who led the study.
"The exact reason why migraine may lead to cardiovascular disease, however, is not clear. Suspected mechanisms include an increase in factors that can result in blood clots, as well a genetic factor that can increase homocysteine levels, placing them at higher risk for cardiovascular disease."
"If someone has a migraine, they should be alerted to this new information, that they may be at risk of a heart attack at a higher level than other people," says Dr. Bob Bonow, chairman of the division of cardiology at Northwestern University Medical School and a past president of the American Heart Association.
"They should know the risk factors, and those risk factors should be controlled, perhaps more aggressively than they are being controlled already."
Though the exact nature of the link between migraines and heart disease remains uncertain, evidence suggests that persons who suffer from migraines are at increased risk for hypertension, or high blood pressure, diabetes and hyperlipidemia, which includes conditions such as high blood cholesterol, according to Dr. Richard Lipton, professor of neurology and epidemiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of the Montefiore Headache Center, although that "does not fully explain the association," he says.
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