Study Finds That Migraines Increase Stroke Risk

by | Jul 1, 2008 | 2008, Brain Health, Stroke

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Study found has that having a migraine significantly increases your risk for stroke, building on a 2006 study showing that migraines increase heart attack risk in men.

Migraine headaches affect more than 28 million Americans, with one in every four households having a migraine sufferer (1). The cost to society imposed by migraines is also significant: migraine sufferers lose an average of four to six work days each year, totaling 64 to 150 million work days each year and costing almost $17 billion (2). Migraines are also present in children, affecting as many as 13 percent of them (3).

Now a new study (4) has found that having a migraine significantly increases your risk for stroke, building on a 2006 study (5) showing that migraines increase heart attack risk in men.

In the study, researcher accessed a British General Practice Research Database (GPRD) containing computerized medical records of some 3 million people (6). The database includes information on patient demographics (age, gender), diagnoses, drug prescriptions, referrals, and hospital admissions as well as some lifestyle information (e.g. smoking status) and has been validated repeatedly and proven to be of high quality (7). The researchers proceeded to compare 51,688 patients with migraines to 51,688 matched controls, nearly 72% of which were female.

The researchers found that not only did having a migraine more than double the risk for stroke,
it also more than doubled the risk of having a Transient Iscehmic Attach (TIA), which is a min-stroke that lasts only a few minutes when blood flow in the brain is temporarily interrupted (8). The researchers then found that triptans, a common new migraine headache medication that increases both the cost of treating migraines (9) but also the quality of life of those suffering from migraines (10, 11), did not increase stroke risk.

For the researchers, this study “provides further evidence for migraine as a risk factor for stroke and TIA with an approximately 2-fold increased risk for these outcomes.” For patients who wish to avoid taking migraine medications, research has found 150 mg of Coenzyme Q10 per day (12), 150 mg butterbur extract (13), and 500 mg magnesium per day (14) to help with mental health regarding migraines.

Source: Becker, Claudia, Gunnar P. Brobert, Per M. Almqvist, Saga Johansson, Susan S. Jick, and Christoph R. Meier. “Migraine and the risk of stroke, TIA, or death in the UK (CME).” Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain 47, no. 10 (2007): 1374-1384.

©The Authors Journal Compilation ©2007 American Headache Society

© 2007 the Authors

Journal compilation © 2007 American Headache Society

References:

  1. National Headache Foundation. NHF headache facts.
  2. Hu, X.H., et al., Burden of migraine in the United States: disability and economic costs. Arch Intern Med, 1999. 159(8): p. 813-8
  3. Abu-Arefeh I. Prevalence of headache and migraine in school children. British Medical Journal 1994; 309: 765-769
  4. Becker MSc. Migraine and the Risk of Stroke, TIA, or Death in the UK (CME). Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain 2007;47(10):1374–1384 doi:10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007.00937.x
  5. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; Chicago, Illinois, USA: 12–15 November 2006
  6. Jick H. A database worth saving. Lancet. 1997;350:1045-1046.
  7. Jick H, Jick SS, Derby LE. Validation of information recorded on general practitioner based computerised data resource in the United Kingdom. BMJ. 1991;302:766-768.
  8. “NINDS Transient Ischemic Attack” posted on the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website.
  9. Goldberg LD. The cost of migraine and its treatment. Am J Manag Care. 2005;11(2 Suppl.):S62-S67.
  10. Lainez MJ, Lopez A, Pascual AM. Effects on productivity and quality of life of rizatriptan for acute migraine: A workplace study. Headache. 2005;45:883-890.
  11. Dahlof C, Bouchard J, Cortelli P, et al. A multinational investigation of the impact of subcutaneous sumatriptan. II: Health-related quality of life. Pharmacoeconomics. 1997;11(Suppl.1):24-34.
  12. Rozen, T. D., M. L. Oshinsky, et al. (2002). “Open label trial of coenzyme Q10 as a migraine preventive.” Cephalalgia 22(2): 137-41
  13. Pothmann, R. Migraine Prevention in Children and Adolescents: Results of an Open Study With a Special Butterbur Root Extract. Headache 2005; 45(3): 196-203
  14. Wang, F., et al., Oral magnesium oxide prophylaxis of frequent migrainous headache in children: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Headache 2003; 43(6): 601-10