Several studies suggest a link between migraine and cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart disease, and heart attack. However, less is understood about how cardiovascular risk factors and migraine relate. In the current study, researchers investigated how well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease relate to migraine incidence.
For the study, the researchers conducted cross-sectional analyses of 7,266 people with an average age of 67 years old enrolled in an ongoing population-based cohort study. Around 15% of participants had previous or current migraine. From interviews, physical examinations, and blood samples, the researchers obtained information about their lifetime prevalence of migraine as well as cardiovascular risk factors: current smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes.
Ultimately, the researchers found that each standard deviation increase in diastolic blood pressure was linked to a 16% higher chance of having migraine among women with higher diastolic blood pressure. Similar associations were not found for other risk factors, nor for men.
The researchers also found that among females, current smoking and diabetes were linked to a 28% and 26% lower incidence of migraine. In a press release, study author, Antoinette Maassen van den Brink, PhD, of Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, noted that the findings do not prove that smoking reduces migraine risk. Smoking may instead trigger migraines, meaning that people who choose to smoke are less likely to have migraine.
"Our study suggests that overall, migraine is not directly related to traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Because we looked at people who were middle-age and older, future studies are needed in younger groups of people who are followed for longer periods of time,” she added.
A limitation of the findings is that only a small number of male participants had migraine. Maassen van den Brink noted that this may help explain why no associations between cardiovascular risk factors and migraine were found among male participants.
Sources: Science Daily, Neurology
