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 Researchers analyzed data from 115,541 female nurses aged 25 to 42
who entered the study in 1989 and were followed through June 2011.
Initially, 17,531 women said they had a diagnosis of migraine from a
doctor. Another 6,389 reported a migraine diagnosis during the 20
years of follow up.
During that time, there were also 1,329 cardiovascular events like
heart attacks and strokes and 223 deaths related to cardiovascular
disease among the women.
Women diagnosed with migraine were more likely to have high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, a family history of heart attacks, to be
smokers and be overweight.
After accounting for risk factors that may influence the women's
risk for cardiovascular events, the researchers found women with
migraines were 50 percent more likely to develop cardiovascular
disease than women without the severe headaches.
The results are similar to those from a study of older U.S. women
working in the health field, but limited to those who had migraines
with aura. For the new study, the researchers didn't know if the
women experienced migraine with aura.
Lead author Tobias Kurth, director of the Institute of Public Health
Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany, said women
shouldn't be scared by the new results. It's not known, he said,
whether treating migraines would decrease the risk of cardiovascular
events.
"We certainly hope we have the opportunity to study this, but at
this point there is not data to make such statement," he said.
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In an editorial, Drs. Rebecca Burch and Melissa Rayhill say the new
study also raises the question of whether women with migraine should
be treated with aspirin or cholesterol-lowering medicines called
statins.
One analysis found that women with migraine who took aspirin
actually had an increased risk of heart attack, they added.
"Thus, what little evidence we do have suggests the need for
therapeutic restraint until we have a better understanding of the
mechanisms underlying the link between migraine and vascular
disease," wrote Burch, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and
Rayhill, of the State University of New York at Buffalo.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1P8yDuR and http://bit.ly/1P8xZO5 BMJ, online
May 31, 2016.
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