Women who suffer from migraine are likely to have high blood pressure, according to a new study. High blood pressure causes the heart, other organs and blood vessels to work harder than it should to supply your body with enough blood.
This can cause damage and put you at risk of many serious health conditions, such as heart disease, kidney disease, strokes, heart failure and heart attacks.
However, many people do not even realise they have it as it is often symptomless. This is why high blood pressure is often known as a ‘silent killer’.
In the new study, researchers found that having the condition, specifically high diastolic blood pressure, was linked to higher odds of having the debilitating headaches that can cause severe throbbing pain. Diastolic pressure is when the heart is resting between beats.
The study did not find an increased risk between other cardiovascular risk factors and migraines, however. Study author Professor Antoinette Maassen van den Brink said: “Previous research shows that migraine is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart disease and heart attack.
“But less is known about how risk factors for cardiovascular events relate to having migraine. Our study looked at well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as diabetes, smoking, obesity and high cholesterol and found an increased odds of having migraine only in female participants with higher diastolic blood pressure.”
The study, published by the journal Neurology, involved 7,266 men and women with an average age of 67 years, of whom 15% had previous or current migraine. All the participants underwent physical exams and provided blood samples.
They were also asked questions about migraines. These questions included asking if they had ever experienced a headache with severe pain that affected their daily activities.
After adjusting for multiple cardiovascular risk factors such as physical activity, as well as education level, the research team found female participants with higher diastolic blood pressure were 16% more likely to have migraine per standard deviation increase in diastolic blood pressure. An increase per standard deviation is a measure to compare the diastolic blood pressure with other cardiovascular risk factors.
But no associations were found for systolic blood pressure. Prof van den Brink said the findings to the theory that migraine is associated with a slightly reduced function of the small blood vessels rather than a reduced function of the large blood vessels.
There were no associations for female participants with high cholesterol or obesity, and smoking was associated with 28% lower odds of having migraine and diabetes with 26% lower odds of having migraine. Prof van den Brink said: “These results should be interpreted with caution, as they do not prove that smoking causes a lower risk of migraine.
“Instead, smoking might trigger migraine attacks and therefore, people who choose to smoke are less likely to be people who have migraine.” The research team found no associations between cardiovascular risk factors and migraine in the male participants.
Prof van den Brink added: “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.”
