Men and women who suffer from migraines have a higher risk of suffering from the most common type of stroke, a study has found.
Research has also shown that women with migraines may also be at increased risk of heart attacks and haemorrhages (bleeding in or around the brain).
People diagnosed with migraines are thought to be at increased risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke before the age of 60. Previous research has shown that ischemic stroke (in which an artery to the brain is blocked) affects mostly young women.
However, it is not clear whether women with migraine have a higher risk of heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke than men.
Cecilia Figelsing of Aarhus University in Denmark and her team collected Danish people aged 18 to 60 from 1996 to 2018.
Medical records were reviewed. The review compared the risk of heart attack and ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke before age 60 in men and women with a history of migraine with the risk in the general population without migraine.
Migraine was associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke in men and women alike, Cecilia Figelsing said. However, migraines in women may be associated with increased risks of heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke.
