AMSTERDAM: A new study has found that high blood pressure may increase women’s risk of migraines.
High blood pressure may increase the odds of migraines in women, researchers reported in the journal Neurology. High diastolic blood pressure in particular is associated with a higher risk of migraine in women.
Diastolic pressure is the second component of blood pressure and occurs when the heart is at rest between two beats.
Research has found that other heart health risk factors do not seem to increase the risk of migraines, although migraines have been linked to a higher chance of stroke, heart attack or heart disease.
“Our study looked at known risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, smoking, obesity and high cholesterol, and only high diastolic blood,” said researcher and professor Antoinette Massen van den Brink of the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Female participants with hypertension were found to have an increased likelihood of migraine.
