Migraine Headaches With Aura Can Double Stroke Risk

Young women who smoke and use birth control pills may be susceptible to getting migraine headaches with aura.

Medical researchers advise that those with the combination of conditions should stop smoking and using birth control pills because new findings reveal they may increase their risk of stroke.

People who suffer migraine headaches with aura experience visual disturbances before or during the migraine.  For these individuals, the medical scientists found that the risk for ischemic stroke is doubled. Being female, under 45, smoking and using oral contraceptives that contain estrogen added to the risk.   Studies were conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

According to the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance, the national organization that tracks data on strokesm heart attacks and cancer, an ischemic stroke is caused by a blockage in a blood vessel. The connection between migraine and stroke was already suspected executives note. What was unknown was the extent of risk and who is most at risk. 

Migraine headaches affect up to 20 percent of the U.S. population. Women are up to four times more likely than men to get migraines, and as many as one third also experience an aura before or during a migraine. 

Migraine with aura is associated with a twofold increased risk for ischemic stroke compared to people without migraine.  The report notes that migraine without aura does not appear to change the risk. 

The report is published in the Oct. 27 online edition of the British Medical Journal confirms that the risk appears to be highest among women with migraine with aura who smoke and use oral contraceptives.  The medical reserachers add that migraine alone does not appear to alter the risk for heart attack and death from cardiovascular disease.