Read in | English | Español | Français | Deutsch | Português | Italiano | 日本語 | 한국어 | 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | العربية | Dansk | Nederlands | Filipino | Finnish | Ελληνικά | עִבְרִית | हिन्दी | Bahasa | Norsk | Русский | Svenska | Magyar | Polski | Română | Türkçe

Migraine and the Heart

The risk of stroke may be increased two- to threefold in migraine sufferers. Young adult sufferers and women using hormonal contraception appear to be at particular risk.

The mechanism of any association is unclear, but chronic abnormalities of cerebral blood vessel tone may be involved.

Women who experience auras have been found to have twice the risk of strokes and heart attacks over non-aura migraine sufferers and women who do not have migraines.

Migraine sufferers seem to be at risk for both thrombotic and hemorrhagic stroke as well as transient ischemic attacks.

Death from cardiovascular causes was higher in people with migraine with aura in a Women's Health Initiative study, but more research is needed to confirm this.

Further Reading


This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Migraine" All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Wikipedia® itself is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.