syrinx

Folks at WebMD tell me that middle aged men with migraines (great name for a band, BTW), are at increased risk for heart attacks.

Middle-aged men who suffer from migraine headaches are 42% more likely to have a heart attack when compared with nonsufferers, according to a new analysis of the 20,084 men participating in the Physicians' Health Study.

"Until we understand more about the association between migraines and heart disease, patients with migraines should think about how to mitigate other known heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol levels, smoking, and obesity," says researcher Tobias Kurth, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The study comes on the heels of other research by Kurth and colleagues that showed that older women with migraines -- especially those accompanied by neurologic visual disturbances known as aura -- had a higher risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease.

tags: migraine cardiacarrest