Connection between migraines and the risk of dementia
Recently a new study was published in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. The researchers from University of Waterloo claimed that migraines increased the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Generally speaking, migraines cause negative impact to almost 20% of the women and 8% of men globally. Patients who have headaches often complaint fatigue, tiredness and loss of concentration which make them have poor social, work and home performance.
After the 5 year follow-up study, subjects developed dementia (7.5%), vascular dementia (1.9%) and Alzheimer’s disease (5.1%). The study found that migraines were associated with significantly increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Close to 24% of subjects with history of migraines developed Alzheimer’s disease compared to 9.9% of cognitive intact subjects.
Researchers concluded that subjects who developed Alzheimer’s disease were 4 times more likely to have a history of migraines. However, vascular dementia was not significantly associated with a history of migraines.
In this study, subjects were mainly older female patients. Subjects who developed dementia, vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, were older, received less education and were more likely to have a stroke compared to cognitively intact subjects.
Chronic migraine sufferers have significantly higher amount of inflammation and reduced blood flow to the brain. These characteristics are connected as some potential causes for dementia.
The study pointed out that identifying the risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease could help to optimize the Alzheimer’s disease therapy.
For more information, please visit Geriatric Psychiatry.
Questions: If you are a sufferer, how do you manage your migraines? Do you have effective strategies for prevention as well?
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