Suffer From Migraines? They May Have Damaged Your Brain

Isn't it bad enough to have a migraine?  Blinding pain, nausea, vomiting, flashing lights. Now new evidence is saying that they may affect brain structures, too. And the damage may not be over the minute a migraine is, according to newswise.com.

“Traditionally, migraine has been considered a benign disorder without long-term consequences for the brain,” the Web site quotes study author Messoud Ashina, MD, PhD, with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. “Our review and meta-analysis study suggests that the disorder may permanently alter brain structure in multiple ways.”

A new study has found that migraine raised the risk of brain lesions, white matter abnormalities and altered brain volume compared to people without the disorder. The association was even stronger in those with migraine with aura.

The results showed that migraine with aura increased the risk of white matter brain lesions by 68 percent and migraine with no aura increased the risk by 34 percent, compared to those without migraine. The risk for infarct-like abnormalities increased by 44 percent for those with migraine with aura compared to those without aura. Brain volume changes were more common in people with migraine and migraine with aura than those with no migraines.

"Migraine affects about 10 to 15 percent of the general population and can cause a substantial personal, occupational and social burden,” Ashina told newswise.com. “We hope that through more study, we can clarify the association of brain structure changes to attack frequency and length of the disease. We also want to find out how these lesions may influence brain function.”




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