Could your risk for a heart attack be tied to whether or not you suffer from migraines?

Here’s some news that might make your migraines worse:  They increase your risk for heart attack.

That’s according to a new study reported in the medical journal Neurology.  Researchers from the University Hospital Essen in Germany studied more than 11,000 adults living in the U.S., half of them battling migraines fairly regularly.  When the researchers looked into their heart health, they found that those that suffered migraines were more likely to have suffered a heart attack or heart-related malady.

This shouldn’t be the source of too much alarm, though.  After all, of the 6,100 people with migraines, just four percent of them had a heart attack or stroke (the rate of heart attack or stroke was two percent among the remaining 5,200 participants).

So if the risk heart attack isn’t really significant, then you may be wondering why I would bother to mention this in the first place.  After all, why bother reporting it if the risk isn’t very high?  People can just treat them with painkillers and the heart risk goes away, right?  Not exactly.

According to researchers, treating your migraine with painkillers may put you at an even greater risk for cardiovascular-related problems.

In an October issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, a Harvard Medical School publication devoted to information about pharmaceutical-based pain relievers, NSAIDs often cause the blood vessels to constrict.  They can also cause blockages to form inside the arteries through the production of smooth muscle cells.

And in a separate study published in 2008 in the pages of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers concluded that all NSAIDs increase a person’s heart risk.  Quite the statement to make, but after a review of 8,850 people who’d suffered heart attacks, they found that the likelihood of their having a heart attack was tied to the dosage and the length of time the drugs were taken.

NSAIDs—or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs—are a class of drugs often taken by migraine sufferers for relief.  You may recall that Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 when clinical studies revealed they increased a person’s risk for heart attack and stroke. It’s maker, Merck, remains embroiled in lawsuits five years later.

For more information on the natural options that are out there for migraine relief, please peruse the section of my web site devoted to migraine relief.

While the choice of pharmaceutical medication or natural treatment is a decision best left between you and your doctor, naturally treating your migraines is something you ought to least try.  As the saying goes, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Sources:
foxnews.com
health.harvard.edu
braytonlaw.com
nj.com

Indoor cycling has shown to be an effective migraine treatment, study concludes.

Describing what a migraine feels like is sort of like describing what salt tastes like; it’s next to impossible without having experienced it first.  I’ve never had a migraine, and as difficult as it is for me to fully appreciate just how painful it is, I’ve watched people writhe in agony while in the throes of a migraine episode.  Believe you me, it wasn’t pretty.

For an estimated 30 million Americans, these ugly episodes are commonplace and almost anything triggers them.  From traffic lights to strobe lights, chocolate to cheese, television screens to movie screens, there’s no one cause; it’s different for just about everyone.

Whatever triggers them, the results are the same:  blood flow in the brain is reduced, leading to less oxygen flow, leading to restricted arteries.  It’s a big domino effect that severely impacts quality of life.

Most researchers believe that the trick to reversing a migraine is to increase blood flow to the brain.  Exercise sounds like it would do the trick, but oddly enough, past research has found that even a blood flow stimulator like exercise triggers migraines.

But according to research conducted earlier this year, there may be one exercise that reduces their frequency:  indoor cycling.

According to research published in the appropriately titled The Journal of Head and Face Pain, researchers say indoor cyclers, all of whom suffered from frequent migraines, reported having fewer migraines once they started an indoor cycling exercise program.

Here’s how the study broke down.  It involved 26 people, all of whom suffered from frequent migraines.  Over a 12-week period, they all participated in a controlled indoor cycling exercise program, cycling three times a week.  An oxygen-intake assessment was made at the start and at the end of the study.

After three months, amazingly, 24 of the 26 participants reported having fewer migraine episodes.  Not only that, but they didn’t have to take as much medication to treat them when they arose.  And when they did arise, they were less intense!

The researchers believe the benefit to cycling, besides the cardiovascular benefit, lies in indoor cycling’s apparent ability to increase oxygen intake.  At the start of the study, average oxygen intake was 32.9mL/kg/minute.  By the end, it increased to an average of 36.2mL/kg/minute.

The study was published in The Journal of Head and Face Pain and led by Dr. Emma Varkey of the Cephalea Headache Center in Sweden.

Indoor cycling is a great way to exercise.  It’s non-weight bearing, so people with bad knees or weak joints can get their hearts revved up without aggravating sore joints.  And as this study suggests, it could be just the trick to treating migraines.  Give it a try, and let me know if it works for you.

Sources:
emaxhealth.com
sciencedaily.com
cureresearch.com

Martin Kopp, MD and his team at Innsbrook Medical University chose thirty women who were also migraine patients to participate in their study. They were split into two groups; half were asked to continue on with their normal treatments while the rest were given a new exercise routine to follow. Twice a week for forty-five minutes each they were to do aerobic exercise and then afterwards were told to do fifteen minutes worth of muscle relaxation.

The study lasted six weeks.  The women who were involved in the exercise/relaxation method yielded positive results.  Not only did they report to have had less migraine pain than the other women, but also claimed to have less depressed symptoms.  Kopp and his team claim the logic behind these results lies with the self-efficacy one feels during physical activity and other means of coping that are not medicine based. 

Another study was done in Austria.  Researchers there used fifteen migraine suffers and added a similar regime of exercise and relaxation to care for their pain.  The results there were the same, with an overall report of the improvement of intensity.  Although neither study proves that this method can prevent getting migraines once and for all, it does suggest a very valid treatment of the pain that does not involve the intake of drugs.

In addition to Koop’s research, Coenzyme Q₁₀ may also be a helpful option, but this time in the prevention of migraines.  It is an enzyme that is naturally found within mitochondria and plays an essential part in producing energy.  It is known to reduce inflammation, lower high blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce the impairment caused by Parkinson’s disease. 

Research done in 2002 also cites CoQ₁₀ as a way to help prevent migraines.  A reported sixty-one percent of participants treated with the enzyme had fifty percent fewer migraine headaches at the end of one month’s time.  It is an effective alternative to drugs due to the belief that migraines are caused by cells’ inability to produce energy.  As previously mentioned CoQ₁₀ is an energy producer in cells.