Daily HealthBeat Tip

Hearts and headaches

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Migraines are bad enough, but here's something else: A risk of heart attack or stroke. Tobias Kurth at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital tells about a study that compared men who had migraines with those who did not.

"Men who reported a history of migraine had about a 24 percent increased risk of major cardiovascular disease events including ischemic stroke. Most of these results were driven by an about 40 percent increased risk of heart attacks." (12 seconds)

And the stroke risk affected men under 55 years of age.

Kurth's research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, and he reported it at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2006.

Kurth says there's not much people can do about the risk from migraines. But he says people can work on other risk factors, such high blood pressure.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 21, 2006

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