Migraines May Be Helpful to Women
July 10, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
No one wants to have migraines, but the consolation is that they may help protect you from breast cancer!
Researchers aren’t exactly sure why or how, but there’s a clear link, newly confirmed by a follow-on study to research first published about the link last year. The link between migraines and breast cancer risk reduction has something to do with hormones, but researchers don’t yet understand the biological mechanisms taking place.
The new study, published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, shows that there’s a 26% reduced risk of breast cancer among women with a clinical diagnosis of migraines.
The current study goes beyond the original landmark study last year by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. This study included both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. The sample size of women in the new study is four times larger with more than 4,500 cases and controls. The age of women studied is 36-64 years.
Lead researcher and associate member of the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., believes that the migraines may stand alone as a protective factor, independent of other factors like smoking, drinking or use of hormones.
Researchers found that the breast cancer risk reduction associated with migraines remained similar whether or not a woman was in menopause and regardless of her age at migraine diagnosis or use or prescription migraine meds. Avoiding migraine triggers like smoking, hormone replacements and alcohol also had no effect on risk reduction.
If you suffer from migraines, does this study make you feel a little better?
(Image via stock.xhcng)
