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Asthma Patients Doubly Vulnerable To Migraine
Those who are afflicted by asthma would be twice as likely to be affected by migraine attacks rather than others, says a recent study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Montefiore Headache Center, explains scienceworldreport.
"If you have asthma along with episodic or occasional migraine, then your headaches are more likely to evolve into a more disabling form known as chronic migraine," Dr. Vincent Martin, a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati explained in a news release.
"The strength of the relationship is robust -- asthma was a stronger predictor of chronic migraine than depression, which other studies have found to be one of the most potent conditions associated with the future development of chronic migraine," he said.
The study was conducted on 4,446 people of an average of 50.4 years, of whom 80.8 percent were women. They were divided into two groups---those who had asthma and those who did not suffer from it.
In surveys taken in 2008 and 2009, the authors posed questions about "depression, frequency of episodic migraines and headaches, medication use and smoking status".
"In this study, persons with episodic migraine and asthma at baseline were more than twice as likely to develop chronic migraine after one year of follow-up as compared to those with episodic migraine but not asthma," Martin said.
Asthmatic patients seemed to be more prone to chronic migraines, more than those who suffered from depression. It was the biggest risk that could make a person suffer from migraine. The survey conducted in 2008 revealed that 17 percent of participants said they were patients of asthma, with 2.9 percent of those who took the 2008 survey said that they developed chronic migraines by the 2009 survey. It was discovered that among all these, 5.4 percent were patients of asthma in 2008, while 2.5 percent of the patients were not affected by it.
The study was published in the journal Headache.
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