“In mice, the damage from these episodes looks exactly like the damage that occurs to the brain from repeated TIAs, or transient ischemic attacks,?said Takano. “It’s long been known that patients having a migraine attack are functionally impaired from the pain. It’s also been shown recently that with repeated migraines, a person’s cognitive abilities decrease. But actually doing damage to the brain ?that is a surprise.?
Deborah Friedman, M.D., a neurologist who was not involved in the study, says that a few studies have found that people who get auras with their migraines are at increased risk for vascular problems like heart attack and stroke. The Women’s Health Initiative, for instance, found that such women had a 50 to 70 percent higher risk of stroke compared to other women. And a study led by Michel Ferrari of Leiden University in the Netherlands showed that in women under the age of 45, those who suffered from migraines were much more likely to have the type of brain damage done by a stroke, even though they had never reported symptoms of stroke.
Friedman, a member of the board of directors of the American Headache Society who has treated thousands of headache sufferers, echoes Nedergaard’s call for a greater emphasis on prevention.
“It’s astounding just how many migraine sufferers do not see a doctor and are not on a medication to prevent a recurrence,?said Friedman, professor of Ophthalmology and Neurology. “It’s estimated that less than 20 percent of people who should be on preventive trea
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Source:University of Rochester Medical Center