Two Sides To A Coin: Women and Migraine

You know that moment when you feel like the light in the room is too bright and your head starts to feel all heavy, and before you know it you have this pounding headache. If you have migraines you know exactly what I am talking about. Every time I am having a migraine attack I just want to grab a hammer and nail something in my head to make the excruciating pain go away. Alright, maybe you don’t have it as extreme as I do. However, if you have ever experienced a migraine you probably felt that way at least once.

Despite all, I guess there is partially some good news with migraines, especially for women. Recently, a study found that changes in the brain caused by migraines are not related to impaired cognition; however, women with migraines were more likely to have brain changes. So the researchers conducted standardized measure to measure cognitive abilities, which they stated included or tested memory, concentration and attention. They found that there was no significant loss in cognitive abilities, neither in men nor in women who had migraine-associated lesions. Moreover, the brain changes were recorded via MRI, these changes can be seen as bright spots, which are known as hyperintensities which were found in the white matter, brainstem, and cerebellum. Of the 300 men and women who were followed for nine years, men who suffered from migraines did not show any significant changes. However, women were twice as more likely to have increased white matter changes over the course of multiple migraine attack. Moreover, the researchers stated that the changes are due to accumulated attacks and it’s an ongoing process rather than new changes with every new attack. According to the researchers, these findings are in line with other research that indicates that migraines in women are related to small blood vessel changes.

I guess the good news is that even though the migraines are so hurtful, they are not hurting my cognitive abilities. However, I am still concerned because there are still white matter changes that are evident. The fact that they have observed white matter changes in the brainstem is further alarming because the brainstem is very important when it comes to cardiovascular functions such as breathing, heartbeat, etc. I am worried because what if these changes have a negative effect on the brainstem, which could possibly cause disruption in cardiovascular functions. Similarly, the cerebellum has so much to do with balance, and disruption could lead to imbalance. Another major concern is stroke as the researchers stated that this could be due to changes in small blood vessel. I am glad to hear that the cognitive abilities are intact and there is no significant loss that we should be concerned with; however, those suffering from migraines still have no relief because the changes in white matter does not sound very pleasing either. I am looking forward to more research on these finding as I would like to know further what changes and damages occur due to my once a week massive headache.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/news_and_events/news_articles/migraine_study_111312.htm