Had Migraine Headache in Middle Age? You May Get Parkinson’s Disease Later: Study

Middle aged people who get frequent migraine headaches are likely to get Parkinson's disease in later years, according to a study.

Migraine headaches are not only painful and discomforting but also induce sensitivity for light and cause nausea. These conditions are more common in women than in men. Recently , experts from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda discovered people who complain of migraine headaches during middle age have high risk of developing Parkinson's disease. The research team looked at the health records of over 5,600 Icelandic people aged between 33 and 65 and followed them for more than two decades. The scientists also recorded participants' family history of Parkinson's or its symptoms.

Before the trial, around 4,000 subjects did not suffer from any headaches and 1,028 participants had non-migraine headaches, around 238 had migraine with no aura while the remaining 430 had migraine with aura.

At the end of the study, subjects who had migraine with aura in middle age were twice likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's compared to those who never had headaches. This group also reported experiencing symptoms of the disease while participants who endured migraine without aura showed over 2.5 times higher probability of Parkinson's.

Parkinson's disease or restless leg syndrome is a result of abnormalities of a brain chemical called dopamine, which is also linked to migraine headaches. The authors believe further research is needed to identify a genetic link between the conditions.

"Previous studies noted that migraine, particularly migraine with aura, was linked to cardiovascular disease and stroke, so there's increasing interest in whether these linkages might manifest in other neurological symptoms later in life," said Ann Scher, study author and professor of epidemiology at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, reports the Healthday.

"The idea that a history of migraine headaches has something to do with Parkinson's is intriguing, but there's not a lot of scientific data right now that would support that notion," said Michael Okun, national medical director of the National Parkinson Foundation, reports the Healthday.

More information is available online in the journal Neurology.