Migraine sufferers face higher retina disease risk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Middle-aged people with a history of migraines and other serious headaches have an increased risk for an eye disease that can lead to blindness, according to a study published on Monday.
But researchers said the headaches were not necessarily causing the 30 to 50 percent greater risk they found for retinopathy.
"What I think this suggests is that there's probably the same problem that underlies both retinopathy and the headaches where there's some dysfunction or problems in the small blood vessels in the retina and the brain," the study's lead author, Kathryn Rose of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a telephone interview.
Retinopathy results from damage to blood vessels of the retina, a light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye, and is more common among people with diabetes or high blood pressure.
Diabetic retinopathy is the top cause of blindness in working-age Americans. The condition causes blurriness, a loss of night vision and can progress to total vision loss if untreated.
The researchers tracked the headache history and eye health of nearly 11,000 U.S. men and women between the ages of 51 and 71. Their findings were published in the journal Neurology.
Among people in the study without diabetes or high blood pressure, the association with retinopathy was even stronger, particularly among those who had migraines and other headaches that included visual disturbances.
The researchers found that the association between these headaches and retinopathy remained even after statistically accounting for factors like diabetes, high blood pressure, use of blood pressure medications and cigarette smoking.
Migraines, a particularly painful kind of recurring headache, often are marked by dizziness, nausea, vomiting or extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Women are three times more likely than men to get migraines.
Migraines affect about 17 percent of women and 6 percent of men in the United States and are more common among younger adults and women.
Previous research has found people with a history of migraines face heightened risk of other conditions including stroke and heart attack.
