BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- People who suffer from migraines are also likely to have risk factors for heart  

People who suffer from migraines have a higher cardiovascular risk profile than similar people who don't have these debilitating headaches, according to a new report. This is especially true for patients with migraines involving an aura.

disease, a new study shows.

    Published in the medical journal Neurology, the study conducted by Dr. Ann Scher, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues compared 620 migraine patients with those of 5135 "control" subjects without migraine.

    "Migraine, particularly migraine with aura, is known to be associated with an increased risk of stroke," said lead author Ann

    In terms of standard risk scores, migraine patients were about twice as likely as controls to be at elevated risk for heart disease, the investigators report.

    The report said "further research is warranted to determine why migraineurs have these risk factors more frequently than nonmigraineurs and the nature of the additional mechanism that predisposes these individuals to early-onset cardiovascular disease."  Enditem

    (Agencies)