Being either under or overweight may increase migraine risk

Conclusion The study results are clear: people who are obese have a moderately increased chance of getting migraine headaches, and people who are underweight have a small increased chance. However, the results don't tell us why that is. There are a few limitations to be aware of: More than half the studies used people's self-reported height and weight to calculate body mass index, which may have under-estimated the proportion of people who were overweight. Half the studies used people's self-report of migraine, rather than a medical diagnosis, which could have affected the accuracy of the results. There were substantial differences between the included studies, this reduces the reliability of the combined results. The link to weight is likely to be only one factor contributing to whether someone gets migraine, including genes inherited from parents. Lots of things have been identified as possible triggers for migraine headaches in those susceptible, including: hormonal changes (many women find they are more likely to get migraine around the time of their period) diet (some people report migraines after eating specific food such as cheese, or when they skip meals) emotional states such as anxiety, depression or shock tiredness and lack of sleep, or shift work environmental factors such as bright lights or changes in the weather While it's always a good idea to keep to a healthy weight (it's not called a healthy weight for nothing), we don't know fr...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Obesity Source Type: news