Women suffering from migraine have lower diabetes risk : JAMA

France: Women suffering from migraines are at significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), finds a study of more than 74,000 French women.

The finding, published in the journal JAMA Neurology, is surprising because migraine has "been associated with insulin resistance," the metabolic condition that underlies T2D. The study suggests a lower risk of T2D among women who reported current migraines compared with women having no history of painful headaches.

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Migraine is an intermittent painful neurologic headache disorder with an estimated 1-year prevalence of 15% to 18%; it has been shown to be more common in women of reproductive age, with a declining prevalence after menopause.

Guy Fagherazzi, National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Villejuif, France, and colleagues evaluated the association between migraine and the incidence of T2D as well as the evolution of the prevalence of active migraine before and after T2D diagnosis.

The study involved a group of more than 74,000 French women insured by a health plan that mostly covered teachers and who were followed up by questionnaire.

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Key Findings:

• During 10 years of follow-up, 2372 incident type 2 diabetes cases occurred.


• A lower risk of T2D was observed for women with active migraine compared with women with no migraine history.


• There was a linear decrease in active migraine prevalence from 22% to 11% during the 24 years prior to diabetes diagnosis, after adjustment for potential type 2 diabetes risk factors.


• A plateau of migraine prevalence around 11% was then observed for 22 years after diagnosis.

This was an observational study. Researchers didn't intervene for purposes of the study and they cannot control all the factors that could explain the study findings.

"The results of this study could have implications on the understanding of the underlying causes of these two common conditions and more research is needed to understand potential reasons that could explain these findings," concluded the authors.

For further reference follow the link: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2018.3960