Being pregnant comes with an increase in risk to the health of you and your unborn child. Today we look at the connection between migraines during pregnancy and how this affects you and your babys health.
Experiencing migraines while pregnant has been linked to an increase in the chance of having a stroke, according to a study in the United States. It found that you were fifteen times more likely to have a stroke compared to woman who were not pregnant.
Data was collected from over thirty three thousand pregnant women who were also diagnosed with migraines.
Age was a determining factor, as women over the age of 40 were nearly two and a half times more likely to suffer from a migraine than women under the age of twenty. White women were also more likely to experience migraines during pregnancy than any other race or ethnicity.
There has also been a connection between migraines and an increase in heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, blood clots and high cholesterol. It has been suggested that the migraine indicates that there may be problems with the cardiovascular system.
The conductors of the study found the most likely reason for the results was the connection between physical changes in the body, such as an increase in the amount of blood and faster heart rate, which puts an added strain on the vascular system.
Other research has shown that the endothelial cells, that form the inside wall of blood vessels, do not operate as well in woman who experience migraines while pregnant.
Migraines, especially those linked with an aura or visual changes around the time of the headache, have been previously linked to stroke and heart disease in women. This study continues to validate the connection between the two.
If you are worried about headaches during pregnancy and would like to gain more knowledge then you can get all the information you need from pregnancy headaches.