Diego Sousai
Diego Sousa https://istoe.com.br/autor/diego-sousa/
03/27/2024 – 1:12
Here’s another headache for millennials and Gen Z: If they suffer from migraines, they may face a higher risk of stroke, new research finds.
The study authors found that non-traditional stroke risk factors such as migraines, blood clotting disorders, kidney failure and autoimmune diseases were “significantly associated” with stroke incidence in adults under 45.
“These findings are significant because most of our attention has focused on traditional risk factors,” lead author Dr. Michelle Leppert, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in a statement.
“We should not ignore non-traditional stroke risk factors and focus only on traditional risk factors; both are important for the development of stroke among young people,” she added.
Traditional risk factors for stroke include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, tobacco use, obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse and coronary heart disease.
Leppert’s team used Colorado health insurance claims from 2012 to 2019 to compare data from more than 2,600 people who had strokes with more than 7,800 people who didn’t.
Among adults under age 35, more strokes were associated with nontraditional risk factors (31% in men and about 43% in women) than with traditional risk factors (about 25% in men and more than 33 % in women).
The researchers found that migraine was the most important non-traditional stroke risk factor in this age group, leading to 20% of strokes in men and almost 35% in women.
“There are many studies demonstrating the association between migraines and stroke, but as far as we know, this study may be the first to demonstrate how much stroke risk can be attributed to migraines,” Leppert said.
Migraine is a neurological disorder often characterized by a severe headache – the American Migraine Foundation estimates that at least 40 million Americans live with the disease.
And more than 795,000 Americans experience a stroke every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 71 being the most common age for men and 76 for women.
However, strokes are increasing in younger people. Kid Cudi, 40, for example, said he had one in 2016. Hailey Bieber, 27, said she suffered a “mini stroke” in 2022.
“In fact, the younger they are at the time of the stroke, the more likely it is that the stroke is due to a nontraditional risk factor,” Leppert said of young adults. “We need to better understand the mechanisms underlying these non-traditional risk factors to develop targeted interventions.”
The latest research finds that traditional stroke risk factors peak among adults ages 35 to 44, accounting for nearly 33% of strokes in men and about 40% in women.
Among people aged 45 to 55, high blood pressure was the most important traditional risk factor for stroke.
Non-traditional risk factors accounted for more than 19% of strokes in men and nearly 28% in women in this Gen X group.
Leppert’s research was published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
She acknowledged that limitations of the study include a lack of information about the race and ethnicity of participants and that the data comes from a region affected by altitude, which “may create unique conditions.”
