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Migraine Sufferers Have Lower Breast Cancer Risk
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Jul 9, 09 1:00 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Finally, some good news for migraine sufferers: Those awful headaches come with a reduced risk of breast cancer, according to a new study. The researchers aren’t sure why that would be the case, but they suspect a connection with estrogen and other hormones. “It’s pretty clear that migraine, like breast cancer, is a hormonally related disease,” said one. “Many triggers for migraine are also things that reduce estrogen levels.”
The study, which gathered data from 4,568 women with breast cancer and 4,678 without, found women with a history of migraines were 26% less likely to develop breast cancer than non-sufferers. The ages of the subjects ranged from 34 to 64; in an earlier study with older women, the same team found risk decreased by 33%. “This looks like one more piece of evidence that prolonged high levels of estrogen are dangerous,” said an oncologist.