Type 2 diabetes: How do migraines affect risk?
Women with current migraine have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a recent large observational study.
The study also found that migraine declined in the years preceding a diabetes diagnosis.
Although migraine and type 2 diabetes are both common conditions, data on a link between the two "are scarce," say the researchers.
They describe their findings in a paper that now features in the journal JAMA Neurology.
For their investigation, they analyzed survey data on more than 70,000 women living in France who were members of a health insurance scheme and in the E3N Prospective Cohort Study.
The women had filled in health and lifestyle questionnaires every few years between 1990 and 2014. These included questions about migraines.
Information on diagnosed type 2 diabetes came from the insurance scheme's drug reimbursement database.
The analysis revealed that women with active migraine had an approximate 30 percent decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with women with no history of migraine headaches.
The investigators defined active migraine as having experienced migraine in the period since the last survey.
Need to understand underlying mechanisms
First and corresponding author Dr. Guy Fagherazzi of the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in France and colleagues call for further research to "focus on understanding the mechanisms involved in explaining these findings."
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, headache disorders (consisting mainly of migraine), are the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Diabetes is the fourth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that migraine affects "at least 1 in 7 adults" worldwide, with women nearly three times more likely to develop them than men.
While the condition mostly affects those in the 35-45 year age group, it can also affect others, including children.
In their discussion of the results, Dr. Fagherazzi and his colleagues speculate on what might underpin the link between migraine and type 2 diabetes.
One mechanism that they suggest is the activity of a molecule called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) that is common in the development of migraine and is also involved in glucose metabolism.
"It has been reported," they write, "that rats with experimentally induced diabetes have a decreased density of CGRP sensory nerve fibers."
