Migraine linked to lower breast cancer risk

Who knew the disruptive and debilitating migraine headaches maybe actually bestow protective effects. According to the results of a latest trail conducted by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, migraine headaches actually lower the risk of developing breast cancer among women.

Making things brighter, the longer the history of migraine the lower is the risk of developing breast cancer, the researchers touted.

As both migraine and breast cancer are hormonally mediated diseases, therefore it’s “biologically plausible” that migraine sufferers stand a reduced risk of breast cancer, researchers highlighted.

While low levels of estrogen, the primary female sex hormone, are typically associated with severe and frequent migraine attacks in women, breast cancer is directly linked to increased levels of the hormones.

A study of nearly 9,000 American women aged between 34 to 64 years revealed that women with a history of migraine are 26 percent less likely to develop breast cancer as compared to non-migraine sufferers.

Moreover, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen for alleviating migraine symptoms are also found to lower the breast cancer risk by 12 percent.

The study features in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.