Asthma and chronic migraine

Asthma is more common in migraine sufferers and migraine is more common in those who suffer from asthma (the medical term is co-morbid conditions). A new study published in Headache examines a possible connection between asthma and chronic migraine. Migraine is considered chronic if headache occurs on 15 or more days each month.

This co-morbidity between migraine and asthma is thought to be due to the fact that both conditions involve inflammation, disturbance of the autonomic nervous system, and possibly shared genetic and environmental factors. What is not mentioned in the report is the fact that intravenous magnesium can relieve both an acute migraine (in up to 50% of migraine sufferers who are deficient in magnesium) and a severe asthma attack. This suggests another possible explanation for the co-morbidity. Magnesium deficiency may also explain, at least in part, co-morbidity between migraine and fibromyalgia and vascular disorders.

The Headache report was one of many based on the outcomes of the large and long-term American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention study (AMPP). Study participants had to meet criteria for episodic migraine in 2008, complete an asthma questionnaire in 2008, and provide follow-up information in 2009. The researchers counted the number of these patients who developed chronic migraine a year later. The sample for this study included 4446 individuals with episodic migraine in 2008 of whom 17% had asthma. The mean age was 50 and 81% were female. In 2009, of the patients who had episodic migraines and asthma, 5.4% developed chronic migraine, compared to only 2.5% of those without asthma. So, having asthma doubles the risk of episodic migraine becoming chronic within a year. There was also a correlation between the severity of asthma and the risk of developing chronic migraine.

What we don’t know is whether aggressive treatment of asthma and migraines will reduce the risk of chronification of migraines. It is also possible that simple magnesium supplementation may have a protective effect.