Bell’s palsy (facial paralysis) is twice as common in migraine sufferers

A report by Taiwanese doctors just published in the journal Neurology suggests that having migraine headaches may double the risk of Bell’s palsy.

Several medical conditions, such as asthma, anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, epilepsy, and other occur with higher frequency in migraineurs, but until now, no one suspected an association between migraines and Bell’s palsy.

The researchers compared two groups of 136,704 people aged 18 years and older – one group with migraine and the other without. They followed these two groups for an average of 3 years.

During that time, 671 people in the migraine group and 365 of the non-migraine group developed Bell’s palsy.

This association persisted even after other factors such as sex, high blood pressure, and diabetes were taken into account.

The authors speculated that the inflammation and the blood vessel problems seen in both conditions may explain this association.

This study appears to be of purely academic interest since we do not know how to prevent Bell’s palsy. However, I decided to write about it because a couple of my colleagues (one in our office and at least one other on a doctors’ discussion board) reported seeing Bell’s palsy soon after administering Botox injections for chronic migraines. This report by Taiwanese doctors suggests that Bell’s palsy might have been not due to Botox, but rather a coincidence since Bell’s palsy is more common in migraine sufferers.