Migraines and weight

February 3, 2009

Both overweight and underweight people are more likely to have migraine headaches, according to a recent study published in journal Cephalalgia. Being overweight has been shown to increase the risk of chronic migraines in a previous large study, but the discovery of the link between being too thin and migraines is new. These findings do not mean that regaining normal weight will lead to improvement in headaches, but only that there is an association. This is not to say that we do not encourage our overweight patients to lose weight. The best way to achieve this is not only by dieting, but also by engaging in frequent aerobic exercise, which has been found to be associated with fewer migraine headaches.

Written by
Alexander Mauskop, MD
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Insights from Dr. Alexander Mauskop on headaches and migraines
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