Fanny P Timm medical student, Timothy T Houle associate professor, Stephanie D Grabitz medical student, Anne-Louise Lihn medical student, Janne B Stokholm medical student, Katharina Eikermann-Haerter assistant professor et al
Timm F P, Houle T T, Grabitz S D, Lihn A, Stokholm J B, Eikermann-Haerter K et al.
Migraine and risk of perioperative ischemic stroke and hospital readmission: hospital based registry study
BMJ 2017; 356 :i6635
doi:10.1136/bmj.i6635
Hormone use increases migraine and stroke risks Re: Migraine and risk of perioperative ischemic stroke and hospital readmission: hospital based registry study
Have hormonal contraceptives and HRT become invisible for the medical profession, in that they assume that it is part of the normal physiological make up of a woman to be on hormones? This results in harm from these hormones being ignored.
In Timm and colleagues’ hospital based study the group with a migraine diagnosis at increased risk of stroke were mostly women (80.2% with a mean age 47.4 years or 45.1 years for those with an aura). These women were on average 5 to 7 years younger than the rest of the patients studied. The predominance of younger women with migraine at higher risk of perioperative stroke suggests effects of widespread use of progestogens and or oestrogens, either given earlier for hormonal contraception, or for menopausal or cancer therapy.
Stroke risk factors listed included conditions increased by hormone use such as diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, and history of transient ischemic attack. However, hormone use history is not given.
Avoiding use of oral contraceptives resulted in a 10 times reduction in migraine headaches. Most headaches and migraine attacks can be prevented by using low allergy diets which should also reduce the risk of stroke.2-5
It important not to ignore or overlook the harm from taking these highly active hormones. www.harmfromhormones.co.uk
1 Migraine and risk of perioperative ischemic stroke and hospital readmission: hospital based registry study. Timm FP, Houle TT, Grabitz SD, Lihn A-L, Stokholm JB, Eikermann-Haerter K, Nozari A, Kurth T, Eikermann M. BMJ 2017;356:i6635
2 Grant ECG. Relation between headaches from oral contraceptives and development of endometrial arterioles. BMJ 1968;3:402-5
3 Grant ECG. Oral contraceptives, smoking, migraine and food allergies. Lancet 1978;2:581-582.
4 Grant ECG. Food allergies and migraine. Lancet 1979;1:966-969.
5 Grant ECG. The pill, hormone replacement therapy, vascular and mood over-reactivity, and mineral imbalance. J Nutr Environ Med 1998;8:105-116.
Competing interests: No competing interests