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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Chronic migraines can be a difficult to live with, but there may be at least one positive aspect of the condition: women who suffer from migraines have a significantly lower risk of breast cancer.
A recent study shows female migraine sufferers have a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer compared to women who do not have a history of the headaches. Specifically, migraines are linked to a reduced risk of the most common form of breast cancer: tumors with estrogen and/or progesterone receptors on their cells. The study involved 3,412 postmenopausal women in the Seattle area. Almost 2,000 of them had been diagnosed with breast cancer while the rest had no history of the disease.
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Although the link between breast cancer and migraines is not fully known, researchers think it may have to do with fluctuating levels of circulating hormones. Migraines seem to have a hormonal component in that they occur more frequently in women than in men, and some of their known triggers are associated with hormones, Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., a breast-cancer epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash., was quoted as saying.
Dr. Li says women who take oral contraceptives tend to suffer more migraines during the week they are menstruating and not taking the hormone pills. Conversely, a high-estrogen state like pregnancy is linked to a significant decrease in migraines. By the third trimester of pregnancy, 80 percent of migraine sufferers do not have these episodes, Dr. Li said.
SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, 2008;17,3116-3122
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