Abdominal Obesity a Risk Factor for Migraines

Drexel University researchers have analyzed data 22,200 persons enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES), to see if there's a relationship between overweight and the occurrence of migraines. The findings will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in April.

For subjects aged 22 to 55, migraine was significantly more likely in those with abdominal obesity than in those without (20% vs. 16% for men, 37% vs. 28% for women).

After age 55 there isn't any such link between obesity and migraine. In fact, older women with abdominal obesity had a lower incidence of migraine that thos without it (14.5% vs. 17.5%). The researchers have no explanation for this 'protective' effect of abdominal fat in older women.

A link between body mass index (BMI) has been suggested previously, but it was not found in this analysis. It seems clear that abdominal obesity (belly fat) is a more predictive feature for some conditions than an increased BMI. And belly fat is harder to lose than other fat . . .