Do you experience very sharp and severe headaches? Does this sharp headache more prominent on one side of your head?
Is the pain in your head throbbing and hurting more as you move? Are you experiencing nausea and having difficulty looking at lights?
If so, then perhaps you are experiencing a migraine.
Migraines are a symptom of many illnesses and they can really be very painful. Some people describe the pain as if it is killing them.
But is a migraine really deadly? Or is it just very painful? Below we’ll look at a common question many who experience the debilitating pain of a migraine ask, “can migraines kill you?”
Can Migraines Kill You?
The good news is that no, migraines will most likely not kill you. It is highly unlikely for a migraine to cause death.
One major study conducted in 2020 with female participants found no relationship between migraine and all-cause mortality. In this category were migraines with or without aura and those who had a history of migraines in the past.
When we say all-cause mortality, it refers to all deaths in the research’s population regardless of what caused it.
Although migraines cannot cause death, they are still something to be beware of. People who experience frequent migraines have increased risks of cardiovascular events, and people who experience migraines with aura have an increased risk of suffering from a stroke.
Migraines and Health Risks
Migraines have been shown to raise the risk of stroke, coronary events, and other related causes of death by about 50%. Reduced blood flow may potentially double the risk of heart disease.
A migraine can sometimes be accompanied by a complication known as migrainous infarction, which can result in a stroke. In this situation, brain cells die because their blood supply is cut off by the stroke. This is a dangerous situation, but it is also extremely rare.
Aside from increasing the risks of stroke and cardiovascular diseases, migraines can also cause other conditions which may worsen your health. These may include back pain, hearing loss, vision changes, and more.
Frequent low back pain can be 13 to 18 times more painful for people experiencing chronic migraines compared to people without headaches. One-third of chronic migraine patients had fibromyalgia, a disorder marked by widespread pain, exhaustion, and despair, according to one study.
The way the brain handles pain signals is rewired by any sort of chronic pain. Constant throbbing headaches may overstimulate your complete body’s pain reactions, leading you to more severe aching.
Over the course of 72 hours, sudden sensorineural hearing loss produces fast hearing loss. People who suffer from chronic migraines are twice as likely to develop this illness. Doctors aren’t sure why, but they believe that damage to tiny blood arteries in the ear is what links hearing loss and migraine together.
Migraine headaches alone cannot cause death. However, frequent and severe migraine can increase the risk of suffering from severe conditions such as a stroke or other cardiovascular conditions and that could be bad. Read this article to know when to go to the emergency room for migraine treatment.