High Blood Pressure and Migraine

Is There a Hypertension and Migraine Connection?

Is there a correlation between high blood pressure and migraine? Maybe. There have been studies to suggest that uncontrolled hypertension (high blood pressure) may result in an increase in migraine headache frequency or severity. However, it has also been argued that since both high blood pressure and migraine are commonly occurring conditions, any such relationship is mere coincidence.

Certainly, there can be transient increases in blood pressure during a headache of any type, simply because you are in pain, so it stands to reason that chronic headache sufferers might experience higher overall blood pressure.

A recent retrospective epidemiological study, which means it was looking back in time at previously collected data, actually proposed that maybe hypertension even protects against headache! Other studies, however, seem to suggest that there might be a correlation between hypertension and the transition from episodic to chronic migraine.

The most likely explanation is that not all migraine sufferers are genetically alike. Stay tuned—it’s very likely you’ll be hearing more about this.