Therapist Unlimited Blog

Smokers who smoked five cigarettes a day are at high risk of suffering from migraines.
According to a recent research, smoking could improve migraines by reducing anxiety, one of the factors that trigger an attack.
The finding was taken from the study made on 361 medicine students from the University of Salamanca in Spain.
The researchers found out that 16% of students fulfilled migraine criteria, while 20% smoked.
The researchers also found out that the percentage of smokers was higher (29%) in those who were also migraine sufferers and migraine frequency in those
students who were migraine sufferers and smokers was clearly higher than in those who were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.

Smoking five cigarettes a day could lead to migraines.

Julio Pascual, one of the authors of this research and doctor at the Neurology Unit of Marqués de Valdecilla, University Hospital (Santander) said smoking is a precipitating factor of this type of headache, as the prevalence of active smokers is one third higher in migraine sufferers and there is a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes consumed and the frequency of migraine attacks.
Pascual and his team stressed the importance of the dosage. The results of the interviews reveal that the migraine sets in after five daily cigarettes.
He said although the percentage of those who smoked was higher in people with migraines, they smoked less than those who did not suffer migraines.