New York (PTI): People who live with migraines are at an increased risk of experiencing a heart attack or a stroke than those without the debilitating headache, a new study has revealed.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston have found that people who have monthly migraine are one-and-a-half times more likely to get a heart attack while those having the headache once a week are three times more likely to experience a stroke than those who don't suffer.

Migraine is one of the top 20 most debilitating conditions listed by the World Health Organisation because of the significant impact it can have on quality of life. It is more than just a headache, and symptoms range from aversion to light, sound, noise and smell, to pins and vomiting.

According to Dr Tobias Kurth, who led the study, "Our findings suggest that migraine frequency may be an indicator for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly ischaemic stroke. Future studies are needed to address whether prevention reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease."

The study involved 27,798 women health professionals in the United States who were 45 and older.

The women did not have cerebrovascular disease at the beginning of the study and were followed for an average of 12 years. During that time, 706 cerebrovascular events, 305 heart attacks and 310 ischemic strokes occurred.