Chronic MIgraine and TIA
Has there been any follow up to that? Are the brains of us chronic migraineurs similar to the brains of people who’ve had small strokes? Do we suffer any permanent damage?
Hi, Dina! Good to see you again -- great question. I did a little digging and I found some articles around the web that you might find interesting. The short version is that the number of folks with brain lesions is similar in both people with migraine and people without. So, generally speaking, your risk is the same as everyone else's. Of course, each person is unique and their risk for stroke depends on a number of factors.
Here's an older article from us about white matter lesions on the brain, and then some newer things from other places on the web:
https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-white-matter-lesions/
https://www.migrainetrust.org/about-migraine/migraine-what-is-it/does-migraine-damage-the-brain/ (There's a great video in this one.)
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1391911
I hope those are helpful. Let me know if you have followup questions! -Melissa, migraine.com teamThank you for the excellent references! Lots of good information here and it looks much less dire than what I was told years ago.
Happy to help! It's definitely encouraging to see new studies that don't point to doom and gloom. I am continually hopeful about what we'll see in the future, too. -Melissa, migraine.com team
