High blood sugar and migraine

High blood sugar and migraine

It is widely known that migraine is associated with glucose-related traits, such as fasting insulin and type 2 diabetes, which are common comorbid disorders.

But a team of University of Queensland scientists in Australia has found a tangible genetic link that could open up a new field of treatment for these debilitating disorders, according to New Atlas, citing the journal Human Genetics.

Headaches and migraines

In the details, University of Queensland researchers revealed a genetic link to genes that appear in many migraine and headache sufferers, which also resist the features of blood sugar, which causes double damage to this health problem.

It is estimated that migraine affects more than 10% of the world's population, and is three times more common among women.

“Since 1935, migraine has been described as a glycemic headache,” said Dale Nyholt, a professor at the University of Queensland’s Center for Genomics and Personal Health, adding that “glycemic traits such as insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and hypoglycaemia In the blood, type 2 diabetes is associated with headaches and migraines.

The findings came after researchers analyzed the genomes of thousands of migraine patients to see if any genetic links could be identified.

They also performed cross-trait analyzes to identify common genomic regions, loci, genes and pathways, and then tested for cross-relationships.

The level of insulin in the blood

In turn, Professor Rafiq Islam, a researcher at the University of Queensland Center, said, “Among the nine features of blood sugar that were studied, it was found that there is a significant genetic association between fasting insulin (insulin level in the blood) and glycated hemoglobin with both migraine and headache. Whereas, two-hour glucose was genetically linked to migraines only.”

He also added that regions containing common genetic risk factors were discovered between migraine, fasting insulin, fasting glucose, and glycated hemoglobin, and between headaches and regions common to glucose, fasting insulin, glycated hemoglobin, and fasting proinsulin.

He also explained that proinsulin or pro-insulin is the pro-hormone that precedes the stage of making insulin in the body.

new treatments

Genetic interference is an important step forward in understanding how migraines and associated glycemic features arise, and opens up new and exciting avenues for medical intervention.

Nyholt also revealed that "by identifying genetic associations, loci and genes involved in the study analyses, a causal association was inferred, thus further understanding of the relationship between migraine, headache and glycemic features was achieved."

Islam added that the results of the study could “provide ways to develop new therapeutic strategies to control the glycemic features of migraine and headache patients, especially increasing the level of fasting insulin to protect against headaches.”

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