Multiple sclerosis 'more of a risk' to those with migraines

Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) are more likely to have migraines than those without the disease, according to new research from the US.

New York University Medical School looked into the Nurses' Health Study II, which included 18,000 women who had been diagnosed with migraine at the start of the research.

The project looked at nearly 117,000 participating US women who were assessed every two years over a 16-year period, discovering that out of the 375 women who developed MS, 82 had been diagnosed with migraine at the beginning of the study.

Dr Ilya Kister of the New York institution said: "While having a history of migraine diagnosis was linked to MS, women with migraine need to know that over 99 percent of them will never develop MS, thus having migraine should definitely not be a reason to worry about getting MS."

The expert added that more research will be needed as it is still unknown whether or not migraine is a risk factor for developing MS or if it is simply a condition that occurs at the same time as the disease.

Recently, it was discovered by a team spearheaded by the University of Utah School of Medicine that a humanised monoclonal antibody called daclizumab reduces the number of enlarged or new brain lesions in patients with relapsing MS.

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