There was a recent science study that showed people with medically diagnosed migraines are less likely to have breast cancer. The NHS knowledge Service have written a good description of the study and what it does and doesn’t show. You can find it in their “Behind the Headlines” section. They also have a link to the original article, but you need to pay to read it.
So how are migraine headaches related to cancer? Well we’re still not sure, but people with low levels of estrogen tend to have more migraines. We know that some types of breast cancer grow faster if estrogen levels are high. So it seems to make sense that if your normal estrogen level is low then you are less likely to develop breast cancer (although we need to do more research to see if this is true)
This is estrogen (pronounced east-roe-gin and sometimes spelled oestrogen). It is a hormone, both men and women have estrogen. If you are a women, your levels of estrogen go up and down every month from the time you start your first period until you have your last period (menopause).
It varies from women to women, but your ovaries produce estrogen from age 12 to age 50 years. When women speak about being “hormonal” when they have their period, estrogen is one of the hormones they are talking about. Your estrogen levels are low when you have your period and they are at their highest about two weeks after your period. This website, from the Family Doctor publications has some nice graphs that describe how your levels change.
After menopause your ovaries stop producing estrogen, but your fat cells and adrenal glands can still make some estrogen (although this estrogen does not go up and down on a monthly cycle.). If you are obese, you have more fat cells, if you have more fat cells you produce more estrogen. An obese women who is post-menopausal (that means you’ve gone through the menopause and are no longer having periods) is three times more likely to develop breast cancer than someone who is not overweight. (Data from Cancer Research UK). Interestingly if you are pre-menopausal (i.e. you are still having periods) your weight doesn’t make a difference as to whether you’ll develop breast cancer or not.
The anti cancer drug tamoxifen works by stopping estrogen signals in the body, women who have ER+ (Estrogen receptor positive) breast cancer are often prescribed tamoxifen (if they’ve gone through the menopause). Tamoxifen can cause some breast tumours to shrink and it can prevent breast cancer from coming back (recurring)
So why do migraines protect you from breast cancer? We ‘re not sure, maybe you get migraines because you have lower levels of estrogen in your body and so you have a lower risk of getting breast cancer. Or maybe, if you regularly take NSAID (non steroidal anti-inflammatories) because you get migraines, this might reduce your risk of breast cancer. We need to do more research to find out the answer.
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