Headaches are not a sign of high blood pressure
29 March 2002
Severe headaches are not a sign of high blood pressure after all, say Norwegian researchers in their recent paper published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (2002; 72: 463-66).
Instead, researchers found high systolic and diastolic pressures reduced the risk of non-migrainous headache.
But they said their prospective study, the first of its kind to look at the headache-blood pressure association, could not explain why.
For more than a decade, the researchers studied 22,685 adults who had not used analgesics (painkillers) in the previous month.
Those with a systolic blood pressure of 150 mm Hg or higher had a 30 per cent lower risk of non-migraine headaches compared with those who had a blood pressure lower than 140 mm Hg.
Last Reviewed: 05 April 2002
- 1. Medical Observer Weekly 29/03/02
