Obesity link to headache

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study shows that chronic daily headache is more common among those who are obese.
We already know that obesity is linked to a number of health problems. Now researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, show that obese people are more prone to suffering headaches.

In a survey of over 143,000 participants, the researchers learned that a third of those who were obese missed more than four days of work in a year because of severe headache, compared to 27 per cent of overweight people and 26 per cent of those who were of normal weight. Obese people were also more likely to report severe pain. People who were underweight were more likely to report headache with nausea than other groups. Further research is needed to uncover the reasons why being obese is linked to headache.

Source
American Academy of Neurology meeting 14th April 2005

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