Brains's sodium level linked to migraine risk, finds study

A team of US researchers has found a link between migraines and how sodium is distributed through the brain, a finding that could be key to future research on treatments for millions of affected people. They found that there was increased sodium in the brain stem long before the rats showed any sign of having a migraine, according to the study published in the journal Pain. "The importance of these findings is that they further emphasize the role of sodium increase early in migraines and help point to the region where migraine symptoms may be starting," said Michael Harrington director of neurosciences at Huntington Medical Research Institutes -- a California-based non-profit organisation. Previous studies have showed that migraine sufferers have significantly higher sodium concentrations in their cerebrospinal fluid than people without the condition. According to the World Health Organisation, a large number of people with headache disorders are not diagnosed and treated - worldwide only 40 per cent of those with migraine are professionally diagnosed.