• Connar Stanley James Westgate, Ida Marchen Egerod Israelsen, Rigmor Højland Jensen, and Sajedeh Eftekhari.
• Danish Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet- Glostrup, Glostrup Research Institute, University of Copenhagen, Nordstjernevej 42, 2600, Glostrup, Denmark.
• J Headache Pain. 2021 Oct 10; 22 (1): 123123.

BackgroundObesity confers adverse effects to every system in the body including the central nervous system. Obesity is associated with both migraine and idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). The mechanisms underlying the association between obesity and these headache diseases remain unclear.MethodsWe conducted a narrative review of the evidence in both humans and rodents, for the putative mechanisms underlying the link between obesity, migraine and IIH.ResultsTruncal adiposity, a key feature of obesity, is associated with increased migraine morbidity and disability through increased headache severity, frequency and more severe cutaneous allodynia. Obesity may also increase intracranial pressure and could contribute to headache morbidity in migraine and be causative in IIH headache. Weight loss can improve both migraine and IIH headache. Preclinical research highlights that obesity increases the sensitivity of the trigeminovascular system to noxious stimuli including inflammatory stimuli, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unelucidated.ConclusionsThis review highlights that at the epidemiological and clinical level, obesity increases morbidity in migraine and IIH headache, where weight loss can improve headache morbidity. However, further research is required to understand the molecular underpinnings of obesity related headache in order to generate novel treatments.© 2021. The Author(s).

12 keywords...

hide…