A leading cardiology doctor says this reinforces the importance of studying gender-specific health trends in research.
New Research: This Surprising Medication Could Lower Stroke Risk Up to 50%
Published on Feb. 05, 2025
If you know, you know: Migraine headaches are a dreadful condition to have to manage regularly, and it’s from the recent emphasis on gender-specific medical research that more discoveries have been made in treating them.
One of those is that a popular drug for severe headache sufferers could cut women’s risk of stroke in half, new research says. Propranolol, a beta blocker also sometimes used in the treatment of high blood pressure, tremors, and heart arrhythmia, was found to slash stroke risk by 52% in female migraine sufferers taking the medication. It did not have the same effect on men.
To understand the relationship between the use of propranolol and stroke, the team looked at over three million electronic medical records of both men and women. They reviewed the records of all of the individuals who had experienced both stroke and migraine, and looked at their prescription history to determine whether propranolol could have played a role in their stroke risk when compared to a control group.
“We initially looked at overall stroke and then ischemic (clot-caused) stroke specifically,” lead researcher Mulubrhan Mogos, PhD, MSc, FAHA, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee, said via news release. “We … found the association is significant and stronger for ischemic stroke.” They ultimately gleaned that propranolol may help lower clot risk in women with migraine, which in turn may help lower stroke risk.
Though having a history of frequent migraine with aura is a known risk factor that doubles the risk of stroke in women, the team found that women who experienced migraine without aura saw the most protective benefits from taking the medication. “Migraine without aura may often be overlooked as a risk factor for stroke, especially in women, in whom previous literature has demonstrated that migraine is a stronger, more important risk factor compared with men,” said Tracy Madsen, MD, PhD, chair of the American Heart Association Clinical Cardiology/Stroke Women’s Health Science Committee.
Madsen noted that the findings are “not surprising” given past research which has suggested that medications similar to propranolol also meaningfully reduce stroke risk. “The findings are potentially quite helpful, though, for women living with frequent migraine, as they suggest we have a good medication option that helps to prevent both migraines and strokes,” she noted in the press release.
The new study will be presented this week at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2025 in Los Angeles, and could take on a special importance in the current political climate. Much of the scientific community is currently reeling from the Trump administration’s purge of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, including those that facilitate sex-specific medical research.
“This study is a great example of the important information that can be gained by studying women and men separately—we can take advantage of known sex differences in stroke risk factors and move towards more personalized care,” says Madsen.
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