A new study shows that overweight people are more likely to have migraines than those who are thin.

It is known that factors such as age, gender can contribute to migraine risk, but U.S. researchers add another factor on the list: abdominal obesity.

The study found that young and middle-aged adults who were obese were more likely to suffer from migraines or other severe headaches. To be more precise, thirty-seven percent of women with abdominal obesity said they experienced frequent episodes of headaches, while only 29 percent of non-obese women reported these problems. As for men, 20 percent of those with abdominal obesity reported migraines compared to 16 percent of those without this problem.

For the study, the researchers used data from 22,000 people enrolled in a large U.S. government health survey.

“These results, while still in the early stages, suggest that losing weight in the stomach area may be beneficial for younger people who experience migraine and especially so for women,” study author B. Lee Peterlin of Drexel University College of Medicine was quoted as saying.

Migraines and other severe headaches are more common in women than in men. According to recent estimates from the National Headache Foundation, about 30 million people in the U.S. report migraines.

Studies have shown that a large waist may be associated with an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and even death. As an example, for an increase of about two-inch in waist size for patients with any IMB score, the risk of death increased with 17 percent for men and by 13 percent for women.