WFRV News in Haddenfield, NJ reports on the connection between allergies and migraine headaches:

"If you do have nasal allergies, you're actually 14.3 times more likely to have migraine headaches than a person without nasal allergies," says Dr. Min Ku.

Excess histamine, the chemical released by immune cells during allergic reactions, may cause migraine headaches.

"We think that when nasal allergies occur, a lot of that histamine here can trigger that very first response in the development of migraine headaches, namely vasodilation," says Dr. Ku.

Vasodilation is when blood vessels swell up and stretch.

Dr. Ku concludes, "Our experience has been that if we treat the nasal allergies aggressively, that often times the migraine headaches get a lot better."

Dr. Ku says many allergy patients are diagnosed with sinus headaches when they really have migraines.