Here's What's Happening Now: When Weather Meets Migraine
Three studies explore how weather-related changes in migraine symptoms relate to atmospheric pressure, relative air humidity, and ambient temperature.
For people with headaches, it is widely recognized that variables in weather trigger pain and associated symptoms. Such conclusions are based on personal experiences and observations in relation to variations in daily weather patterns, such as rain, humidity, and temperature changes (not overall climate changes, which would be much more difficult for individual patients to notice).
The medical literature has only recently begun to define the correlation between headaches and weather. The relationship is important because the right treatment approaches could help prevent the hours and days of pain that take away valuable time from patients who suffer needlessly as a result of the weather.
Emerging information
Within the past few years, efforts to establish whether there is truly a connection between headaches and variables in weather have moved away from looking at pooled data, and instead, towards subgroup analysis. Recent studies that show a correlation between headaches and weather changes reveal that only a subgroup of people who have headaches experience weather-influenced pain.
Weather variables and headache subtypes
A small
A few years later, the same researchers
Another
Treatment and prevention
There are no formal recommendations or medical approaches to treating this type of pain. Generally, pain medications such as non-steroidal pain medications are used for most migraine and headache episodes, and severe migraine pain is treated with migraine-specific medications such as triptans. While the medical literature does not describe proven preventative strategies for weather-related headaches, patients may develop their own approaches, such as taking headache relief medication based on weather forecasts, or even moving to a city with a different climate.
References:
1. Hoffmann J, Lo H, Neeb L, et al.
2. Hoffmann J, Schirra T, Lo H, et al.
3. Cioffi I, Farella M, Chiodini P, et al.
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