Migraines have a long history I had an intimate relationship with the elements. Along with stress and hormones, fluctuations in weather conditions are one of the The most cited triggers “Patients often say they can predict the weather,” says Vincent Martin, director of the Headache and Facial Pain Center at the University of Cincinnati and president of the National Headache Foundation. They can predict rain two or three days in advance, as an oncoming migraine alerts them to a drop in barometric pressure.
Martin has researched the impact of temperature and other weather conditions on migraines, and believes the climate crisis, which brings warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events, could worsen the condition. “I think[climate change]will have a huge effect on migraine,” he says.
This summer, Martin and his colleagues presented a study In a study that analyzed more than 70,000 daily records from 660 migraine sufferers and compared them to regional weather data such as wind speed, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure, researchers found that for every 10-degree Fahrenheit daily increase in temperature, there was a 6 percent increase in headache incidence. According to Martin, one reason heat can trigger migraines could be the loss of water and electrolytes through sweat; it could also be that the sun acts as a photic trigger, meaning its bright light could trigger a migraine.
Other research has also found a link between rising temperatures and migraines. 2015 Study Migraine emergency admissions in a hospital in Turkey were analysed over a year and compared to different meteorological parameters, such as temperature, humidity and pressure. It was found that the number of migraine patients increased as temperatures rose and humidity decreased.
Fred Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and co-author of the study with Martin, is concerned about the direct impact climate change could have on migraine burden. Review document Just this year, a study was published that revealed a peculiar trend: While the prevalence of migraines (that is, the number of people who suffer from them) has remained roughly the same in the United States over the past 30 years, migraine-related disability (determined by the amount of time sufferers miss from work and socializing because of migraines) has skyrocketed.
Cohen and his co-authors found that, by some measures, the number of people reporting migraine-related disability has nearly doubled. This could be partly because doctors have gotten better at assessing migraines, or because people have become more aware of their condition and more comfortable talking about it. But it could also, Cohen says, be because “something is going on.” One explanation the study authors suggest is a change in environment.
It’s not just rising temperatures that migraine sufferers should be concerned about. Climate change is associated with an increase in air pollutants, such as those produced by wildfires, which are another known trigger for migraines. Although the mechanism by which pollution triggers migraines is not yet understood, multiple studies have Short-term exposure to air pollutants has been found to be associated with an increase in emergency room visits for migraines. In fact, during the intense wildfires that ravaged the East Coast of North America last summer, “calls to headache centers skyrocketed,” says Cohen.
