Migraine patients are right about the weather
Some migraine patients claim that the weather triggers their condition and this has now been found to be the case. Doctors from a specialist headache centre found that half of migraine patients were affected by weather, although more thought that they were.
The study followed 77 patients prone to regular migraines over two years.
Patients were assessed to see whether they thought weather was a trigger.
In addition, the researchers collected weather data from local weather
stations.
Most patients believed that the weather could affect their headache.
But they could not predict the elements to which they were sensitive.
The weather triggers reported by patients did not correspond to those
tracked in the analysis.
The most common trigger was low temperature and humidity or high temperature
and humidity (39 per cent of patients). Next was major weather changes
over one to two days (14 per cent). Third was high or low barometric
pressure (13 per cent). Eleven per cent of patients were sensitive to
two factors.
Lead author Patricia Prince, of the Children’s Hospital, Boston,
says: “Identifying trigger factors, such as weather, is important
because it can lead to preventive strategies such as trigger avoidance
or taking acute care medications very early in the attack or even in
advance” (Headache 2004;44:596). |
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