Migraines and predicting the weather

I suspected that the migraine might be coming, and maybe I should have done something about it. My barometer told me that the pressure was starting to drop, and sure enough by the middle of the night Mr. Migraine had arrived.

With very little scientific evidence, migraineurs have been claiming for years that their symptoms were linked to weather. Finally, in the last few years, science has begun to catch up. This past summer, a study was done by Dr Marcelo E. Bigal of the New England Center for Headache. The study told us two things – first, a large percentage of migraineurs do have weather-related migraine. Second, some who thought they had weather related migraine apparently didn’t. Dr Bigal says that most people thought they could predict the weather that would cause migraine, but they couldn’t.

So what’s going on here? I don’t think we should write the migraine meteorologist off quite so quickly. First, it seems that there are complex weather patterns triggering symptoms. It probably isn’t as simple as just heat or humidity or pressure alone. That’s why your predictions may be right some of the time. Second, triggers vary from person to person, and even in the same person.

So don’t stop watching the weather just yet. If I’d paid attention and taken some medication a little sooner, I might not have the headache I have today. 🙂