Migraine and Weather

Abstract

SYNOPSIS At the Princess Margaret Migraine Clinic, 310 patients were studied during an acute attack of headache to see whether atmospheric conditions affect the incidence of migraine attacks. The onset of attack was correlated with five aspects of weather before onset, at onset and after onset. It was also observed that most patients began their attacks between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. which led to a secondary study of 100 non acute patients to find the time and day of the week on which their headaches most commonly occurred. No correlation was found between the onset of attack and adverse weather conditions. In both studies most patients developed their headaches between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. but on no specific day of the week. In this study no conclusive relationship could be found between atmospheric changes and the incidence of headaches in Britain. Most headaches seem to begin between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m.

Migraine and the Environment

“…These findings prompted a study of 310 patients seeking acute care at the Princess Margaret Migraine Clinic in London, including those with migraine, tension-type headache, or "migrainous neuralgia" who were queried about the date and time of the onset of their headache attack. 22 No correlation was found between the attack and a change in wind velocity, wind direction, barometric pressure, temperature, or humidity.…”

Weather and migraine: Can so many patients be wrong?

“…Some previous studies which tried to identify weather factors as migraine triggers have also been negative (8,9). Others have shown at least some associations between certain weather conditions and migraine occurrence (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15), but no consistent picture of which weather-related factors are important migraine triggers has emerged.…”

Pathogenesis and surgical treatment of neurovascular primary headaches

“…All these factor lead to tissue hypoxia, which directly causes pain. The pressure and hypoxia cause release of serotonin and other vasoactive substances by the tissues and "perivascular trigeminal and parasympathetic receptors in the base of tbe skull and later in the meningeal and cerebral vessels, which produces dilatation of the cerebral vessels and the resulting migraine pain [12, 251. Even weather alterations with changes in electrostatic charge (e.g., positive charges, positive ionization) suffice to induce serotonin secretion, leading to further edema formation and increased pain [26,27]. The pre-exsisting dysmorphia or the close relationship to the rhinobase (rhinosinogenic trigger) is the basis of the various types of migraine, i.e., vasomotor or cluster headaches with a rhinogenic trigger, yet not every type or rhinobasal dysmorphia causes pain.…”

“…Food allergies with antibody formation and antigen-antibody reactions leading to release of histamine and serotonin are also under discussion [13,28], and it has been speculated that elevated levels of prolactin may give rise to migraine [23]. Rapid changes of weather have been known for some time to cause migraine [26,27], as have alcohol, cheese, coffee, tea, seafood, fever, lack of sleep, stress, and low estrogen levels [23,26]. Bonaccorsi and Novak independently identified the actual pathophysiologic mechanism and trigger zone for various types of migraines (classic migraine complicated by hemiparesis/epilepsy, syncopal migraine, developmental migraine syndromes, cluster headaches, and cluster headache associated with migraine) and other so-called idiopathic headaches and succeeded in eliminating them by standardized surgical treatment [1-8, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”