Migraine has been persistent closely related to factors. Besides stress and hormones, fluctuations in meteorological conditions are one of the most commonly cited stimuli for a migraine. “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, because a migraine flare-up alerts them to a drop in barometric pressure.
Martin has studied the impact of temperature and other weather conditions on migraines, and he believes the climate crisis – bringing warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events – could be making the condition worse. “I think [climate change] will have a huge effect on migraines,” he said.
This summer, Martin and his colleagues present a study looked at more than 70,000 daily diary records from 660 migraine patients and cross-referenced them with local weather data, such as wind speed, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. The researchers found that for every 10-degree Fahrenheit increase in daily temperature, the odds of getting a headache increased by 6 percent. Martin said one reason heat may trigger migraines could be due to the loss of water and electrolytes through sweat; it could also be that the sun acts as a photo-stimulator, meaning its bright light can trigger migraines.
Other studies have found a similar link between increased temperature and migraines. Research 2015 looked at emergency room admissions for migraines at a hospital in Türkiye over a year and compared them to various weather parameters, such as temperature, humidity, and pressure. The study found that the number of migraine patients increased as temperature increased and humidity decreased.
Fred Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and a co-author of the study with Martin, is concerned that climate change could have a direct impact on the burden of migraine. He led a separate group review published earlier this year uncovered a curious trend. The review found that while migraine prevalence—that is, the number of people who suffer from the condition—has remained stable in the United States over the past 30 years, migraine-related disability—defined by the time patients lose from work and social activities due to migraines—has skyrocketed.
Cohen and his co-authors found that the number of people reporting migraine-related disability had nearly doubled by some measures. This could be partly because doctors are getting better at assessing migraines or because people are more aware of their condition and more comfortable discussing it. But Cohen also said it could be because “something else is going on.” One explanation the study authors suggest is that the environment is changing.
It’s not just rising temperatures that migraine sufferers should worry about. Climate change has been linked to increases in air pollutants, such as those produced by wildfires, which are also known migraine triggers. Although the mechanisms by which pollution triggers migraines are not well understood, much study Have found that short-term exposure to air pollutants was associated with an increase in visits to emergency departments specifically for migraines. Indeed, during the raging wildfires on the East Coast of North America last summer, “calls to headache treatment centers skyrocketed,” Cohen said.
