Lightning May Trigger Migraine

"The researchers then collected data on all lightning strikes in those areas. For each headache sufferer, a same-day lightning strike occurred within 25 miles of his or her ZIP code about 10 percent to 20 percent of the time.

When a thunderstorm rolls in, there could be 50,000 lightning strikes within 25 miles [40 kilometers] of your house, you just don't realize it.

After controlling for other aspects of the thunderstorms that could cause headaches – such as temperature, barometric pressure, wind, humidity and rain – they linked lightning to a 13 percent jump in the likelihood of an attack."

Excerpted from: http://www.livescience.com/26567-does-lightning-cause-migraines.html

I'm coming to the conclusion that almost anything can be a migraine trigger. As is mentioned in the article "the brains of migraine sufferers are fundamentally more sensitive to outside influences" and each aspect of weather (temperature, pressure, wind, electrical charges etc) can be potential triggers. If only we could find some method of easily identifying our individual triggers.....


Actually, I enjoy stormy weather. The more violent it is the more euphoric I become. On the other hand,balmy hot sun filled days as we have been experiencing here for more than a week, leave me feeling rather jaded

weather is defo a trigger - its pretty amazing when you think about it - we have an inbuilt sense which can detect weather... just a shame we have to suffer and cannot control it.... I do wonder if we lived in a different place if things would get better........ I wonder if there is a place in the world where migs do not happen..........hmmmmmmmmmmmm

I came across this discussion about geography, weather, pressure and migraines. Interesting. No place seems migraine free, but maybe a move could reduce how often I have them. But my parents are in their 80s and I hate to leave them.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Meteorology-Weather-668/f/Areas-Stable-Barometric-Pressure.htm

One person has an interesting recommendation for dealing with changes in barometric pressure: "Submerge yourself under the water in a full bathtub to change the pressure against my WHOLE body. If you have a hot tub it is even better. Hope this helps, you do have to put your head under the water too. If you hold your nose, it changes the pressure inside your sinus cavity as well as your head."

wow what a fab idea - we so need to try that and see if it helps ... will read the article now xx

Interesting idea. One thought though: It would all depend on how barometric pressure acted as a trigger. I can think of several:

• Change in absolute pressure: one could be sensitive to the pressure being below or above a certain pressure.
  
• Change in relative pressure: One could be sensitive to a change in pressure by more than a certain amount. The trigger could be an increase, a decrease or both.
  
• Rate of change of pressure: one could be sensitive to how fast the barometer rises or falls.
  

I don't know by how much the pressure changes by immersing yourself completely under water, but it would seem to me that any change is going to be very fast - far faster than atmospheric changes. Atmospheric changes are relatively slow, so your entire body will always be pressurised evenly. Compare that to an aeroplane flight where your ears don't pressurise as rapidly as the rest of your body - hence the pressure/pain in the ear on descent. I would suspect any change of pressure caused by immersion would not occur at the same rate throughout the body.
Another thought: How long is one supposed to stay under water? Until the atmospheric pressure stabilises? I don't know about you, but I can only hold my breath for a few minutes. I can see that staying under water for a few hours would solve my migraine problems - permanently - but I my wife really doesn't want to have the expense of funeral for a few decades yet...

All good points indeed!