Weather & Headaches

If you are a headache sufferer then you probably already know that your head is somewhat akin to a weather vane. You know in advance when the weather is going to go awry, just like arthritis sufferers feel the pain in their joints when the barometric pressure is plummeting or rising, because your head starts throbbing.

Weather-Sensitive People

• Changes in the weather do impact your body, particularly for those who are weather-sensitive individuals, according to the website Relieve-migraine-headache.com. Changes in weather pressure change oxygen levels. When the outside pressure is going up or down, your blood vessels are trying to adapt to the change by contracting or compensation. When the size of your vessels changes, this influences how much blood and oxygen flow you're getting.

Barometric Pressure and Temperature

• Migraine sufferers are more likely to get a headache when the barometric pressure rises, and sometimes when the temperature increases, according to Dr. Galina Mindlin of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

Aura

• Migraine patients may experience a shimmering aura around the edges of their vision right before the onset of a migraine, which has been prompted by meteorological changes, according to Dr. Mindlin. When the atmospheric pressure rises, 75 percent of the migraine sufferers that Mindlin studied reported suffering debilitating headaches.

Your Brain

• When the brains of migraine patients were studied by Mindlin, it was observed that the brain activity was less organized and reached higher intensity during weather shifts than the brains of those who do not suffer from headaches.

Additional Weather Factors

• Other weather factors can cause migraines including low pressure fronts, humidity, overcast skies and high temperatures. Weather changes apparently change the chemicals in your body which can trigger a headache. The electrical charge in the air may also provoke a headache.