Hot weather and low air pressure added to list of triggers
Rises in temperature considerably increase the number of people suffering from migraines, a new study has found.
It also found that a drop in air pressure can trigger the incapacitating condition.
Affecting more than nine million people in the UK – one in four women – migraine is listed as one of the top 20 most debilitating conditions by the World Health Organisation because of the impact it has on quality of life.
Stress, fluorescent lighting, chocolate, red wine and caffeine are among the many triggers.
A team at Harvard University looked at the records of 7,054 patients treated in a Boston A&E department for headaches between 2000 and 2007.
They then looked at weather records for the three days before the patients were treated focusing on temperature, air pressure, humidity and air quality.
Dr Kenneth Mukamai, who led the research, said, ‘Air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are among the most frequent reasons that people give for their headache pain.’
The team found that higher temperatures in the 24 hours before admission was most strongly linked to an attack. Hospital admissions rose by 7.5 per cent for every 5 degree Celsius increase in temperature.
Low air pressure up to 72 hours before also affected admissions, reported the journal Neurology.