Aug 6, 2023 04:44 AM
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/enviro...-headaches
EXCERPTS: . . . Studies looking into the headache-weather connection tend to fall into one of two types: observational studies, where participants self-report their headaches, or retrospective looks at hospital records. Both approaches have their strengths, weaknesses, and biases, but together can they tell us anything about how the weather affects headaches?
With the first type of study, the results tend to show associations between weather and cephalalgia (the formal name for headaches), but not tremendously strong ones...
[...] The hospital studies, meanwhile, show similar levels of disagreement...
[...] Even within the very concept of "weather" causing headaches, what do we mean? Pressure? Temperature? Precipitation? Wind? Humidity? What about air-borne contaminants like bacteria, dust, or sand?
The evidence seems to have adequately correlated headaches to changes in the weather, even potentially with periods of low barometric pressure such as precedes stormy weather, but the question of mechanism, of how weather can make our heads ache remains to be answered... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . Studies looking into the headache-weather connection tend to fall into one of two types: observational studies, where participants self-report their headaches, or retrospective looks at hospital records. Both approaches have their strengths, weaknesses, and biases, but together can they tell us anything about how the weather affects headaches?
With the first type of study, the results tend to show associations between weather and cephalalgia (the formal name for headaches), but not tremendously strong ones...
[...] The hospital studies, meanwhile, show similar levels of disagreement...
[...] Even within the very concept of "weather" causing headaches, what do we mean? Pressure? Temperature? Precipitation? Wind? Humidity? What about air-borne contaminants like bacteria, dust, or sand?
The evidence seems to have adequately correlated headaches to changes in the weather, even potentially with periods of low barometric pressure such as precedes stormy weather, but the question of mechanism, of how weather can make our heads ache remains to be answered... (MORE - missing details)