Migraine

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday (for those of you who celebrate).

I was recently in a weather chat room and one of the guys directed me to this site (I am most interested in barometric pressure changes). It has a lot of information and you can change the date to look at any day in the past, too.

Just thought I'd throw this out there for those of you who might be tracking this sort of thing. Just copy and paste this into your web browser (I'm not sure if this link will work directly from my post).

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBNA/2008/3...=NA&req_statename=NA

Blessings,

~Sandi~

Thanks, this is a great site. And the link does work straight from your post.

Pressure changes is a trigger for me too. I actually purchased a Weather Center from The Weather Channel and keep my eye on it faithfully.

I also have a "classic" barometer in my family room, it is just a glass barometer with water. When that barometer starts to drip over, I know the weather is going to be rough.

Thank you for the link, I added the location right down the street from my house

could I ask more on this? my last migraine was thursday when we had a storm, it was actually snowing a little, some rain, some sleet and thundering. very interesting.

so should i be looking for pressure changes going up/down, high/low, changing dramatically or is it different for everyone?

thanks for that link too.

new here and searching for answers,
lisa

of course i found on article on barametric pressure that was very helpful, just had to keep searching.
lisa

Hi Lisa,

We have some information on weather changes and Migraines you may find helpful.

Migraines Often Triggered By Change In the Weather

Let us know if it is helpful.

Here is the answer to a allergy question about barometric pressure and headaches on the weather.com But it may still apply somehow to migraines, since we all have sinuses and we all have air in them! And I guess the facial pressure can be worse for those with allergies/congestion.

Q:

Will the change in barometric pressure or the oncoming of precipitation give an allergy sensitive person a headache?

"Change in barometric pressure is associated with changing weather patterns such as rain or temperature fluctuations and can trigger headaches in some patients. Sinus cavities are in the skull around the nose, cheek-bones, and forehead. When outside pressure changes, the air inside of the sinus cavities can expand.

If the sinus openings are blocked because of swelling from allergies or infection the change in pressure in the sinus cavity can cause pain or headache.
Answered by: Stanley Fineman, M.D.

I usually just zip to weather.com or my local news for the weather and weeklong outlook, esp if I'm traveling. I also use weather.com for a couple other things, but I really like this other site. It's got lots of cool stuff - daylight hours, moon phases, etc.

And it lets you look BACK (click on weather history) and it makes a great little graph of the barometric pressure.

We've had off and on rain this week and I've had 2 severe HA so far and I've always just written "rain" in my diary, though I've never really thought it made a difference b/c I don't get a HA every time it rains. BUT, if I really understood this barometric pressure thing, I could document my HA and then look BACK at the chart and see if there was a pattern with the pressure. The chart looks at the timing with the ups and downs so you could really even get pretty detailed.

Like my HA today kicked right in around 4:30-5pm as we were leaving the house to go to the grocery store (of course!) and now I see there is a little dip then it flattens out and is rising around 9pm. So I guess maybe??? that had something to do with it? OR not, since I had just whittled away a couple hours by napping and we had stuff to do, HA or not. Of course it didn't matter, I was so miserable, I couldn't even stand to be there and fussed at the kids, only got half the groceries, came home and went back to sleep on the couch since my arsenal of meds wasn't working fast enough to please me. Oh well.

Still, Thanks for sharing this cool website. I may turn into a weather geek like my dad yet!LOL!
Diane

A falling barometer or increase in altitude is the major trigger for me. I have not flown yet since being dx with mig. but I am pretty sure it would be bad news. I love hiking in the Cascade Mountains but even going from home at 800' up to 1800' triggers intense pain. Here in Western WA I can not go any direction very far w/o going over a pass.

Any sinus problems have been ruled out with MRI and a course of antibiotics, decongestants and steroidal nasal spray. It's very mysterious to be affected by air pressure and not have any plugged cavities to be the cause.

I have The Weather Channels "aches and pains index" on my desktop and monitor it every few hrs. for my zip code. So far it has been dead on and I have been able to pre-medicate to head off the more severe symptoms.

Aches and pains index