When it's about to rain, it's common to hear people say they can "feel it" in their bones - especially in an injured knee or the like. So doesn't it make sense that other kinds of weather can influence the human body?
Does it sound so crazy to claim that wind could cause a headache?
Santa Ana (which occur in southern California) and Chinook (which occur on the eastern slopes of the Rockies from Canada to the Plains) winds are simply warm, dry winds on the lee side of a mountain range, whose temperatures rise as they move down the slope. The generic name is föhn, and they occur in different parts of the world, including Germany, where the Alps create föhn winds, and in the Andes into Argentina, where the phenomenon is known as a zonda. But no matter what the term, they carry with them the same threat: Migraines.
| The drying effect of these winds also carries with it the increased risk of fire danger - especially in autumn. As they whip across the land with their low humidities, desiccating all the vegetation in their path, wildfires become virtually imminent. |
"The study shows a definite correlation between Chinooks and migraine in some sufferers," said neurologist and study author Werner Becker, MD, of the University of Calgary.
According to Dr. Alan Rapoport, MD, founder and director of The New England Center for Headache, weather is definitely a trigger for migraines, but the research project he co-authored focused on approaching storms rather than föhn winds.
Researchers followed 77 patients for an average of eleven months. The subjects kept a diary of their headaches and their level of pain.
- Low temperatures and low humidity affected 22 percent of the patients.
- In 12 percent, migraines were triggered by high temperatures and high humidity
- A changing weather pattern affected 10 percent
- Eight percent were sensitive to high barometric pressure
- Low pressure affected 5 percent.
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