While we all know ‘global warming’ to be our major source of headaches here at WUWT, this from the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center , suggests lightning is also a cause. To me, this is something that seems too statistically small to be real, especially when dealing with human subjects. Further, since thunderstorms produce localized weather effects, including fluctuations in barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity, often all at the same time in conjunction with lightning, and these all affect the human sinus, this may be nothing more than a case of confirmation bias. – Anthony
Research ties lightning to onset of headache, migraines
CINCINNATI—University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have found that lightning may affect the onset of headache and migraines.
These results, published in the Jan. 24, 2013 online edition of the journal Cephalalgia, are the first tying lightning to headache and could help chronic sufferers more efficiently anticipate headache and migraine arrival and begin preventive treatment immediately.
Geoffrey Martin, fourth-year medical student at UC, and his father Vincent Martin, MD, professor in the division of general internal medicine, UC Health physician and headache expert, led the study which showed that there was a 31 percent increased risk of headache and 28 percent increased risk of migraine for chronic headache sufferers on days lighting struck within 25 miles of study participant’s homes.
In addition, new-onset headache and migraine increased by 24 percent and 23 percent in participants.
“Many studies show conflicting findings on how weather, including elements like barometric pressure and humidity, affect the onset of headaches,” Geoffrey Martin says. “However, this study very clearly shows a correlation between lightning, associated meteorological factors and headaches.”
Participants who fulfilled the criteria for International Headache Society-defined migraines were recruited from sites located in Ohio and Missouri and recorded their headache activity in a daily journal for three to six months.
During this time, the location where lightning struck within 25 miles of participant’s homes as well as the magnitude and polarity of lightning current was recorded.
“We used mathematical models to determine if the lightning itself was the cause of the increased frequency of headaches or whether it could be attributed to other weather factors encountered with thunderstorms,” says Vincent Martin. “Our results found a 19 percent increased risk for headaches on lightning days, even after accounting for these weather factors. This suggests that lightning has its own unique effect on headache.”
He says that negatively charged lightning currents were also particularly associated with a higher chance of headache.
“There are a number of ways in which lightning might trigger headaches,” he says. “Electromagnetic waves emitted from lightning could trigger headaches. In addition, lightning produces increases in air pollutants like ozone and can cause release of fungal spores that might lead to migraine.”
“This study gives some insight into the tie between headaches or migraines, lightning and other meteorologic factors,” says Geoffrey Martin. “However, the exact mechanisms through which lightning and/or its associated meteorologic factors trigger headache are unknown, although we do have speculations. Ultimately, the effect of weather on headache is complex, and future studies will be needed to define more precisely the role of lightning and thunderstorms on headache.”
Other researchers involved in the study include Timothy Houle, Wake Forest Medical Center; Robert Nicholson, St. Louis University and Mercy Health Research and Ryan Headache Clinic; and Albert Peterlin, Environmental Rights and Releases Exchange.
The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline.
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Somehow, when I see “The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline.” I expect to see some sort of “lightning pill” coming to a drugstore near you soon.
Lightning is extreme……extreme weather….therefore, caused by man-made CO2, or at least more powerfull and more frequent….either way, it’s our fault. The only way to stop it is to pass a law…quick.
It’s the thunder, not the lightning. As one who gets migraine headaches, I can tell you that loud noises are one of the most common triggers, and always at least an aggravating factor in migraines.
In answer to Gene Selkov: partly from experience. partly from reading about it. The reason for pollens getting further into the respiratory tract during stormy weather is alluded to in this article http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/storms-trigger-asthma-explosion-as-pollen-fills-the-air-20111108-1n4qw.html. Rain ruptures pollen into smaller particles.
To Alex Heyworth: I was aware of an earlier study that linked hospital asthma admissions to thunderstorms, but they did not find a link between pollen or spores and admission rate:
http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/8/429.full
It is admittedly a weak study because thunderstorms are very infrequent on this island, and so are asthma admissions, but if they haven’t found any correlation with the data they’ve got, it will probably be wise of them not to spend further data-gathering efforts only to find a weak relationship. If it is not something readily apparent, it is probably not important.
If there is any demonstrable link between asthma and thunderstorms, I would rather explain it by changes in behaviour (say, more active ventilation) than stuff in the air. Hyperventilation always triggers asthma, even in clean air. You do not need allergies, pollen or any other contaminants to explain it. I can easily imagine people rushing to catch that bus or hustle for cover when they hear thunder or when the rain starts. Also, people typically hyperventilate when splashed with cold water. That alone can account for one or two extra admissions the town of the size of Cardiff can see on a rainy day.
Sooooo 17th century … don’t you think with today’s MUCH more sensitive magnetometers and Hall effect devices we could possible CONFIRM the linkage between so-called ‘EMF’ effects and ghosts?
C’mon … the only thought that comes to mind is “You’re being played” when I see such ‘reports’ …
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Enquiring minds want to know; who in theee Sam Hill volunteered for this study??!?!!
Researchers:
“Go stand out in that field and when lightning strikes, tell us whether or not you have a headache.”
Subject reports:
“No headache, but after that bolt hit 20 feet away, I did have an involuntary bowel movement.”
With charge separation occurring in the ‘cloud’ (due to the formation of precip and the presence of an ‘ice’ line) there then exists the two equal charges … the ‘mirror’ effect seen is then a result of a couple of effects, part of which is physical transportation of charge via precipitation and the other factor as you state, induced, but the induced or impressed value is a fraction of that existing in the ‘cloud’. Think: “Electrostatic circuits” and the ‘ground’ (actual earth) must enter into the circuit (or equation) somewhere!
Next thunderstorm, take note of how much intra-cloud lightning takes place versus actual cloud-to-ground; If what you state were true, we would have nothing BUT cloud-to-ground lightning, and we don’t.
Recommended reading: Any workes by Martin A. Uman who has studied and written about Lightning over the years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Uman
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I get headaches when there are still clear skys but a storm is coming. Even before the storm forms my headache begins. I always assumed it was barometric pressure changes that caused theheadaches. It certainly is not lightning or thunder. Lightning doesn’t usually start until many hours later when the clouds move in and the rain starts to fall. This study strikes me as ludicrous; they may as well blame the headaches on the rising water in the creeks and rivers. Correlation is not causation.
Don’t see how that can happen, IOW, this doesn’t hold much water (unless you are standing out in a clear street or out in an open field away from structures each and every time headache onset occurs!)
Playing around with an old JCI ‘field mill’ style Electrometer (similar to a model JCI 140, a device which measures actual, STATIC ELECTRIC FIELDS) I found that the ‘static field’ is ZERO anytime you’re in, or even under a structure, as when in a car (or even under a tree; now someone is bound to bring up the dangers of seeking shelter here so let’s discuss this case separately. if necessary, shall we?)
Incidentally, one can measure the voltage of a battery using non-contact methods (no Galvanic contact whatsoever! No test leads required) using one of the more sensitive electrometers … once one is standing in the street or a near-open field (away from overhead structures or trees even) THEN one can see the ‘voltage’ building in a thunderstorm, but not when one is within or under a structure … in fact it’s interesting to watch the electrometer as a storm progresses, how the electric field changes, shifts polarity even! as lightning discharges take place.
I can make a video of this effect if you want …
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Ref:
JCI 140 – http://www.chilworth.co.uk/jci-electrostatic-instruments/jci140-static-monitor.aspx
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Yeah, lightning causes headaches, when it’s close enough to almost blow out your eardrums.
PS. If ‘some’ of this were true (high potential electric fields producing headaches), just shuffling across the carpet in your rubberized tennis shoes should give one a good wallop of a headache!
Remember those big sparks you could pull before installing that humidifier?
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Most of those, I think, end up either ‘in solution’ or suspended in the rainwater … perhaps they offer the ‘seeds’ by which rain droplets initiate.
BTW, the earth’s nominal ‘electric’ field, except in the vicinity of thunderstorms, measures awfully weak …
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BUT we don’t all stand aligned to uniformly face the N or S poles to exist in life … I am assuming the orientation of the magnetic poles in the cells is pretty much random, not having seen any research to the contrary, so I myself would be at a loss to attach any significance external influences from magnetic fields …
(It seems an experiment of this nature exploring external mag field influences on lifeforms would seem to be trivial to perform, requiring only a number of ‘bar’ magnets or a large electromagnet to affect a test subject.)
Without some kind of hypothesis of a link between lightning strikes and headache onset I’ll take this to be an example of correlation without causation. What other conditons are present when thunderstorms are nearby?
(Wow, those computer models are SO good at making up linkages between SO many things…)
I actually have a lot of respect for the University of Cincinnati, overall. Good engineering school, good conservatory of music, good teaching medical institution. I think this research is interesting, but I also have concerns — like Anthony — about “confounding variables,” as does G P Hanner. I’m not certain the researchers have adequately addressed/discounted/excluded the potential effect of visual stimuli of a thunderstorm (darkening skies and flashes of lightning in particular) that may cause some individuals with higher sensitivity to respond with a headache. We know that some people are very sensitive to the frequency of strobes, for example. A neighbor boy used to need very dark conditions to resolve his migraines; who says the reverse cannot be true for someone else.
The fact that “[They] used mathematical models to determine if the lightning itself was the cause of the increased frequency of headaches or whether it could be attributed to other weather factors encountered with thunderstorms,…” should not be overlooked. We know so little about the human brain as it is: only in the past few years have studies confirmed that the brian development process does not generally end until a person is in his/her mid-20’s. That has major implications because prior to that the brain tends to focus more on reward than on consequence — which of course those of us with teenager children already suspected,… at least.
BTW: This was one of the headlines at UC about a year ago (March 13, 2011)
UC HEALTH LINE: Double-Jointedness Could Be the Cause of Your Migraine http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/12736/
@Bill H: These are medical students and Medical Doctors giving us these fine conclusions, where’s your respect for that fine profession that’s also given us so much? [ / sarc ]
Nice to have thoughtful commentary by readers who apparently have higher susceptibility to migraines and headaches, including: Schrodinger’s Cat & Keith A. Nonemaker.
Give it a year or so and someone will probably come out with a study that says “no, that’s not it” just as we’ve seen with coffee, tea, chocolate, salt, fat and most other things…
Steve Benson says
I get headaches when there are still clear skys but a storm is coming. Even before the storm forms my headache begins.
Steve, check out this weather underground fact page http://www.wunderground.com/health/pollenallergy.asp. Windy conditions that precede a storm stir up pollens, mold and dust.
A tip for those who suffer from these headaches: a cold pack kept in the freezer then applied to the forehead can be a useful remedy. If it works, it will be much quicker relief than you can get from drugs.
Alex Heyworth says:
> A tip for those who suffer from these headaches: a cold pack kept in the freezer then applied to the forehead can be a useful remedy. If it works, it will be much quicker relief than you can get from drugs.
It does work for some people. That’s what my mom does and she says it helps her every time.
When I have a headache and I am out of drugs, I can reliably cure it with a couple things that have the opposite effect to that of a cold pack. I can either walk until I am tired — it takes 3 .. 4 hours until I’m free of acute pain, and then I need to walk another hour or so to make sure it does not come back — or if I have that option, I take a hot shower for 30 minutes to an hour, with water falling right on my face and the top of my head (however unpleasant that is, still better than the headache). Neither of these methods ever failed to help, but I will rather take a liquid Ibuprofen capsule if I have it. It is cheaper and quicker.
There are apparently different kinds of headache. If yours is a tension headache, ice on the forehead will only make it worse.
This study demonstrates only what is wrong with modern-day epidemiology.
It says nothing scientific about the causes of headaches.
Gene Selkov, there is an extensive literature of research on this topic (see http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=pollen+storms+asthma&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=). While there is a variety of findings, much of the research supports a link between storms, pollen and asthma. It seems as though the link probably involves other, unknown factors (ozone levels? particular storm structures?) but there is definitely a link.
Alex Heyworth: Maybe. We started with headaches, touched allergies and digressed into asthma.
Asthma is considered by many physicians to be a functional disorder. It can be caused by anything; it can also disappear without trace and never return. It’s a very fertile soil for links and associations.
Gene, I agree that asthma was a bit of a red herring. Reread the thread and was reminded of your first post – your headaches certainly seem to be in the tension headache/migraine category. Haven’t had those for a long time, thankfully.
I don’t believe the pollen theory, My headaches began in the build up to an electrical storm, often before any rainfall and sometimes in the middle of the City of Glasgow where pollen was not an issue.
As a warming sceptic and daily visitor to this site since long before ClimateGate1 (whenever that was, but in the early days of WUWT) It is fascinating to be on the receiving side of sceptism.
However, i don’t mind that, I am well aware that people here are conditioned by a diet of doubtful science from the warming community and conclusions based on models have lost all credibility especially where poorly understood science is modelled and the output is given publicity in an attempt to scaremonger for political value or to secure further funding.
However, at the end of this particular WUWT thread, let me assure you all that a small number of people get a headache when a thunder storm is imminent. It is not a big deal, just an interesting fact.