American scientists have found that migraine attacks could become more frequent due to global warming.
- Global warming has various consequences on our health.
- Rising temperatures could increase migraine attacks in particular.
- Specific treatment may be prescribed for patients suffering from weather-related headaches.
Global warming affects health at different levels. Air pollution is a factor responsible for significant respiratory problems, and water shortages and contamination are contributing to the increase in water-borne diseases. According to a recent study presented at The 66th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Societyrising temperatures would also increase migraine attacks.
Increase in headaches linked to rising temperatures
In this research, researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Errex Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals US Inc (USA) studied the effects of Fremanezumab, a drug injected under the skin, to prevent migraines caused by high temperatures.
For the study, they cross-referenced 71,030 daily diaries from 660 migraine patients with regional weather data. The scientists observed that there was a 6% increase in headache risk for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit increase in temperature per day. However, migraines did improve during the Fremanezumab treatment periods.
Migraines and fever: treatment could be considered
“Climate change is one of the most common triggers of migraine (…) What we found is that increasing temperature is a significant factor in migraine onset in every region of the United States. It’s pretty amazing, given all the climate variation that’s happening across the country, that we could find one [ndlr corrélation] which is also important”has explained Vincent Martin, lead author of the study and director of the Headache and Facial Pain Center at the Gardner Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cincinnati in a statement.
Fremanezumab could therefore be a lead to relieve people suffering from headaches triggered by weather conditions. However, these initial conclusions still need to be confirmed by further research.
