Pressure change causing headaches?

I'm prone to them, i got an absolute monster of a headache around half 4 today, eased off a bit since but still hurts. Likely to have been this?

Su Campu wrote: »

I don't buy these headaches at all. If people are that sensitive to pressure changes then they would get headaches every time they go up or down a hill.

Pressure changes by 1 hPa for every 8 metres change in height. So you drive from your home, which is at say 80 m amsl, and it takes say 30 minutes. That's a pressure fall of around 20 hPa per hour, still around 5 times more than occurs as a strong Atlantic storm approaches, which usually gives around 3-5 hPa drop per hour at most.

That's assuming you're on a gentle rise from sea level to your home. Of course it won't be that simple, and there will be many steeper and shorter-term rises and falls, so if you there were such a condition, some people couldn't travel!

I suffer from sinus problems and I can feel my ears pop when going down a steep hill! I can tell immediately when a plane is beginning its descent and have to chew gum to prevent ear problems/pain. Ryanair planes begin their descent into Knock Airport when they are over Dublin! No problems going up, only coming down!

I get headaches when the weather is thundery and when there is a deep low pressure.

I'll report how the head feels tomorrow!

I think it's probably a real health phenomenon but it may be related more to atmospheric ionization than pressure. Since the ionization of different air masses is most likely to change abruptly in low-pressure systems, people come to associate the change with a falling barometer.

I've heard the same reports from people in my part of the world, which has a similar climate. But also I've read reports about similar effects in mountain regions associated with the foehn or chinook as it's called in North America.

If it's ionization rather than pressure, that overcomes Su Campu's legitimate objection about changing pressures with elevation. The atmospheric ionization would not change as you go up or down in elevation.

I think it's a matter of common experience that people feel better, in fact somewhat euphoric, on a breezy partly cloudy day with the wind in the southwest or west, coming in off the open ocean (same thing here), and on the other hand, people feel cranky when there's a low overcast, the wind is in the south or east, and by coincidence the barometer is falling. But what makes most feel cranky can make some feel more ill with a migraine or at least a headache.

Worth noting too that many years ago, I was able to do a study in a group home setting on the infamous "full moon and human behaviour" theory and while that didn't seem to be provable, what did stand out is that problem behaviour spiked whenever a front was approaching, and problems would be reduced to a minimum when the front had cleared. Once again, I suspected the answer might be ionization. What makes a normal person feel a bit "off" or cranky might make a disturbed person more disturbed, enough to act out and cause trouble. The relation to full moon may simply be the statistical overlap between storminess and full moon which I would submit can only be demonstrated in the winter months from my research.

One thing that might not be a constant in this line of thinking, would be the sorts of air masses mixed up in a frontal system. If the front is just a dividing line between similar air masses (re ionization) then it might not have this effect, you would need to see a good contrast, and a reliable sign of that contrast is thunderstorm or sferic activity.

Anyway, I would be interested in hearing from people (on this thread, no need to shout) with health variations during this upcoming weather event and the Monday-Tuesday event if that materializes. In particular, do people start to feel bad around the time that the wind backs into south, and do they feel better after passage of the front and veering wind direction?

Both my wife and I woke up with headaches this morning... definitely weather related.
It's a definite pattern for us...sometimes headaches happen several hours before a noticeable change in weather.

boatbuilder wrote: »

Both my wife and I woke up with headaches this morning... definitely weather related.
It's a definite pattern for us...sometimes headaches happen several hours before a noticeable change in weather.

Nothing to do with the wine :pac:

Su Campu wrote: »

Yesterday was a fairly benign day, with average pressures, very slowly rising through the day. Do people not think that it's highly unlikely that today's storm was the cause of nosebleeds, and not the normal dehydration that takes place when we get a cold spell in winter. The air is drier, people stay indoors more, where the relative humidity is very low, causing mucuous hardening in the nasal cavities, which can cause the nosebleeds?

its not that unusual for me, sarcasm obviously didnt come through in my post

I'm very prone to sinus headaches, but here in the South East I didn't notice any discomfort or start of a headache today. Never really paid attention to the weather when I had my headaches before, will have to now !
Got an awful altitude headache as a teenager going up to Aiguille du Midi (to view the Mont Blanc), not funny when you're stuck in a cable car... simply had to go down again straight away.
I live near enough to 200masl now, and work literally at sea level, but never noticed improvement or otherwise when going down to work. Or maybe it does improve now I think of it, since by lunchtime I'm usually ok... could be the Nurofen + though :pac:

Croatian beer maybe?

Threads merged.

redsteveireland wrote: »

Sounds more like sinus pain which I suffered with myself.

I can say that working in a room that is at a set pressure affects me as soon as I walk in the door. Once I leave the room I feel alot better so it is highly possible for the rise and fall of atmospheric pressure to affect people.

Do you work in a room that's above or below atmospheric pressure ?