Weather-related migraines

[EmilyK]

So, I'm not sure if this is specifically "women's health" but I wasn't sure where else it would fit.

 

Since embarking on my whole30, my headaches have improved SIGNIFICANTLY--I used to have some variety of headache maybe 25 days a month, and now they've mostly disappeared.  However, I still get migraines when it rains (or is going to rain).  Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent these?  I feel so much better on the headache front overall, I would love to get rid of (or at least reduce the severity of) this last kind that JUST WON'T QUIT.

 

Help?

[ladyshanny]

Oh, that sounds awful!  Here where I live it rains.  A LOT.  I wonder if it's not so much the rain as the pressure change when a new front rolls in? And are you sure it's a migraine and not a pressure/sinus headache? I've found those can feel really similar, a sinus pressure headache, especially when it's behind your eyes, can be just as bad as a migraine.

 

I'm not the type to take a lot of medication but you might try a sinus decongestant with no painkiller in it.  See if that relieves the pressure?

[EmilyK]

It definitely is related to the barometric pressure, but I've been having them long enough that I've drilled down to it being an actual migraine when it is about to or is raining.  I also used to get a lot more sinus pressure headaches but whole30-ing really took down my congestion several notches so i'm not having those kind of eye/forehead/face aches much at all anymore.  (The worst days were when I was also still getting premenstrual migraines and it would rain on the day before I started my period.  WORST DAY EVER.)  I'm really not complaining too much because my almost-constant headache that I used to have (ebb and flow of sinus, cluster, migraine, and probably stress) has all but disappeared which may be making me less tolerant of the rain headaches. 

 

Today's was not as bad as they used to be, actually--I could actually see, and a hardcore combo of Excedrin migraine, a cup of coffee, and 800mg of ibuprofen 2 hours later finally brought it down to probably 20% of where it started.  I know I could probably get something stronger from my doctor but I was really kind of hoping for some hot preventative tip that *didn't* involve medications or injecting botox into my head. 

[jennangel]

I've gotten headaches all my life when it rains. I've been told it was sinus headaches. Actifed is the only thing that has worked for me in 43 years. I mix it with acetaminophen and the headaches gone. Actually the only place I find it now is at Walgreens and is called Wal act. Hope this helps.

[Loulabelle]

Changes in barometric pressure is a recognised trigger of migraines here in Europe, I haven't found anything on preventing this type of headache so far.