Humidity and migraine attacks are strongly connected for most people. The relationship between humidity-triggered migraines is one that often brings up stress, worry, and concern for folks who want to ensure the summer heat, rainy spring days, and warm fall days. The reason humidity plays a role in migraine attacks is because of the barometric pressure falling. When this happens the blood vessels and tissues in your brain will swell and cause head pain.
One of the keys to managing your migraines is understanding your migraine triggers. For most folks, high or low humidity can be a trigger for migraines, so they’re mindful of weather conditions and humidity levels. It is important to understand if humidity is a common trigger for your migraines. Ensuring you speak to the medical professional overseeing your care to understand how many triggers and your symptoms are associated with weather-related triggers.
This blog post is not providing medical advice, and should not be taken in place of a medical professional overseeing your health. Please speak to a medical professional if you have questions about your migraine symptoms and treatment.
Understanding Weather and Humidity as Migraine Triggers
There is a strong correlation between hot weather, increased humidity, and an increase in migraines for most folks. Weather changes can affect the barometric pressure which can include swelling and pain associated with a migraine. As well, humidity and barometric pressure changes can create a chemical change in the brain’s response which can trigger a migraine. Weather such as extreme temperatures, storms, high winds, and rapid changes in temperature can contribute to altering the brain’s serotonin levels which can trigger a migraine attack.
If you live in a climate with high humidity often, or extreme weather you may see an increased frequency and intensity of your migraine headache symptoms. Living in a high-heat environment can be challenging for folks with humidity triggers. The more stable weather patterners are the more likely migraines related to weather will be lower. For example, a place that experiences a lot of thunderstorms, compared to one that experiences a handful a year can be impactful for migraine patients. Speak to your doctor if you’re worried about certain environmental triggers.
Discovering Personal Triggers
Do you know your migraine triggers? It’s important to learn what your migraine triggers are to help you with learning more about your migraines and help reduce and control them. Common migraine triggers can be high heat, aged cheese, bright lights, lack of sleep, sudden changes to the environment, and hormone changes to name a couple. It’s important o keep a migraine journal to learn more about what your triggers are. This is important with weather-related migraines to track what the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure were on your migraine days to help find a pattern and potential triggers. As well begin to recognize the patterns and make adjustments as needed. For example on a high-humidity day don’t open windows in your space just use AC to help with controlling the indoor humidity. Be sure to speak to a medical professional for personalized guidance on helping with your migraines.
How to Handle Weather/Environment
After you determine what your triggers are it’s important to work on building a weather-resilient environment that works for you! Creating a migraine-friendly living space can include items such as a dehumidifier for dry air, blinds to reduce sun glare, migraine medication on hand, water & hydration options, and air conditioning.
It’s crucial to understand your environment’s humidity levels and then prepare accordingly for those dry days and high-humidity days to ensure your environment meets your needs. At work and at home use dehumidifiers and humidifiers to adjust your humidity level as needed. As well, an AC can help reduce the heat on high-heat days and can work as a dehumidifier to help create dry conditions in high heat. Be prepared for humidity changes and what you can do when oncoming migraines in your environment.
Planning Ahead with the Weather
It’s important if you’re someone who lives with pressure impact headaches to keep up to date and informed about weather changes. In today’s day and age, there are numerous apps that you can set up with alerts for certain weather changes, or apps you can quickly check daily to get a reading on the weather.
Keeping up to date on weather-related changes helps you prepare and reduce possible migraine triggers. Be sure to stay up to date on your local forecast, and stay up to date when traveling or visiting other areas. Subscribe to weather alerts and notifications for easy weather-related updates, such as low barometric pressure warnings.
Lastly, it’s helpful to plan activities around weather patterns whenever possible. Being sure you have different options and ways to take care of your environment can help reduce stress and increase your chances of being migraine free when humidity strikes. Be sure to minimize your exposure to triggers and other weather-related factors when possible.
Lifestyle and Dietary Adjustments
There are lifestyle and dietary adjustments you can make as well to help during those periods of weather-related migraines you can’t avoid. For example in the spring when there are numerous thunderstorms, making adjustments to your lifestyle and diet can help with your migraine management and can be a first step to reducing your frequency. Sleep can be so important in reducing migraine triggers. Establishing a consistent sleep schedule can help with reducing your migraines overall. In the summer and heat months, it’s easier to have longer days, but it’s important to keep a consistent schedule all year long and to minimize disruptions when possible.
Regular exercise and movement can help improve overall health which can help with controlling and reducing migraines. Be mindful in extreme heat to not overexert yourself and ensure you have enough water to stay well hydrated. You can do simple stretches, go for a walk or do a full workout. Lastly, starting a migraine-friendly diet can help with counteracting weather-related triggers for migraine sufferers.
Managing Migraines When Weather Triggers Happen
Even if you do everything you can to help reduce environmental factors and temperature changes, migraines can still happen. So what can you do when they’re unavoidable? Be sure to work with your medical team to find effective medications that you can take to help get relief from migraine pain. As well, as utilize integrative approaches such as mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and acupuncture.
When a migraine episode occurs you can do home remedies such as essential oils, self-care ideas, and self-massage to help work through the migraine as you can. For more severe headaches and migraines be sure to rest and take care of yourself. Avoid common triggers for your migraines whenever possible to reduce migraine onset.
Relaxation Ideas:
- Morning Yoga before heat/humidity comes
- Reading a book in the shade of a tree
- Gardening
- Colouring/Journaling
- Going for a walk
- Meditation (indoor or outdoors)
- Listen to music
- Aromatherapy
- Laying in a hammock
Seeking Professional Help When Needed
It’s important to know when to consult a migraine specialist about your health. Speak to your medical health care team, health care professional about when to seek medical attention for your migraines and when to go for emergency department visits (ER). It’s important to know the thresholds for your migraine symptoms what you manage on your own, and what warning signs you need to watch for. Examples of medical symptoms for an ER visit could include trouble speaking, slurred speech, confusion, weakness in one side of the body, high fever, or loss of vision. Each individual is different, so speak to a medical professional or consult emergency services if you’re unsure.
Talk to your healthcare team about preventative medication and abortive medications for your migraines. All neurological conditions should speak to a medical professional for treatment options for migraines, such as a neurologist or headache specialist. Be sure to keep your medication on you at times when your headache triggers might be more common for example high humidity days and days of significant barometric pressure changes in air pressure.
Supports
It’s important when it comes to managing your migraines to have a strong support system around you. Creating a support network of people who can help with understanding and assisting can be so helpful and impactful on bad migraine days. Letting folks know that humid days can impact you and letting them know you need to get home early to have enough sleep to prevent migraines can help things go smoothly by being open and communicating with others. Also letting folks know when you start to feel those pain signals so you can leave, or get help or assistance as you need. While you might not always know the exact cause of migraines for yourself, trying to keep people around who support and want to help with reducing your migraine triggers can be helpful!
If you’re someone who experiences migraines often be sure to work on your stress management technique to help with relieving stress. Stress can make a greater impact on the chemical imbalance in the brain, especially stress for long periods. Be sure to engage in stress-relieving activities to help manage your levels of serotonin.
Conclusion
In conclusion, managing weather-triggered migraines is of paramount importance for those affected by these debilitating headaches. By understanding the relationship between weather patterns and migraines, we empower ourselves to take proactive steps toward a better quality of life.
From building a weather-resilient environment to identifying personal triggers and seeking professional help, we can significantly reduce the impact of weather and humidity on our migraines. Though the journey may present challenges, let us remain motivated and persistent in our efforts to minimize migraines and regain control over our lives. Remember, with dedication and support, we can find relief and live more freely despite the unpredictability of the weather. Here’s to a brighter, headache-free future!
Great post, Alex! OMG, I can’t live without our AC. I love sleeping in the cold which is why I have the best sleep in the Fall/Winter! I get a migraine when I don’t have enough water so I totally understand what you mean about hydration during the summer. Thanks for sharing x
Lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
I suffer from chronic migraines to the point that I have no choice but to go to the hospital on some days. Drinking plenty of water, eating iron rich foods, and keeping cool are definitely good ways to avoid a migraine during the summer days or when it gets humid
I have humidity migraine and it’s quite torturing. I will follow your tips. Thank you for sharing. Good post.
I get migraines due to a medical condition but I can also get them from certain triggers and heat is one of them. These are great tips which I’m going to give a go — thank you!
While I’m loving the warmer weather I’m definitely worried about migraines creeping back in. Thanks for sharing your tips 🙂
great post, alex! i can’t tell you how many times i wonder why i have a headache / migraine & then realize i’m dehydrated. these are such great reminders!
Wow Alex! I learnt a lot from this post. I didn’t know a lot about migraines before now but like they say “Prevention is better than cure”. I’ll put these tips into practice to prevent Migraine. Thank you for sharing!
I hope you don’t get any migraines in this heat! My migraines often surprise. I think they are stress related for me. Sometimes when I’m in a lot of pain, the only thing that helps is having my hair stroked and lying in a cool dark room
These are all great tips for anyone who has regular weather-related migraines or headaches. Sleep and relaxation are super hard in the midst of a headache, though, but it’s important to make that part of your daily routine so that you can prevent them from happening in the first place.
This is such a great post! I get migraines because of dehydration but still, there are many things I didn’t know about which caused migraines. Your tips are really helpful and I am gonna put them into practice. Thank you for sharing xx
Loved reading this Alex! I don’t suffer from chronic migraines, but I do get them and this heatwave is not making it any easier, these are all amazing tips! I got a dehumidifier in my room and it helps a lot as well as keeping hydrated all the time x
I’ve had a few migraines recently so this post came at the perfect time, I’m definitely going to be using all these tips!
Katy | http://www.katystephenson.com
So helpful post, Alex! The heat in Dubai is sometimes unbearable, especially in August. Although almost everything is air-conditioned, I’ll keep your tips in mind. You’re so right about staying hydrated and getting enough sleep – which I should improve. Thanks for sharing this! x
This blog post is so helpful. I’m so struggling with migraines so I’m always looking out blog posts that could help me. Brilliantly written, thank you.
As someone who’s suffering from chronic migraine now, these tips are lifesavers! I’m going to get a dehumidifier for my apartment soon!
Thank you for your tips. I never thought of using a dehumidifier.
Thanks so much for sharing this Alex! Although I don’t get migraines, I do get pretty bad headaches and have notice that humidity can be a trigger for them. I will definitely be trying these suggestions to help prevent my headaches.
This is such a helpful post. I’ve really been suffering with migraines this week with this weather.
Staying hydrated is so important. I always get a headache when I have not drank enough water.
Oh my god, this post could have not come at a better time! We are on a heatwave currently in the UK and we’re frying our brains out…which means the headaches and migraines are raging in our household! These are great tips, sadly no aircon pretty much anywhere but in shops, but I have a little trusted fan we’re using and also a portable one to take everywhere (a life saviour!!)
Great tips! While I don’t generally suffer from migraines, I do struggle with really bad seasonal allergies and the resulting sinus pain/pressure. I find that changing weather really amps that up, turning otherwise annoying sinus pressure into downright impossible to tolerate painful headaches. I think it’s the same concept as the impact of weather changes on those that deal with migraines. Staying hydrated is a BIG one, one that I have to remind myself of quite often.
Thanks Lynn, very similar I need fans or AC for the summer months! Hydration is so important, to everyone! Thanks for reading 🙂
I’m sorry to hear Riyah – I hope this post helps. Iron rich foods are so helpful, and those with B vitamins and magnesium. I’m glad we’ve connected about migraines and looking forward to helping supporting each other moving forward!
It’s horrible – I’m glad this post provided some tips and ideas! 🙂
I’m sorry to hear about your migraines, I’m glad this post gave you some tips to hopefully help with reducing those triggered by heat and humidity! Sending positive thoughts your way.
Totally! I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
Thanks – I’ve used apps in my phone before with reminders if you’re having a tough time maybe check those out! 🙂
Thanks – I’m glad this was an informative post with lots of ideas for your to try!
Thanks Emma – stress can be a big trigger for migraines as well! I’m actually writing a post that will come out in a couple weeks on that! I’m glad you’ve found what works best for you when the pain strikes. Sending positive thoughts and vibes your way!
Thanks! Yes, it’s good prevention for sure! You have to find what works best for you – everyone’s body is so different! 🙂
Sorry to hear about your migraines. I use to use an app to help remind me to drink – maybe give that a try? I’m glad this post was helpful!
Thanks Cristina – the heat will definitely make anyones head not feel so great! I hope these tips help a bit under the heat reduces! Dehumidifiers are awesome and I’m glad you’re staying well hydrated! 🙂
I’m sorry to hear about the migraines, but glad this post came at the right time! Hope the tips help 🙂
Thanks – it’s awesome to hear you have AC and I hope the rest of the tips help with keeping your migraines at bay! Thanks for reading and commenting.
I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling – I’ve often got some migraine/headache tip posts that come out so be sure to check my blog for more helpful tips! Thanks
I’m sorry to hear – hope these tips help! A dehumidifier is awesome – I hope it helps and you feel a difference once it’s doing its job!
I hope it helps! Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
Awesome to hear – I hope these tips help to ease your migraines!
Thanks Tiffany – I hope these tips help with your headaches!
YES so important! Thanks for commenting 🙂
I’m so glad this post was timed well! sorry to hear about the heatwave – and yes I can imagine that’s not a nice feeling for anyone’s head at the moment! I’m glad these tips will come in handy – yes fans and cold compresses will really help to reduce your internal heat! Hoping the heat wave passes soon, and well wishes for everyone’s head!
Yes – heat and humidify can definitely impacts other ailments as well like seasonal allergies and headaches – I’m glad you’ve found what works best for you and sending well wishes for the rest of the summer!
Great post! Humidity is the no 1 trigger for my migraines and unfortunately I’ve lived in humid places all my life. My dehumidifier is my best friend honestly. I find when medication fails, music for migraines and lately ASMR videos help.
Yes, I’m very similar to living in humid locations with humidity being such a big trigger! I’m glad your dehumidiferer really helps and ASMR videos.
Great post with some really fab ideas. I used to always know when a storm was coming because I’d get a terrible headache!
Thanks jenny, I’m glad you found this post informative and helpful.
Interesting, I used to suffer from migraines a lot, I don’t as much anymore but I often get headaches when it’s hot! I wonder if it could be humidity related!
Corinne x
It could be, humidity can be a factor for a lot of health concerns. Thanks for reading, and glad to hear your migraines have lessened over time!