Here comes climate change. I hope you packed your Advil...

It is commonly known as 'clinical folklore', but many have believed for years that there was a link between headaches and the weather. Well, it's fair to say it's no longer just a piece of folklore. Researchers from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston just published a study in the journal Neurology demonstrating a link between weather conditions and the incidence of headaches and migraines.

Interestingly, warmer weather and changes in atmospheric pressure are shown to significantly influence headaches and migraines. The researchers estimate that each 5 degree rise in temperature can increase the risk of severe headaches by 8% compared to colder weather. Lower barometric pressure also appeared to be associated with more headaches. 

While air pollution didn't indicate any changes, nor did the researchers prove strong causation, there was a definite evident linkage between the two. And I'm going to guess that our headaches aren't the ones influencing the weather. Humans have impacts, but that might be pushing it.

So why do I bother writing about this? Well, with warmer air temperatures come more headaches. Climate change is certainly expected to increase average air temperatures, as well as the frequency of the extremely high temperature changes, like the heat wave seen in Western Europe in 2003. There could be a lot more headaches in our future.

Oh, conspiracy theorists, here's something to consider. Maybe the drug companies are causing climate change. Oooooooh. I see a straight-to-video movie...