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Comment by jnovek | Hacker News Reader

I have migraines triggered by changes in the weather. The last two winters have been the most miserable of my life.

This most recent winter I had a migraine that lasted an unbelievable 63 days starting the day after Christmas.

While I definitely agree climate change is a clear and present danger, how do you know that your migraines are weather related?

Sounds like a conflating of correlation and causation.

Your skepticism is reasonable. It does sound like an extraordinary claim.

The relationship between migraine and weather is a studied phenomenon. I admit that I don’t personally understand the research on this topic, but I trust my neurologist.

I do know that the proxy data for weather changes is barometric pressure, so it’s often specified in that way: “changes in the barometric pressure cause migraines for some people”. However I find the concept easier to explain to people with the phrase “changes in weather” because, in my experience, most folks don’t really know the relationship between the barometer and the weather.

The Mayo has a layman’s discussion on the topic of weather and migraine:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-head...

EDIT: I forgot to mention. I “know” about the correlation because I’ve done hundreds of days of migraine journaling over the years and used that to find probable triggers. Unfortunately, that’s essentially the state-of-the-art in the field. :-/

It's funny to me that people have unlearned the relationship between pressure and weather. I grew up in a house with a faux-antique barometer, and always took that for granted. Like reading an analog clock, this isn't knowledge that "kids these days" pick up. Which is still weird, because TV weather announcers always talk about the pressure when describing their weather forecasts. But of course, people want to know if their BBQ is going to be sunny, they don't want a lesson in physics.

https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/earth/make-your-own-weath...

We’ve even lost most of “looks like rain” - the average person a hundred years ago or so would have been able to relatively reliably predict the day’s weather in the morning.

Many of us can’t do that now, even if we do go outside.

Honestly though, a proper prediction with various inputs is more accurate than eyeballing a barometer, and aside from this particular type of migraine, why would anyone need to know the pressure during the normal course of one's day? (Assuming your work doesn't happen to use environmental pressure.)

> why would anyone need to know the pressure

Rising and falling pressures are a decent enough heuristic for weather behaviors in local areas.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there isn't much severe weather, but spent a few years in Atlanta in my 20's, where you get tornado warnings.

After about a year in Atlanta, I was able to predict a tornado siren going off about one or two minutes ahead of time nearly every time. All I know is that I'd be going about my business and, of out of nowhere, the air would feel different. I can't explain it any better than that, but it was such an obvious feeling to me and blew my mind having never been in that situation before.

Humans are much more animalistic than we want to admit. Our senses are insanely attuned to our surroundings, but modernity overwhelms them. Oh well, trade offs I guess.

Have you looked into how much energy/noise it would take for a fan to add those couple missing millibars to your house, to make the change more gradual? Assuming mostly gradual weather changes most days, it might be able to catch many of the big changes if you are able to stay at home for 24 hours after the change.

> changes in the barometric pressure cause migraines for some people

I am with you. Have you considered moving to a geographical location with smaller pressure variations? Helped me a lot.

Does it matter whether it’s correlation or causation? Maybe the weather causes something else to happen (like releasing more allergens or whatever), and that causes their (and my) migraines? Who cares? When the weather changes, many of us experience migraines. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s causation or correlation and your questioning it does nothing to help the people suffering or to educate those reading the discussion. It’s just dismissive for no reason.

Do you get a headache on an airplane when it’s ascending or descending?

I think I do, but there are so many other things in the airport and on airplanes (noises, smells, bright lights) that trigger migraine that I can’t really say for sure.

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