Lightning may cause headaches

Lightning could cause headaches and migraines, according to researchers who found that people are 25 per cent more likely to develop symptoms on the day of a strike.

On days when lightning bolts appeared, cases of headaches and migraines increased by 24 per cent and 23 per cent respectively among healthy people who lived within a 25 mile (40km) radius, according to a new study.

The figures among chronic sufferers were even more severe, with incidences of headache increasing by 31 per cent and of migraine by 28 per cent.

Electromagnetic waves could be responsible for triggering headaches, they suggested, while lightning also increases air pollutants like ozone and can cause release of fungal spores which may result in migraines, researchers suggested.

Prof Vincent Martin of the University of Cincinnati and his son Geoffrey, a medical student, asked volunteers to keep a daily diary of headaches and migraines for three to six months, and compared the incidence rate against weather conditions for each day.

Various meteorological conditions involved in stormy weather, such as barometric pressure and humidity, have been shown to influence the likelihood of headaches.

But even after taking these into account the study found lightning itself had a significant effect.

Prof Martin explained: "We used mathematical models to determine if the lightning itself was the cause of the increased frequency of headaches or whether it could be attributed to other weather factors encountered with thunderstorms.

"Our results found a 19 per cent increased risk for headaches on lightning days, even after accounting for these weather factors. This suggests that lightning has its own unique effect on headache."

The results, published in the Cephalalgia journal, showed that negatively charged lightning currents in particular were linked to a higher number of headaches.

Prof Martin said: "The exact mechanisms through which lightning and/or its associated meteorologic factors trigger headache are unknown, although we do have speculations.

"Ultimately, the effect of weather on headache is complex, and future studies will be needed to define more precisely the role of lightning and thunderstorms on headache."

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