Air pollution can trigger serious migraines, research shows.
Hot and humid weather conditions are also associated with increased likelihood of the debilitating headaches, a study of sufferers reveals.
Researchers found there were a higher number of hospital visits for migraine treatment on days with greater levels of air pollution, the journal Neurology reports. On the day with the highest number of hospital visits, the level of pollution was twice as high as the clean air limits set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The day with the fewest visits to a hospital or clinic had lower than average pollution levels.
Nearly ten million people in Britain suffer from migraines, which cause severe headaches often with nausea and vomiting.
They can even cause paralysis on one side of the body, pins and needles and resemble a stroke.
About one million people have chronic migraines – meaning they spend more than half of each month struggling with intense, throbbing head pain.
The study also found there was a cumulative effect of long-term exposure to air pollution.
Nearly ten million people in Britain suffer from migraines, which cause severe headaches often with nausea and vomiting
When exposed to air pollution above the WHO limits for a prolonged period, patients showed a 10 per cent increased use of medication.
‘These findings highlight opportunities for anticipating what care will be needed,’ said study author Ido Peles from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
‘When high-risk exposure periods are in the forecast, doctors can advise people to limit outdoor activity and use air filters, take short-term preventative medications and start using their migraine drugs at the first sign of a problem to ward off attacks.
‘These results help us to better understand how and when migraine attacks occur.
‘They suggest that for people who have a susceptibility to migraines, environmental factors may play two roles: intermediate-term factors such as heat and humidity may modify the risk for attacks, while short-term factors such as spikes in pollution levels may trigger attacks.’
