Several weeks ago I posted barometric pressure trends from December along with whether or not I was sick that day. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good job recording barometric pressure on days that I wasn’t sick. I did a better job in January.
If you’re new to this blog, I have frequent migraines that I believe are influenced by barometric pressure. I think that large and/or fast changes in barometric pressure are likely the cause of most of my migraines.
Below, I present barometric pressure trends on days that I didn’t have a migraine, days that I did have a migraine, and days where I captured a switch (migraine to no migraine or no migraine to migraine). In these graphs, barometric pressure is on the vertical axis in millibars and the time is on the horizontal axis. The last time on the horizontal axis is the time that I captured the graph from WolframAlpha and recorded my condition. So, for example, on January 2nd at ~10pm I didn’t have a migraine, but on January 4 at ~8am I did have a migraine.
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I’ve been keeping track of barometric pressure in order to get a better idea of how it influences my migraines. I believe that fast and/or large pressure changes are probably triggering many or most of my migraines. Below are graphs of barometric pressure throughout December when I did and did not have a migraine. I did not look at the barometric pressure every day, so not all days are represented. Days when I was well are particularly underrepresented.
Time is on the x-axis and barometric pressure (hPa) is on the y-axis.
On these days, I did not have a migraine at the time the data was plotted. However, on two of the days (highlighted in red) I got a migraine later in the day. On December 31st, I had a headache, but it was not a migraine. Click for larger view.
I did not look at pressure on enough days when I did not have a migraine to really determine if small or gradual pressure changes and steady pressure do not trigger my migraines. I would have expected to have a migraine the night of December 31st if fast pressure changes gave me migraines. Perhaps they were too small or I slept through the migraine.
These are graphs of barometric pressure on days I did have migraines. The day highlighted in green is a day that triggers other than pressure were present. Red highlighting corresponds to days in the "no migraine" picture where I began the day without a migraine, but developed one later on. Purple indicates days that I began with a migraine and it became more severe. Click for larger view.
Fast pressure changes are certainly associated with many of the days that I had a migraine, but not all. The pressure changes on December 2nd and 5th seem slow and gradual. December 10th’s pressure changes also did not seem that extreme. Yet I still had migraines. December 2-10 I was frantically working on papers and studying for finals, so perhaps I was more stressed than I thought and that triggered those migraines.
It’s possible that pressure change only causes migraines for me or is more likely to cause migraine for me in conjunction with another trigger, or that they aren’t related at all. I’ve been trying to do a better job of keeping track of pressure and my migraines this month, so hopefully January’s data will be more helpful. More data on my migraines in the archives.
Pressure changes are just one of many things that give me migraines. I went to bed with a migraine at 2pm yesterday and am about to go back to bed now just 30 minutes after waking up since it hasn’t gone away. Here’s what the pressure looks like:
Small, slow changes and almost flat in the several hours before my migraine started – not what I expect to see if my migraine is caused by pressure change.
The migraine I have now is kind of my fault. My migraines are very sensitive to how much sleep I get and how regular it is. Staying up late, whether or not I sleep in, almost guarantees me a migraine. Monday night I stayed up late working on a paper and woke up normally – two and a half hours later.
Unless this migraine goes away in the next hour or so, it looks like I’m going to be staying up late tonight, too. My statistics homework is going to take awhile.
I try to be careful about my sleep schedule. I start assignments early and set aside chunks of time throughout the semester to work on large papers. But when I get lots of migraines from weather changes, it’s difficult not to fall behind. Then I end up staying up late to try to finish things, which gives me more migraines, which puts me more behind.
Changes in pressure seem to be my biggest migraine trigger. So changing elevation, flying, and weather changes all make me sick. I want to choose a graduate school where I’ll almost never be sick, so I need to understand more about the types of pressure changes that cause my migraines. What’s the minimum change that makes me sick? How much does the speed of the change matter? How do different magnitudes/speeds of change affect the intensity/duration of the migraine? How long after the change do I get sick?
Remember all those graphs about Petadolex I subjected you to? The next several months you’ll be seeing lots more graphs on here. I’m going to post a graph of barometric pressure that occurs before each migraine I get (or as many as I can).
I actually have a migraine this morning, though it’s tapered off since it woke me up at about 3:30am. Here’s what the pressure looked like last night:
See all those spikes? The change is relatively small, but very very fast. I wonder if just one would have been enough to give me a migraine?
I’m comparing my migraines with and without Petadolex. So far, it kind of looks like the medicine I was taking to try and make my migraines better was making them worse.
Points above the line are bad weeks. Points below the line are good weeks.
I took Petadolex for several months to try to get some relief from my migraines. It didn’t appear to be working, but to make sure, I’m keeping track of my migraines for a few more weeks – while not taking the meds. Since my main trigger is the weather, points below the line are good. Points on or above the line are bad.
I’ve been keeping track of my migraines for several months now to see if Petadolex would help my migraines. What I’d hoped to see with Petadolex was fewer migraines relative to bad weather days (my main migraine trigger). On the graph, that would mean more points below the line than on or above it. It didn’t seem to have any effect and I stopped taking it last week. To be sure, I’m going to continue to record my migraines for another month or so. If they get worse, then Petadolex really was having an effect.
I’ve been taking Petadolex for over three months now and haven’t noticed any improvement at all in my migraines. As of today, I’m going to stop taking it. However, because I only kept track of my migraines for a week before I started taking Petadolex, I am going to keep track of my migraines for another month to see if they get worse.
I haven’t posted on how the Petadolex is working in a few weeks, but I have still been keeping track of it. Here’s an updated graph. It’s looking hopeful! It might be having an effect.
I’ve been taking Petadolex for my migraines for 10 weeks now (The first week I wasn’t taking it). I’ve got 2 more weeks before I get to the 3 months mark – the amount of time it can take for the medicine to start working. I’ll be taking it for 2 or 3 weeks beyond the 12 week mark whether or not it appears to be working 1) for better data 2) because I have that many extra pills.
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