S G BLOG POST: WEATHER AS AN UNAVOIDABLE TRIGGER (NEW)

     I have read often that it takes, on average, 3 years to internalize all the information regarding "migraineurs" - to address all the possible triggers.  I may be below average.  This December will be three years since I finally found the right doctor (an oto-neurologist) and a helpful diagnosis (silent migraine, as he calls it).  It is only now that I am seeing weather and barometric pressure changes as possible triggers for me.
     Yesterday (9-14-15) I was feeling energetic and symptom free.  I decided to push the envelope and make a tuna salad for lunch.  It was tuna from Trader Joe's and the label just says "tuna" - no pyrophosphate.  It is 1/2 salt.  (But of course it still had been sitting in a can and changing !?!)  I ate it with lettuce dressed with homemade Italian dressing (clear white vinegar).
     One hour later, I felt a little off balance.  I had a few flurries of vertigo but they would stop.  I blamed the canned tuna and wondered if I was having a histamine reaction to the fish that was aggravating my problems.  I always wonder this.   I eat tuna once a month, though, and I really cannot say I have had a problem before.  I was completely oblivious to the clouds coming in and the prediction of up to one inch of rain tomorrow: "An unusual weather pattern for this time of year is expected as a weak cool front ----brings more rain" (LA Times).
     Today I was very dizzy when I awoke early at 5:30am.  It seemed dark, the rain was already noisy and the air in the house was very humid.  I knew my condition was way off (ear fullness, off balance, vertigo, a little nausea, etc.) so I took one 200 mg Advil tablet right away, as well as Nasonex in my bad ear.  Within 20 minutes I was better  and in an hour I was fine (maybe this is the pay-off for keeping other triggers very low).  Was this a reaction to the change in weather - in barometric pressure?  I believe it might be.
     Dr. David Buchholz recognizes barometric pressure and weather changes as triggers, albeit unavoidable ones.  They are: approaching storms, heat and humidity, air travel and high altitude.  He states you have to keep the avoidable triggers from "stacking-up" so the unavoidable ones have less of an impact.  ("Healing Your Headache 1-2-3")
     In a report on CNN, Dr. Carolyn Bernstein ("The Migraine Brain") sees a spike in migraines in Boston each August with hurricane season.  And Dr. Vincent Martin of the University of Cincinnati says that headache patients with the "toe curling" migraine - sensitivity to light and sound, with nausea and vomiting - are triggered by meteorological change.  He says that falling barometric pressure might activate the trigeminal nerve in the sinuses or eyes that could initiate an attack.  He also reiterates that, "We think the effect of triggers is additive".
     Dr. Jerry Swanson of the online Mayo Clinic resource says weather related triggers include:
     Bright sunlight
     Extreme cold or heat
     Sun glare
     High humidity
     Dry air
     Stormy weather
     Barometric Pressure Changes
These could certainly worsen a migraine initiated by other triggers.

     Weather is a trigger for me.  Again, I cannot go through my days carefree.  I must try to keep the avoidable triggers low so there is not a cumulative effect when unavoidable triggers appear.  And, of course, an El Nino has been predicted for our winter - 2015-2016.

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