Sferics And Headache: A Prospective Study

Abstract

Sferics are low frequency, low intensity electromagnetic pulses radiating from distant meteorological events and other yet unknown sources. It has been hypothesized that sferics are part of the purported sensitivity to weather changes reported by headache sufferers. We tested this proposal. Patients (migraine and/or tension headache) enrolled in a randomized clinical trial gave daily headache data (intensity, frequency, duration of headache) for at least 18 weeks. Concurrently, a sferics measurement station in the vicinity of the patients recorded frequency and intensity of sferics. Usable headache data from 21 patients and the corresponding sferics series were subjected to time series analysis applying ARIMA models and then cross-correlated. We found significant and consistent cross-correlations of moderate size at lag 0 in one patient between ARIMA-filtered headache intensity and frequency (r = 0.18) and amplitude of sferics (r = 0.20). We conclude that in an unselected sample of headache patients some may indeed be susceptible to the low intensity type of electromagnetic radiation exemplified by sferics pulses. This phenomenon warrants further scrutiny.

Meteorologic parameters and migraine headache: ED study

“…Although there are studies [18,19] showing that migraine attacks increase with high atmospheric pressure, our results are similar to the results of studies showing no relationship between migraine headache and atmospheric pressure [14,15,17,20]. In addition, there are studies showing that migraine attacks increase with low atmospheric pressure [9,12].…”

“…Increase in the frequency of migraine attacks with increase in temperature is supported by many studies [14,18,19]. Nevertheless, there are publications showing that the temperature increase or decrease has no relationship with migraine headaches [12,15].…”

Migraine and the Environment

“…35 To study whether electromagnetic change with weather change affects headaches, 1-year diary information from 21 patients living in the Munich area (having migraine, tensiontype headache, or both) was compared with a 24-hour average of summed sferic impulses recorded in Munich. 34 There was no correlation in 11 of the subjects. The headaches preceded sferics by 1 to 6 days in 4 subjects, and the sferic preceded the headache in six others.…”

“…34 They reflect in the ionosphere and may travel thousands of kilometers around the earth, having an effect in areas remote to the site of a regional storm. The magnetic component of sferics penetrates into buildings and into the human body from all directions.…”

Weather and migraine: Can so many patients be wrong?

“…Many different atmospheric conditions have been postulated as migraine triggers. In addition to changes in temperature and humidity, barometric pressure, wind, and sunlight, sferics (low frequency low intensity electromagnetic pulses radiating from distant meteorological events and other sources) (18,19) and geomagnetic activity (20) have been postulated with some evidence to influence migraine. If in fact many of these do influence migraine onset, it might prove very difficult to show correlations with any one of them, especially as they may occur simultaneously.…”