Headache - Atmospheric Radiation Link Explored

[Guest guest]

-

http://us.news2.yimg.com/dailynews./h/nm/20010911/hl/headaches_1.html

-

 

Headache - Atmospheric Radiation Link Explored

By Karla Gale

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers in Germany propose that a small minority

of headache patients are susceptible to atmospheric electromagnetic pulses.

 

The pulses, called ``sferics,'' are of very short duration and low intensity and

frequency. According to a team led by Dr. Harald Walach, of Uniklinikum Freiburg

Institut fur Umweltmedizin und Krankenhaushygiene in Freiburg, sferics are

generated by electric discharges, such as lightning, during meteorological

events.

 

In their study, 21 patients with migraine and/or tension headaches completed

daily diaries, noting occurrence, intensity and duration of headaches. In the

journal Cephalalgia, Walach's group presents the diary information along with

data collected by a sferics measurement station at the University of Munich.

They estimated the sum and the average of sferics impulses during 24-hour

cycles.

 

One person's headaches and headache duration showed significant correlation with

the amplitude and number of sferics. The pattern was consistent, with sferics

and headaches occurring ``fairly simultaneously,'' Walach and his associates

write. Since 1 out of 21 of their patients showed this sensitivity, they

conclude that about 5% of headache patients may be susceptible to the effect of

sferics.

 

Dr. Frederick G. Freitag, of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, Illinois,

spoke with Reuters Health about these findings.

 

``We've known for a long time that a variety of weather conditions play a role

in different people,'' he said. ``So when someone says, 'I know when a storm is

coming,' they're right, they can predict the weather.

 

``But if you take migraine headache sufferers as a whole, there are no specific

things that affect the group,'' he observed. Regarding electromagnetic radiation

or sferics, he added, ``People shouldn't jump to any conclusions.''

 

Freitag pointed out that the data presented by Walach's group showed very poor

consistency even among patients whose headaches were linked to higher sferics

measurements.

 

``I was rather surprised to see such a report in Cephalalgia, but on the other

hand, this was a fairly well done, scientific approach,'' he commented. ``They

did good science, took a fair look at the issue, but ended up with negative

results. And the scientific community needs to know negative results as well as

those that are more positive.''

 

SOURCE: Cephalalgia 2001;21:685-690.