Blaming the Weather for Your Migraine

Migraines are a debilitating neurological condition affecting millions—and no one who has experienced one takes them lightly. In the United Kingdom alone, an estimated 10 million adults suffer from migraines, costing millions of lost workdays each year. So when headlines recently declared that scientists have pinpointed a reason migraines are on the rise, it sounded like an important public-health breakthrough.

But there was a familiar twist.

According to the popular press, the culprit is—of course—climate change. Rising temperatures, turbulent weather patterns, and even anxiety about climate change itself are now being blamed for an alleged migraine “epidemic.” But does the evidence actually support these claims?

In this episode of Created to Reign, David R. Legates takes a closer look at what the studies really say, what they don’t say, and how correlation is being dressed up as causation. From daily and seasonal migraine patterns to the role of stress, diagnosis, and media framing, this episode asks a simple question: are migraines increasing because of climate change—or because climate change has become the go-to explanation for everything?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15422347/Scientists-pinpoint-reason-people-getting-migraines.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/migraines-climate-change-weather-heat-pressure

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9664747/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s10194-021-01276-w

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