da | On headaches

I've been tracking my headaches over the past two weeks. The first week I reduced my caffeine intake, on the chance caffeine was making them worse. The second week I've had no caffeine at all. I spent a little time this afternoon making plots- when I had headaches, and when I've had to take Tylenol.

I also grabbed the air-pressure data for our local weather station, and plotted the 15-minute air-pressure differentials- I've been curious about this association, and

melted_snowball told me it's a wives' tale that you can predict air-pressure changes by observing headaches.

What can I say?

The obvious: I get a fair number of headaches. I've taken 16 extra-strength Tylenols in the time period. There were three days I didn't take any. Four days I took two, one that I took three.

It appears caffeine helps cut down on headaches- I took 12 Tylenols in the last week, and 4 in the previous week.

I can't say anything useful about air-pressure. I had lots of headaches when the air-pressure wasn't particularly variable. But I also get headaches from other sources, such as, um, staring at the computer too long without a break.

The air-pressure data is... shaggy. It only changes in increments of .03 kPa or less in a 15-minute interval, and the weather data is only measured in .01 kPa increments. I don't know if I should be looking at bigger time intervals, or smaller- I haven't spent much time on the analysis, since I am trying to get some work done today also. I also wonder how much the air-pressure I'm experiencing is different from the air-pressure at the weather station, since I'm going in and out of doors all the time, and as

melted_snowball points out, there is a difference between indoor and outdoor air pressure.

I should have also tracked how many hours of sleep I get and when I've taken naps, because I think that is probably a factor as well.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Any chances the headaches happen to be your body punishing you for depriving it of its rightful caffeine? It's been known to happen, and a gradual reduction of total caffeine intake has been known to work in such cases.

It's like the delerium tremens, only less fun.

Oh, yes, you can definitely get headaches from changes in barometric pressure, particularly two kinds: sinus headaches and migraines. For sinus, you pretty much have to have an underlying sinus problem; for migraines, you have to be prone to them anyway for weather to be one of your triggers. (Low pressure systems are more frequent triggers for both.)

But I think your test data could be caffeine- deprivation- related.

I have a lot of experience with sinus headaches and migraines both, so feel free to email me if talking in more detail would be helpful...

And feel better soon!

p.s. Headache medication can also cause re-bound headaches... so I could go easy on the Tylenol if possible.

Good point, I didn't even think to raise the issue of caffeine withdrawl headaches. I don't think I get those- I've dropped from three mugs of coffee a day to one to zero, and not had anything I'd call a withdrawl headache.

For what it's worth, I unintentionally did reduce the caffeine gradually during the first week- I had a decaf coffee the first evening, I had some tea without realizing it was caffeinated, and such. It took me most of a week to get out of the habit of wanting caffeine, but it wasn't terribly difficult.

I expect it's more than just an old-wives tale. It's not reliable, but there do seem to be some folks who have pain related to changes in pressure.

Found a page with a former meteorologist who conducted a two month study of barometric pain. If you plot his data, there's a pretty clear correlation.

Interesting. I should go back and look at headaches-vs-low-pressure instead of pressure differentials; I didn't actually do anything more than eyeballing that data.

My headaches are usually inflicted by molds. Do you have allergens up there? Austin has been referred to as the Allergy Capital of the US. We also call ourselves the Live Music Capital, and of course, the State of Texas Capital.

It's a funny thing, because I had some bad allergies when I was a kid, but currently for me the only thing that really seems to cause sneezing allergies is the dust mites in cat dander. I used to be allergic to ragweed and I'm also allergic to the dust mites in my parents' house- but for the most part, I'm not very allergic these days. ...Except last year when someone made a dried plant wreath and hung it in the Quaker Meeting House, and I sneezed every time I went in the door until it was taken outside a month later. :)

Thankfully for me, Claratin/loratadine will work very well at stopping the sneezing (and mild headache associated with it).

I could see how sinus pressure headaches are caused by molds- anything involved with congestion. Blech.

Unfortunately for me,

sulle_stelle's favourite remedy for sinus pressure, Tylenol Sinus, causes me to become jumpy and muddle-headed. Phenylephrine and Pseudoephedrine both seem to have that reaction. :( It's probably an OK treatment during the day, if I don't have to do anything very complicated, but during the night, it just keeps me up.

Not that I've tracked it, but for me the most important factors seem to be sleep, caffeine, and how much water I drink. All three of those can dehydrate your brain and cause headaches that way, and most people don't drink as much water as they should (and if you consume caffeine or alcohol, you need more).

Yes.

I think I've been drinking more water (that is to say, closer to the proper amount) during this experiment, because I had to have *something* in my coffee mug. :) My 1.5 litre water pitcher at work needs refilling nearly daily, in addition to whatever I get outside my office. I should probably drink more water, since I bike to work- at least I usually remember to drink a lot when it's hot out.

I've considered continuing the experiment and also tracking sleep and water consumption, but that starts to sound like more work than I want. But I wish I'd noted which days I was feeling underslept or took naps- I do find that naps when I need them will reduce the headaches.

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