Every time a storm front moves in or the humidity changes from damp to dry or vice versa, my sinuses announce the event by giving me a MF’ing giant headache. Advil Cold & Sinus helps a bit, but keeps me up half the night.
What gives with this? This never used to happen to me at all. I was the world’s most headache-free person. But in the last three years or so, I have become a nasal weather station. I have my first middle-aged physical in a month or so, so I plan to ask the doc if there isn’t anything more serious wrong with me. But I hear other people complain about the same thing, so I don’t think I’m out of the ordinary.
When the weather affects one’s sinuses, just what’s happening, physically speaking? I’m not talking about pollen or allergies here.
When I lived in Oregon, I had the same thing happen when a front came in. I always associated it with my allegies, but those are pretty much gone now.
If your sinuses are blocked from venting air, then an external pressure change will cause pain. Like descending in a jetliner or scuba diving. Usually pressure changes from weather aren’t enough to cause it, but some people are more sensitive than others.
I don’t know what causes it, but I feel your pain. Literally. Interestingly, it only happens to me in a climate that isn’t humid year-round. I had those headaches constantly when I lived in Maryland. The four years I spent in New Orleans, I never had a weather headache even though the barometer was up and down like a yoyo, but of course the humidity was always about 1000%. Now that I’m back in Maryland, every time a front comes through I get that MF’ing giant headache again. If you figure out what causes it, would you please let me know? I’ve never found a doctor who could explain it, starting with the ENT I first complained to about it 35 years ago.
Huh. I clicked around the 'net to see if I couldn’t learn anything about weather and headaches, and this article at “Associated Content” says that most chronic weather-triggered headaches are actually migraines. It says that if your headache is not accompanied by the classic sinus infection, with discharge and sickness, that it’s probably a migraine. My husband gets chronic sinus infections, and my headaches are nothing like what he has. Does anyone know if “Associated Content” is a trustworthy website?
I’ll be jiggered. Once, here on the boards, there was a discussion of ocular migraines. I was startled to recognize that I had once had an ocular migraine, which scared the holy hell out of me, but it was not followed by a headache, nor have I ever had another one. ::Scratching head:: I thought migraines were something that absolutely sent you to bed whimpering with agony, and that’s not the degree of pain I’ve been having.
It’s been very dry and unseasonably warm here in CA recently, and I need to remember to get the humidifier out and use it. My sinuses and ears are plugged these days, though I don’t actually have a headache.
In the last 9 years I have seen 3 ENTs and an allergist, who have all tried to convince me that my sinus headaches are actually migraines (and that I am essentially crazy for thinking they might be sinus headaches).
My data:
I am allergic to cats. Close proximity causes watering eyes, sneezing and increased nasal discharge.
My headaches are always accompanied by pain in my cheekbones (where the maxillary sinuses are located).
I kept a log book and my headaches are ALWAYS on the same side of my head as my nasal congestion. If I have a headache on my left side, but not my right, it will be hard to breathe through my left nostril, but easy to breathe through my right.
Benadryl, an antihistamine, is the only drug that relieves my headaches. Alas, it also pretty much knocks me unconscious for 12-14 hours.
When I have headaches for multiple days in a row, I go to my primary care doctor and get antibiotics for a sinus infection. The antibiotics cure my headaches and cause my nasal discharge to change from green/yellow to clear.
One half of a Vicodin always relieves my headaches. Migraines aren’t supposed to respond to narcotics. Alas, our culture is so scared of narcotic abuse that I can’t find a doctor willing to just give me 3-5 Vicodin per month. Instead, they keep sending me to specialists to find the root cause. (Generic Vicodin is about 4 cents per half tablet).
Inhaling cool dry air through my nose always feels great and ameliorates the headache pressure.
Their data:
My allergy tests are negative.
X-Rays, CT scans and MRIs of my sinuses show no abnormalities.
Direct examination of my sinuses (with a scope) show no abnormalities.
The sharp pain often radiates to my temples, where there are no sinuses.
About once per year, my headaches are accompanies with nausea, which is only supposed to occur with migraines (however, in this situation, Benadryl will relieve the headache and nausea).
I never have a fever with my alleged “sinus infections”.
High humidity triggers my headaches. Doctors insist that high humidity triggers migraines but sinus problems are caused by LOW humidity.
Bright sunlight can trigger moderate headaches (but these are not as bad as my “sinus” headaches).
I don’t know what to say. I’m currently trying to decide whether I should go to a neurologist as recommended. Or try to find an ENT that believes me.
It’s possible that I have some weird combination of both. Namely, I have frequent sinusitis that creates pressure in my maxillary sinuses (checkbones) and this pressure triggers migraines (debilitating sharp non-pressure pain in my temples).
Garlic is a natural anti-biotic, and for sinus infections, two cloves of garlic per day (preferably organic and uncooked) will help tremendously. It will take a few weeks for you to notice an improvement. In addition, when I have tried sinus sprays, it seemed to make my sinuses worse, but I noticed a great improvement with garlic.
I’ve been having the same headaches my whole life and have finally traced them, over the last couple of decades, to my sinuses. So I call them “sinus headaches.” Decongestants, lots of water and occasional nasal sprays seem to help, where nothing ever helped before. I would be very surprised to find that I’ve been having migraines all these years, unless migraines respond to decongestants.
Like the OP, weather changes bring on a couple of days of headaches for me.
So, if my headaches aren’t due to my sinuses but are instead migraines, is there a cure?
I suffered from terrible headaches all my life, Drs diagnosed migraine. I did the reading and they were not any described migraines I could find. At 40 I went to see a specialist (pediatric otolaryngologist) and had sinus surgery that changed everything. But all along, every dr and specialist I saw freely admitted it was common for sufferers to be weather reactive, though the exact triggers were as individual as the patients!