Migraines are increasing in frequency and intensity among Americans: Could climate change be a reason?Although the number of Americans who have migraines has remained stable for the last 30 years, their impact on people’s daily activities — including missing social events or being less productive at school or work — has become much worse, according to a recent study.The report, published in early May in the journal Headache, analyzed 11 studies among U.S. adults from 1989 to 2018 on both episodic and chronic migraines. Researchers found the prevalence of migraines in the past three decades has remained stable, but found Migraine Disability Assessment Scale scores, which measure how migraines affect a person’ daily activities, jumped from 22.0% to 42.4% since 2004, the study found.The “disability” scores reflect how severe a migraine is.Migraines affect an estimated 39 million adults in the U.S, according to the American Migraine Foundation.“While the burden initially increased more significantly among women and has since stabilized, the rate of burden in men has continued to escalate,” lead author Dr. Fred Cohen, assistant professor of medicine and neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told NBC News.“Additionally, our research indicates that the average monthly frequency of headaches has risen over the past 20 years.”Dr. Timothy A. Collins, chief of the headache division in the department of neurology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, said migraines are causing people to be less productive at school and work, attend fewer social and leisure activities and perform fewer household chores because the migraines more frequent and more forceful. Collins was not part of the study.The Mount Sinai researchers note that the observed increase in the frequency and negative impact of migraines on work and home productivity may be due to increased social awareness of migraines and less stigma around the debilitating condition. Another factor could be environmental changes such as climate change. Erratic and severe weather conditions are known triggers for migraines, Cohen said.“As extreme weather eve …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnMigraines are increasing in frequency and intensity among Americans: Could climate change be a reason?Although the number of Americans who have migraines has remained stable for the last 30 years, their impact on people’s daily activities — including missing social events or being less productive at school or work — has become much worse, according to a recent study.The report, published in early May in the journal Headache, analyzed 11 studies among U.S. adults from 1989 to 2018 on both episodic and chronic migraines. Researchers found the prevalence of migraines in the past three decades has remained stable, but found Migraine Disability Assessment Scale scores, which measure how migraines affect a person’ daily activities, jumped from 22.0% to 42.4% since 2004, the study found.The “disability” scores reflect how severe a migraine is.Migraines affect an estimated 39 million adults in the U.S, according to the American Migraine Foundation.“While the burden initially increased more significantly among women and has since stabilized, the rate of burden in men has continued to escalate,” lead author Dr. Fred Cohen, assistant professor of medicine and neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told NBC News.“Additionally, our research indicates that the average monthly frequency of headaches has risen over the past 20 years.”Dr. Timothy A. Collins, chief of the headache division in the department of neurology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, said migraines are causing people to be less productive at school and work, attend fewer social and leisure activities and perform fewer household chores because the migraines more frequent and more forceful. Collins was not part of the study.The Mount Sinai researchers note that the observed increase in the frequency and negative impact of migraines on work and home productivity may be due to increased social awareness of migraines and less stigma around the debilitating condition. Another factor could be environmental changes such as climate change. Erratic and severe weather conditions are known triggers for migraines, Cohen said.“As extreme weather eve …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
