Would Pain-Based Weather Forecasts Change Your Daily Routine?

People suffering from migraine headaches and other pain would change their daily routines if a weather forecast could help predict their comfort levels, according to a survey in a new study from the University of Georgia.

“In fact, about 70% of those who responded said that, yeah, they would alter their behavior whether it's taking medication or changing their plans for the day,” Christopher Elcik, a UGA professor who led the research, said in a recent interview with weather.com.

The study was the latest research from Elcik on pain and weather, and joins a growing effort to understand any connection between the two.

Why this kind of research matters:

-At least 39 million people in the U.S. live with migraine pain, according to the American Migraine Foundation. And that’s considered an underestimate since many people might not be formally diagnosed.

-The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 21% of adults nationwide, or about 53 million people, have arthritis, another common source of pain.

-Studies have shown that chronic pain leads to unemployment, high medical costs and mental health issues.

-For someone like myself who's experienced migraines before, I know how disabling they can be. I know how awful their symptoms are. And so if there's something out there that may lead to a higher risk for my pain, then I'm personally going to be very interested in trying to utilize that tool. I think a lot of others would probably feel the same way.

-I think there's still a lot of work that has to be done to figure out the exact relationship between weather and pain … looking at things like mid latitude cyclones, maybe even tropical weather of some kind … One of the things I'm looking at in the very near future hopefully is cold air damming, which, is something that affects those on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains.So weather events like that and linking them to pain would be, I think, the next step.

-The more we work on that, the more we have a clear picture of weather's influence on pain. I think that's when the forecasting application will really come into focus.

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Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.