On days when lightning bolts appeared, cases of headaches and migraines increased by 24 per cent and 23 per cent respectively among healthy people who lived within a 25 mile (40km) radius, according to a new study.
The figures among chronic sufferers were even more severe, with incidences of headache increasing by 31 per cent and of migraine by 28 per cent.
Electromagnetic waves could be responsible for triggering headaches, they suggested, while lightning also increases air pollutants like ozone and can cause release of fungal spores which may result in migraines, researchers suggested.
Prof Vincent Martin of the University of Cincinnati and his son Geoffrey, a medical student, asked volunteers to keep a daily diary of headaches and migraines for three to six months, and compared the incidence rate against weather conditions for each day.
Various meteorological conditions involved in stormy weather, such as barometric pressure and humidity, have been shown to influence the likelihood of headaches.
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Telegraph