Student’s Research on Temperature Changes and Migraine Attacks Published

Migraines affect over one in ten people and are the largest cause of disability in working-age women. Research conducted by James Kelbert, a fourth-year MD/MPH student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, explores how ambient temperature changes may play a role.

His study was recently accepted into Brain and Behavior, a peer-reviewed PubMed-indexed journal.

Kelbert’s study aimed to review existing literature on migraine triggers, with a primary focus on the role of ambient temperature changes. 

Looking at the previous literature at the surface level, there is a clear divide; some studies show there is a connection between temperature and migraines while others do not.

“A lot of the studies look at the entire population and analyze the combined data of all of their migraines,” Kelbert said. “When we looked at data of individuals themselves, we found that there may really be something to the relationship between ambient temperature change and migraine incidence.”

Under the mentorship of Joshua A. Tobin, MD, co-director of the Neurology Clerkship at the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix, Kelbert conducted a comprehensive review — utilizing terms such as temperature, headache and migraine.  

“We focused on different articles and did a systematic search,” Kelbert said. “We found that there are some studies that found relationships and some that didn’t find relationships between migraines and environmental temperatures.”

These discrepancies suggest that a subset of individuals may be uniquely sensitive to temperature fluctuations, experiencing more migraines depending on whether the weather is hot or cold.

“In other words, it is not like everybody who has a migraine gets one when it is hot outside, or if it is cold, they get more migraines,” Kelbert said. “Some people who may fit this certain criterion may be more sensitive to getting migraines based on these temperature triggers.”

This aligns with anecdotal evidence that Dr. Tobin has seen in his experience with patients visiting his clinic. According to Kelbert, patients would come to Dr. Tobin’s clinic complaining about migraines, often on colder or hotter days.

As Kelbert explained, studying environmental triggers is challenging due to the many confounding variables involved: “Outside temperature can be related to migraines and incidents, so it is sometimes hard to design a study like this because there are so many other factors that you need to look into,” Kelbert said. “What we originally set off to do was conduct a review of what’s already been published.”

The future of this research involves identifying other factors and building a study testing out those consistent factors. Having the thermostat set on different settings could provide further clarification on the impact ambient temperature changes have regarding migraine attacks for individuals.

Dr. Tobin stated that there’s growing interest in how environmental factors such as heat, cold and sudden weather shifts affect human health, especially in neurologic conditions. Additionally, he said Kelbert’s work adds something real to the conversation.

“From shaping the initial research question to digging through the literature and pushing the manuscript across the finish line, James took ownership at every step,” Dr. Tobin said. “That kind of focus and follow-through is rare in a medical student.”