Going down to sea level

I live at 4600 above sea level and when I go down to sea level , my head gets worse. Would anyone know why that would happen? Has anyone had this happen to them? I`m thinking that there has got to be a scientific reason for this.

I don't know, but now I get headaches if I go from sea level to about 6000 feet. But that's pretty common due to the lower oxygen. I would think going to sea level would have the opposite effect, but with migraines any sudden change in environment can set me off.

It's the change in air pressure (barometric pressure) that causes it. Everytime I go to the mountains I have one day of headaches while I acclimate. The same when I fly. I usually get a migrine even thought the cabin is pressurized.

Alli

alli wrote:It's the change in air pressure (barometric pressure) that causes it. Everytime I go to the mountains I have one day of headaches while I acclimate. The same when I fly. I usually get a migraine even thought the cabin is pressurized.

Alli

Alli,

Of course it's true that commercial aircraft cabins are pressurized, but the legal limit is 8000 ft. That is, the airline cannot exceed pressurization that exceeds 8000 ft. Still, 8000 ft is enough altitude to bother some folks. In flying in small, unpressurized planes, I don't have a migraine problem, but I do notice that I get a little silly above 11,000 ft.

Chris

well that explains it! I always wondered why I got a M with flying and figured that if the difference was enough to make my ears pop it was enough to give me an attack. 8000 ft is definitely enough a difference for me!

Alli

The difference in barometric pressure affects the human blood pressure.
The more you go up, the more BP raises.
My dad must be careful to go straight to the top a mountain and his BP (already quite high) could reach scary values....
It's possible that in your case, you BP drops too much and this affects the head blood circulation and therefore triggers migraine...
Bye

Does your body eventually get use to it when being at sea level for a certain amount of time or does that just depend on the person? It seems like I never got use to it.

crt wrote:

alli wrote:It's the change in air pressure (barometric pressure) that causes it. Everytime I go to the mountains I have one day of headaches while I acclimate. The same when I fly. I usually get a migraine even thought the cabin is pressurized.

Alli

Alli,

Of course it's true that commercial aircraft cabins are pressurized, but the legal limit is 8000 ft. That is, the airline cannot exceed pressurization that exceeds 8000 ft. Still, 8000 ft is enough altitude to bother some folks. In flying in small, unpressurized planes, I don't have a migraine problem, but I do notice that I get a little silly above 11,000 ft.

Chris

Thanks for that Chris, I've been wondering why I get bad headaches to migraines when I fly, but odd thing is that I usually get headache problems on domestic flights and not so much on international flights. So I seem to get them on lower, shorter trips rather than higher longer trips so maybe it's the pressure thing or maybe I just have time to adjust to the longer flight.

my 2 cents.

I talked to a pilot about this. As you climb out the cabin pressure tops off at about 6500 feet. (Above 10000 feet you tend to get hypoxia so you don't want to go without additional oxygen that high. It can bother some people even at lower altitudes.). The air is thinner at higher altitudes (i.e. Lower pressure, gasses expand)

On the way back down, the pressure in the cabin goes back to what it is at ground level in about 15 minutes. This is a pretty rapid pressure change. (more pressure, gasses compress). So not sure why that leads to headaches, but I definitely notice the pain starts around the time of descent (whether it is a short flight or a longer one). It tends to take at least a day to get rid of it, often longer. Maybe the pressure on the neck leads to an inflammation response? I don't think it is a problem with the sinuses, as I never have a problem with my ears clearing.

The reason it may be less of a problem on international flights is that they tend to get more gradual descents. Approach procedures in US are more slam dunk.

Migrainegirl wrote:I talked to a pilot about this. As you climb out the cabin pressure tops off at about 6500 feet. (Above 10000 feet you tend to get hypoxia so you don't want to go without additional oxygen that high. It can bother some people even at lower altitudes.). The air is thinner at higher altitudes (i.e. Lower pressure, gasses expand)

On the way back down, the pressure in the cabin goes back to what it is at ground level in about 15 minutes. This is a pretty rapid pressure change. (more pressure, gasses compress). So not sure why that leads to headaches, but I definitely notice the pain starts around the time of descent (whether it is a short flight or a longer one). It tends to take at least a day to get rid of it, often longer. Maybe the pressure on the neck leads to an inflammation response? I don't think it is a problem with the sinuses, as I never have a problem with my ears clearing.

The reason it may be less of a problem on international flights is that they tend to get more gradual descents. Approach procedures in US are more slam dunk.

Thanks migrainegirl! It's always nice to know that there is some logical reason rather than my own internal crazies! In recent years I tend to take a hand full of Motrin before any flight, I find it helps most of the time, but like you, I tend to have some kind of headache for a day or so after a flight regardless what I do. A hand full of Motrin just takes the edge off most of the time. (At least I don't travel for work any more, there isn't enough money!)