24 January 2013

Lightning May Induce The Onset of Headaches and Migraine

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that lightning may cause the onset of headaches and migraines.

When there is an imbalance of positive and negative charges in the atmosphere, lightning occurs. This occurs when the lower area of a storm cloud becomes negatively charged while objects on the ground become positively charge which causes an imbalance.

The clash of these two charges creates a bolt of electricity that is lightning. This happens to align and balance the atmospheric charges back to normal. The actual process on the formation of lightning is still being investigated.

A lightning bolt may carry as much as one billion volts of electricity. These lightning discharges can create a short burst of electromagnetic waves which creates a magnetic field. There are occasions when objects in the lightning's path becomes permanently magnetized. This effect is known as lightning-induced remanent magnetism, or LIRM.

The science of Bioelectromagnetics which is the study of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological entities, are looking into the effects of electromagnetic waves such as LIRM and the human body.

Lightning and the Migraine








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