E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA new study by Italian researchers looks at a condition called airplane headache. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports on the survey and speaks with Dr. Seymour Diamond from the National Headache Foundation about the findings.
By Cari Nierenberg
Body scans, missed connections, fighting for overhead bin space, annoying passengers in flight -- there are many things about flying that can make your head pound. But some researchers are documenting yet another kind of pain from air travel, which they call the "airplane headache."
In a paper published online in the journal Cephalalgia, Italian neurologists report on 75 people who suffer from what they describe as a "peculiar headache." It's peculiar because it tends to occur while on a plane and usually lasts less than 30 minutes. It also seems to mostly affect men, and it typically flares up during the flight's landing.
To gather up information about airplane headache, researchers gave people affected by them a written questionnaire. (They were only able to examine three of the participants in person.) From these completed surveys they found that everyone described the pain as severe. The headache causes a stabbing or jabbing pain that starts suddenly usually on one side of the head. It mainly affects the area of the forehead above the eye. Within minutes of the plane touching the ground, the headache usually goes away.
As for why airplane headaches occur, scientists think "it's due to an imbalance between the air pressure in the cabin and those in the frontal sinuses," says lead author Dr. Federico Mainardi.
In some people, their sinuses may have difficulty equalizing the increase in barometric pressure that occurs when a plane is landing and this may cause pain, suggests Mainardi, a neurologist at SS Giovanni e Paolo Hospital in Venice, Italy.
Joe Sohm / Getty Images stock
Research in Italy confirm that flying is a pain.
The exact cause of airplane headaches remain unclear, but it's likely due to several factors such as the shape of the sinuses, as well as the speed of the aircraft, cabin pressure, and even the maximum altitude reached.
While most of the sufferers in this study had their first airplane headache while they were in their 30s, the attacks don't appear to happen every time people fly.
Airplane headache was first described in the medical literature in 2004, and it was viewed as a rare occurrence. But now experts aren't so sure. "We suppose it's a common condition," says Mainardi, but they've yet to collect the data to back that up.
There can be other reasons for flight-related headaches: Air travelers may get a migraine or tension-type headache from a lack of sleep, stress, or holding their neck in an awkward position during a long flight.
And more than half the participants in this study also appeared to suffer from another type of headache. This raises the possibility that being prone to other kinds of headaches helps activate the pain pathways linked with airplane headache.
Mainardi hopes that airplane headache will become recognized as a new form of headache and included in the International Headache Society Classification, which currently includes more than 200 different types of headaches.
In the meantime, he says that in some cases, taking a non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, such as ibuprofen or naproxen, along with using a nasal decongestant spray about 30 to 60 minutes before landing, may help relieve or prevent pain.
If you have airplane headaches, Dr. Mainardi is collecting more case studies and would like to hear from you. You can share your symptoms with him at federico.mainardi@ulss12.ve.it
Related:
May I suggest pairing the cabernet with this altitude?
State patrol toopers save man's life on Delta flight
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
I get these types of headaches often when I fly. I also get them when a low pressure weather front is coming in while on the ground. Hurts like crazy.
You should contact that guy in the article. You may help classify the new "pressure differential headache" as not being limited solely to aircraft.
It is pressure related... not the airplane itself. I get horrible migraines when the pressure changes due to an approaching storm. I was miserable on the runway 3 years ago when they couldn't get the cabin to pressurize correctly and they pressurized and de-pressurized 4 times in about 45 minutes. I felt like I was going to scream.
No, but work is.
I didn't realize this was a novel thing. I always get them unless I take a decongestant before I land. When I do get them I get stabbing pains and feel like my head is going to explode. I love flying, but I began to dread it until I figured out how to prevent them.
How did you prevent them? I have to fly next month and am freaking out!
I've had serious problems with these headaches in the past. A flight back from Hawaii a few years ago was excruciating! But I've learned a few tricks..here is everything I know.... take a sudafed pill (or similar decongestant) 45 mins before flying, have plenty of gum and constantly chew it, and... get a Olba'a inhaler and use it before the initial ascent...and before the final descent...and when you feel any sharp pains coming in between. This has cleared up about 95% of the headache issues for me. (And don't try any strong allergy nasal sprays....Afrin, etc....it gave me a bloody nose and nasal membrane damage!)
Good luck and God Bless....Sean
I have to fly in about 8 weeks and I am already suffering from headaches. Drive to the airport, find a place to park, deal with TSA, overcrowded planes, seats too small, potential weather delays, change planes, get to destination. Did the rental car company mess up the reservation. Did the hotel lost that reservation. What did I forget to pack. Do I really need to be at my niece's wedding. Repeat the entire process to get home.
I have found this in the literature as "vacuum sinusitis".
Normally I find the pain to be about two feet lower and a bit west of my sinuses. I don't take it as seriously as oneiron above (I fly too much for that!) but even so, between the airlines nickle-and-diming us to death in a la carte fees, and the legitimate potential hassles, flying ain't fun. Thank God for the occasional attendant with a sense of humor - they make the world go 'round.
This appears to be an offshoot of Aeropsychosis, first identified in the 1930'sas affecting pilots over 40 yrs of age.
Flying could give you a headache, remember the cabin is pressurized and for those with allergies, it could even be worst.
I avoid this problem and choose to drive rather than fly. A hop into Pittsburgh via Cleveland -- small, cramped planes, going up and down STEPS in two large airports but in the small plane areas, with luggage that still must be put into the baggage bay of the plane once you walk across the tarmac to the plane in the rain, and long waits in areas of terminals with minimal services. Oh, yeah. I will drive, thank you. Takes the same amount of time and I can bring all the luggage I want AND carry enough shampoo to last a week. No headaches for me.
It has absolutely nothing to do with maximum altitude reached. Cabin pressures are kept the same no matter what altitude the plane flies.... makes me wonder about the value of the rest of the story.
What's amazing is all the parents with babies and small children that don't know they are screaming because their ears hurt.....DUH! Hold their nose briefly during the outburst and the ears pop and they feel better.
I get these airplane headaches occasionally. They always happen just before the plane lands and the cabin pressure changes. It's excruciating. It hurts so bad I can't even open my eyes. Whenever I get them really bad, I hear the other passengers moaning and (if on board) babies screaming. It's got to be from the changing pressure (too fast?). Fortunately, the pain only lasts for a minute or so.
I had one coming back from Hawaii last Friday, a 9 hour flight to Atlanta. We were late leaving Hawaii because the pilot said that there were some bad readings and that they were going to shut down one engine and restart it. Then 20 minutes later said that restarting the engine seemed to work. Sorry - SEEMED to work??? We are flying over the ocean for almost 4 1/2 hours and it seems to work. I was a mess until we hit land then it was better. But then I had a kid behind me for the flight that kept kicking the back of my chair. We are flying all night, 10:30pm until 7:30am and didn't get a second of sleep. Big time headache!!
I had this happen when I was 10, and again a couple of years ago. Felt like red hot nail over my right eyebrow, lasted about 1/2 hour. I didn't realize it was common and so localized on the forehead, interesting.
Air travel in and of itself is a headache both literally and figuratively.
I've had one of these before during a plane decscent. It is very strange; I imagined air bubbles traveling behind my left eye and above it and it hurt. Never had a sensation like that before, or since.
I suddenly started getting these headaches around age 40. Interestingly I have also gotten then descending steep mountain roads (>3000' drop) and a gondola though they are much more common on planes descending quickly from low pressure (750mb) to high (sea level). They are a little similar to migraines and sometimes the headache starts an associated migraines but they aren't the same. They come on in seconds with almost no warning and they are extremely painful as noted in the article. They feel like an ice pick. and sometimes they linger at a low level for a while after though not always. Once, my one eye teared up involuntarily so it is some kind of neurologic headache. From what I have read elsewhere, a decongestant doesn't tend to work to prevent them (my experience as well) as the sinus's aren't strictly blocked; they are more inflamed/swollen. Nose steroids can work. I did have luck blowing my nose very hard 2 times so there is something else going on as well. They can be very scary.
I truly abhor flying but on rare occasions have to take a flight which is terrible for me but i can force myself to do things i dont like.
Airplane cabins are pressurized to 8000', not sea level. No different than being in say Vail CO