(Sarah Jacoby/ Today) — Headaches are a real pain — and headache disorders are surprisingly widespread. In fact, a new study published today in The Journal of Headache and Pain suggests headaches are a common condition that affects people around the globe.
Looking at data from 357 previous studies that measured the prevalence of headache disorders, the researchers found that more than half of the world’s population (52%) has one of these conditions, which include migraine and tension-type headaches. Plus, the researchers estimate that nearly 16% of people in the world have a headache on any given day.
“Headaches are, in my opinion, an underground epidemic,” Dr. Gayatri Devi, professor of neurology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell, told TODAY. (…)