Terrible article, saying that a stress explanation means the patient is crazy, and that we now know something biological is going on. Ever heard of stress hormones? Adrenaline? Cortisol? Of course stress is biological.
This article just discusses one small piece of the puzzle, but the evidence shows that stress is still a major trigger for many patients.
My wife used to have almost weekly migraines every weekend, but hasn't had one in years now after moving out of a stressful job.
Stress levels (emotional, physical, both at once) are also known triggers for flare-ups of autoimmune disorders (MS, lupus, etc). These disorders will readily obviate high stress levels, and people with AI disorders learn quickly that managing stress is often their best weapon for managing the disease.
Even without these disorders, your body is still having to cope with and dispose of these conditions somehow. Often this is a crescendo of getting through the week (thanks adrenaline), and suffering massive headaches on Friday night/Sat morning. Not surprising to me that chronic high stress manifested as horrible headaches with your wife, essentially forcing her to shut down for repairs - usually this means crawling into a dark room and staying there until the pain stops. I imagine that far more unseen/unfelt damage was happening that was more easily ignored on a daily basis (blood pressure and chronic inflammation for instance).
Unchecked inflammatory responses, particularly chronic inflammation for months, is highly damaging to the body, even if the effects aren't noticed in real time.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that yes, chronic high stress sucks, is very unhealthy, and its evident effects are manifested in odd ways which our bodies are are less capable of papering over as we get older.
If someone out there reading this is suffering from chronic headaches, or feels hung-over occasionally even when they have no excuse for it, destress your life systemically - meaning don't just try meditating, but change jobs like above comment said. Structurally remove the elements that are driving your body into such a condition, because it will only get worse as the effects compound and your body ages.
This article just discusses one small piece of the puzzle, but the evidence shows that stress is still a major trigger for many patients.
My wife used to have almost weekly migraines every weekend, but hasn't had one in years now after moving out of a stressful job.