1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

Hello, I am asking for your support and advocacy on the Bi-Partisan bill H.R. 5536, The HEADACHE Act. The bill would launch a National Headache Disorders Initiative to improve diagnostic, strengthen care pathways, reduce sigma, and grow the headache clinical and research workforce. I nearly took my own life waiting for care for daily, severe migraines that began eating away at my life after having COVID. It takes a minimum of 6 months to be seen by a neurologist, and most neurologist are not actually headache specialists. Those are even more rare and the wait is even longer. The National Impact Headache disorders are consistently among the most prevalent and disabling conditions tracked by federal health surveillance. The most widely cited government estimate, drawn from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), found that 14.2% of U.S. adults had experienced a severe headache or migraine in the prior three months, roughly one in seven Americans, with a pronounced sex gap (19.1% of women versus 9.0% of men, age-adjusted) (Burch et al., 2015). The 2018 NHIS update found a similar pattern (20.1% of women versus 10.6% of men in the past three months), with prevalence highest among working-age adults and declining with age (CDC/NCHS, 2020). A 2024 systematic review covering three decades of U.S. population studies found migraine prevalence has remained remarkably stable at roughly 12% of adults, even as the disability and burden associated with the disease have grown (Cohen et al., 2024). Globally, the 2023 Global Burden of Disease study estimated that headache disorders affect 2.9 billion people, with an age-standardized prevalence of 34.6%, and that migraine alone accounts for roughly 90% of the disability — 40.9 million years lived with disability in 2023 (Husøy et al., 2025). Why This Matters in Colorado No federal survey currently publishes a Colorado-specific, statistically representative prevalence estimate for migraine or headache disorders. NHIS and BRFSS sample sizes are not designed to produce reliable state-level breakdowns for this condition. That gap is itself a illustration of the problem H.R. 5536 is built to solve: Section 5 of the bill mandates data sharing across federal agencies, and Section 6 requires an annual report to Congress that includes geographic and demographic disparities. In the absence of that infrastructure, the best available approach is to apply established national rates to Colorado’s population. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimate puts Colorado’s population at 6,012,561 as of July 1, 2025. Applying the NHIS-based 14.2% three-month prevalence rate to Colorado’s roughly 4.7 million adults suggests that more than 660,000 Coloradans experience a severe headache or migraine in any given three-month period (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026; Burch et al., 2015). There is also emerging clinical evidence that Colorado’s elevation and weather volatility may make this an even more acute issue locally. A 2025 multi-method study, which included the University of Colorado as one of its clinical research sites, found that the prevalence of migraine aura rises with elevation across several independent clinical datasets, including a nationwide electronic health record analysis of over 2,600 U.S. counties (Reinhart et al., 2025). Denver sits at roughly 5,280 feet (1,609 meters), and many Colorado communities along the Front Range and in the mountains sit considerably higher. Separately, a 2025 systematic review of the clinical literature on barometric pressure found that pressure drops and rapid fluctuations, a defining feature of Colorado’s climate, are associated with increased migraine frequency in multiple studies, though the authors caution that study quality in this literature remains mixed (Farah et al., 2025). UCHealth neurologist Dr. Danielle Wilhour has likewise reported, in a November 2025 interview with Denver7, that she observed a marked increase in weather-triggered migraine complaints among her Colorado patients relative to her prior East Coast practice (Wilhour, as cited in Denver7/KMGH, 2025). None of this constitutes a substitute for the kind of rigorous, state-level surveillance the HEADACHE Act would help generate, but it strongly suggests Colorado is not a state where this issue can be assumed to track the national average downward. The Human and Economic Toll Beyond prevalence, the functional impact of headache disorders is substantial. The American Migraine Study II, a nationally representative survey, found that 53% of respondents with migraine reported substantial impairment or the need for bed rest during attacks, 31% had missed at least one day of work or school in the prior three months because of migraine, and 51% reported that their work or school productivity was reduced by at least half during an attack (Lipton et al., 2001). Migraine and other severe headaches also remain a leading cause of emergency department use and outpatient visits nationally, placing real costs on the health care system in addition to the toll on individuals, families, and employers (Burch et al., 2015). Personally, migraine has cost me tens of thousands of dollars, relationships, and the loss of quite literally years of time laying in a dark room alone for days on end. I have been on FMLA for the past 10 weeks, trying to get a handle on this condition enough to return to work full time. Unfortunately for me, with lack of answers, I am force to leave the beautiful state I have called home for the last 5 years. Colorado is always where I wanted to be, but the severity is significantly worse living at elevation and I’ve hit a wall on what even our best clinics can offer in the form of relief and care. I would hate for others to be force into the same very painful decision. My Ask Because H.R. 5536 is a House bill, I recognize a Senator cannot formally cosponsor it. I am instead asking that you: (1) publicly express support for the goals of the HEADACHE Act; (2) explore introducing or cosponsoring Senate companion legislation that establishes a National Headache Disorders Initiative and Advisory Council; and (3) raise the surveillance, research, and access gaps described above within the relevant Senate committees, including Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Appropriations. Headache disorders affect a substantial share of Colorado families, cost the economy in lost productivity, and — as the data gap above shows — remain poorly tracked at the state level. The HEADACHE Act is a modest, bipartisan, time-limited step (it sunsets five years after enactment) toward closing that gap. Thank you for your time and consideration. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with your staff. Sincerely, Lex Denver, Colorado Sources Cited Burch, R. C., Loder, S., Loder, E., & Smitherman, T. A. (2015). The prevalence and burden of migraine and severe headache in the United States: Updated statistics from government health surveillance studies. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 55(1), 21–34. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. (2020). QuickStats: Percentage of adults who had a severe headache or migraine in the past 3 months, by sex and age group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2018. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(12), 359. Cohen, F., Brooks, C. V., Sun, D., Buse, D. C., Reed, M. L., Fanning, K. M., & Lipton, R. B. (2024). Prevalence and burden of migraine in the United States: A systematic review. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 64(5), 516–532. Denver7/KMGH. (2025, November 20). Swings in Colorado’s weather may be the cause of your migraines [News report featuring Dr. Danielle Wilhour, UCHealth]. Farah, A., Adam, Y., Ahmed, O., Ahmed, R. A. O., Mohammed, M. A. A., Ahmed, R. A. A., Abdelrahman, I. M. O., Elamir, A. M., Ahmed, A. A. A., & Elnosh, H. (2025). Impact of barometric pressure changes on the