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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> Head Trauma????
        
(Message started by: Stibs on May 4^th, 2004, 12:38am)

Title: Head Trauma????
Post by Stibs on May 4^th, 2004, 12:38am

I'm 31, and when I was 15, I got into a car accident and smashed my face on the steering wheel. My headaches began the next year at 16 and have been with me yearly ever since for the next 15 years.

Just curious, but has anyone else experienced any sort of head trauma that may have lead to this? I am not certain this was the cause for my clusters, but it sure seems to make a lot of sense. Thanks.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by sandie99 on May 4^th, 2004, 7:59am

Hi Stibs,
My clusterheadaches begun in fall 2002 and nothing that traumatic had ever happened to me. Sure, I have fell down and hit my hed few times but nothing serious. :)

Best wishes,
sandie99

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by thomas on May 4^th, 2004, 8:39am

some have, some haven't :-/

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by Bob_Johnson on May 4^th, 2004, 8:50am

Medical literature notes that head traumas are sometimes associated with the development of a variety of headache syndromes. But as a cause of most CH? No.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by Lizzie2 on May 4^th, 2004, 8:59am

My story is a little similar, but again...I doubt if it is a cause of my CH... I guess..they really don't know for certain what DOES cause CH, but as someone said to me the other day..if head traumas caused CH..there'd be a lot more athletes and stuff with them!
In March of 2003, I had a figure skating accident where I decided to break my fall with the back of my skull. It caused a concussion and post traumatic headache for quite some time. Shortly after that (maybe 3 months or so? don't know exactly..) I started to get the shorter lasting stabbing headaches. For me, they only lasted 2-20 minutes or so, but they came on many many times a day. By November, they spread out into a pattern definately resembling CH...at most about 6 hits a day for me, and at the exact same time every day.
I don't really know what went on there with the development, but I am one who did have a head trauma shortly before getting CH.

Take care,
Lizzie

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by ExplodingEyeBall on May 4^th, 2004, 10:05am

I had a weird accident when I was 10. I was playing in a water puddle on our sidewalk after a rain storm when a teenager came flying by on a ten speed bicycle.

He ran right in to me. I got torn up pretty bad including a really hard hit to the head which left a nasty bump and cut on the back of my head.

My Aunt informed me recently that I had some problems shortly after that with seizures for a while.

I'm not really sure when the Headaches started since I didn't really start looking into CHs until last year. I do know that I have been having them for a long time.

As far as the CHs having something to do with the head trauma, I don't have any idea. I wouldn't think so since so many people have them who haven't had any kind of head trauma.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by floridian on May 4^th, 2004, 10:39am

Head trauma can injure different parts of the brain, including the hypothalamus. It's effect on clusters hasn't been that well studied, but it seems that as a group, we have suffered more head trauma than the general public. In general, head trauma is associated with headaches, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other mind-brain problems. Fever, heat stroke and hypothermia might have similar effects.

(I flew over the handlebars of a bike and slid on my face when I was in first grade - spent a day in the hospital and several days in bed recovering)

Quote:

Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2003 Apr;7(2):144-9. Epidemiology of cluster headache.

Finkel AG.

Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 3114 Bioinformatics Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. finkela@glial.med.unc.edu

Cluster headache is rare, occurring in less than 1% of the population. Studies suggest that, in addition to the pain and associated autonomic disturbances recognized to be characteristic of the syndrome, patients also may experience nausea, photophobia, behavioral agitation, or restlessness. A decreasing male:female ratio also has been noted, perhaps attributable to lifestyle trends adopted by more women that were previously associated with men, such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and working outside of the home. The relationship between cluster headache and hormonal events does not appear to be strong. Hormonal influences on the chronic form of cluster headache in women are a subject of investigation. The emerging understanding of the genetics of cluster headache increasingly suggests a genetic component, with familial transmission now recognized to be more common than previously appreciated. Head trauma, coronary artery disease, and migraine appear to be present in more patients with cluster headache than can be explained by chance alone. Ethnic and racial differences in prevalence are less well understood.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by miapet on May 4^th, 2004, 1:35pm

D suffered head trauma as a child.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by rbmb on May 4^th, 2004, 4:48pm

I ran into a post on my bike when I was about 10, breaking my jaw and knocking a tooth up into my gum and I imagine I suffered a concussion (don't remember too much about it). I had headaches (not really CHs) for some years off and on after that and then outgrew them. Didn't start getting CHs till my late 40s.
Rich

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by Samantha_Smith on May 4^th, 2004, 5:25pm

In January of 2000 I was headed east on Route 100 in Stowe, Vermont. Conditions were good but I didn't realize there was black ice on the road. I was driving around a sloping corner and lost control of the car, headed into oncoming traffic, ditched the car head on into a snow bank at 50 mph and flipped it upside down. I had massive whiplash, seat belt injuries, soft tissue damage and God knows what else. The car was totalled.

In June of 2000 I was (once again) headed east on Route 100 in Stowe and I stopped because the car ahead of me was making a let hand turn. Well I was rear-ended at about 35 mph by a compact car because huge delivery truck had ploughed into them. Basically that accident re-activated all of the old injuries and created a whole set of new ones. WTF!!!

In August of 2000 the cluster headaches came like a bat out of Hell.

Hmmmmmm.....cause/effect relationship? Who knows?!!! But I do know for sure that:

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS DO NOT GO EAST ON ROUTE 100 IN STOWE, VERMONT.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by Prense on May 4^th, 2004, 6:18pm

My nugget is pristine...well, except the damn CH. >:(

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by aprilbee on May 5^th, 2004, 9:53am

when I was in 5th grade, 11 years old, I decided to shake my head back and forth as hard and as fast as I could, not sure why, but I felt horrible afterward, that same year I was thrown over the front of a horse and landed flat on my face...my CH started when I was 12 years old, and my nose still hurts to this day!! :P

Don't know if one has to do with the other??? [smiley=huh.gif]

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by 5-string on May 5^th, 2004, 10:56pm

Mine seem to have started,pretty much out of the blue. About 6 years ago. I've done some pretty reckless,stupid things in the past,but nothing causing head trauma that I can remember.
Only 2 things that could have possibly caused future physical problems for me are; I spent several months in an oxygen tent when I was a baby and was'nt expected to live. And second, I hit a deer on my motorcycle at about 75 mph when I was 23. That kind messed me up for awhile.
Good luck with your continued research.
..Mark..

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by Racer1_NC on May 6^th, 2004, 12:55am

Head injuries? A moderate concussion at 16, recovered and back to normal in a few weeks. Just a few years ago....bad fall snow skiing, slight blow to the head, massive blow to my tail bone. Clusters started about a year or so after that. Connection? Damifino.

And yes, I started wearing a helmet after that fall. Everytime. No exceptions. It's saved my head at least once...idiot lift operator....

My tail bone is still on it's own when it comes to skiing. ;;D

Bill

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by Sean_C on May 9^th, 2004, 5:55pm

I'm on the head trauma list too. My Ch's happened shortly thereafter.

Sean

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by vig on May 10^th, 2004, 5:07pm

uh, I forget, what was the question again?

Oh Yeah! head injury.
Yes, complete with a CT scan about a year before this all started. But I also had shingles about the same time and prolonged sleep deprivation, and extreme stress, and a few other of the suspected instigators. I don't know which to blame.

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by thomas on May 10^th, 2004, 5:11pm

on 05/10/04 at 17:07:08, vig wrote:

. I don't know which to blame.

I blame the government. ;)

Title: Re: Head Trauma????
Post by renny on May 11^th, 2004, 12:10am

Hi fellow sufferer, I was also in a car accident at the age of 15, wrecked my head pretty good on the left-hand side....almost one year to the day later my CH started, but on the right side, where it has remained since. (I was 'dormant' for many years with just small 'hello-I'm still HERE' msgs from time to time...) For almost three years Drs tried to blame the HAs on the auto -wreck...there was never any proof. To this day, who really knows?

I just know I don't want anyone touching my head!!!

I will always wonder about that accident...along with a horrible concussion, an 18 stitch head gash, and some neck problems, I had some serious jaw misalignment, which has been a topic here occaissonally as at least possibly contributing to CH. My personal demon just resurfaced in full force this past January, which is how I wound up HERE....I am still catching up on a daily basis as to all the information available about this kerap.

Interesting topic, at least to me...thanx for posting this. karen :)