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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> Fresh Research - Heart Disease & CH
        
(Message started by: floridian on Jul 15^th, 2004, 3:24pm)

Title: Fresh Research - Heart Disease & CH
Post by floridian on Jul 15^th, 2004, 3:24pm

Just came across something that mentions that "Head trauma, coronary artery disease, and migraine appear to be present in more patients with cluster headache than can be explained by chance alone." (Headache. 2004 Jun;44(6):633.) I am familiar with the head trauma correlation, and not suprised that migraines and clusters are associated, but haven't heard much at all on a link between clusters and coronary artery disease.

The one thing I have read is that clusterheads have a low Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Low HRV is a statistic of how much heart rate fluctates in response to increased demands. People with a low HRV are at increased risk of sudden cardiac events. The theory was that an impaired autonomic nervous system keeps the HRV undesirably low. Fish oils are one thing that can improve HRV, and they increase acetylcholine levels as well.

I wonder how much of the association is caused by CH itself, and how much is caused by other factors (smoking, triptans, etc).

Title: Re: Fresh Research - Heart Disease & CH
Post by pubgirl on Jul 15^th, 2004, 8:42pm

Bet the fact that 80% of us smoke and a huge percentage take vasoconstrictors on a regular basis is the real reason

Wendy :-/

Title: Re: Fresh Research - Heart Disease & CH
Post by firebrix on Jul 17^th, 2004, 5:44pm

Are you suggesting that fish oil might help CHers with predisposition to heart probs floridian? I ask cos Mopar is in this boat - only just afloat.
He eats fish 3X a week but not always the oily fish.
Which oils? Halibut? Cod liver? Any suggestions gratefully accepted.
Thank you for sharing the tremendous amount of research you do!
Happy days to you!
firebrix

Title: Re: Fresh Research - Heart Disease & CH
Post by maria9 on Jul 18^th, 2004, 7:31pm

Floridian, here is the link between heart disease and CH, maybe. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a natural chemical produced in the liver and released into the bloodstream in the presence of acute or chronic inflammation. CH cause an increase in the inflammatory proteins (cytokines). An increase in the inflammatory proteins cause an increase in CRP which can lead to cardiovascular disease.

Maybe this behooves all of us clusterheads to ask our physician to check our CRP levels at our next physical, it can be checked by a simple, inexpensive blood test.

Headache. 2003 Jan;43(1):63-8. Related Articles, Links

Soluble interleukin-2 receptors increase during the active periods in cluster headache.

Empl M, Forderreuther S, Schwarz M, Muller N, Straube A.

Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether cytokines are altered during the active period of cluster headache. BACKGROUND: Patients with cluster headache show activation of the hypothalamus in PET studies and via endocrinologic parameters. Data also suggest an inflammatory process occurs in cluster headache. A connection between the presumed inflammatory cause, an immunological activation, and the hypothalamus could be generated by certain cytokines. DESIGN AND METHODS: ELISA was used to determine the serum levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptors, interleukin-1, interleukin-6, and 2 soluble interleukin-6 receptors (sIL-6R and soluble gp130) in 18 patients with cluster headache (6 women and 12 men) during the cluster period and in 17 healthy controls who were headache-free (3 women and 14 men). RESULTS: Patients with cluster headache had significantly increased soluble interleukin-2 receptors (413.6+/-223 U/mL vs. 290.0+/-112 U/mL; P <.05) compared with controls. Serum levels of interleukin-1 (0.29+/-0.30 pg/mL vs. 0.13+/-0.13 pg/mL, n.s.), interleukin-6 (0.87+/-0.6 pg/mL vs. 0.91+/-0.7 pg/ml; n.s.), soluble interleukin-6 receptors (33,131+/-8,349 pg/mL vs. 35,063+/-7,606 pg/mL; n.s.), or soluble gp130 (289+/-59 pg/mL vs. 283+/-20 pg/mL; n.s.) did not differ between the 2 groups, although patients with cluster tended to have higher interleukin-1 values. CONCLUSIONS: Because elevated soluble interleukin-2 receptors indicate T cell activation, our findings suggest immune activation during cluster headache. Because interleukin-2 can activate the hypothalamus and stimulate the release of Corticotropin-releasing Factor (CRF), interleukin-2 could link a putative immunological cause of cluster headache with the observed hypothalamic activation. Systemic changes of interleukin-1 or the interleukin-6 system do not seem to play a role in cluster headache, as no alterations of serum levels were observed. Even so, unchanged serum levels do not exclude limited local production.

PMID: 12864761 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

: Am Heart J. 2004 Jul;148(1 Suppl):S19-26. Related Articles, Links

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk: from concept to clinical practice to clinical benefit.

Ridker PM.

Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass 02215, USA. pridker@partners.org

Advances in vascular biology have shown that inflammation plays an integral role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Extensive study of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) has demonstrated that this measure of inflammation predicts cardiovascular risk not reflected by traditional risk factors, adds prognostic information to traditional risk assessment, and predicts long-term cardiovascular risk in individuals with no prior evidence of cardiovascular disease. Patients with elevated hs-CRP levels in the absence of elevated cholesterol appear to derive preventive benefit from statin therapy that is similar in magnitude to that in patients with elevated cholesterol. The large-scale Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosvastatin (JUPITER) trial represents a critical study to determine the utility of a strategy for targeting statin therapy to prevent incident cardiovascular disease in patients at increased cardiovascular risk on the basis of elevated hs-CRP who would not be considered candidates for therapy on the basis of hypercholesterolemia or traditional risk assessment. Inclusion of hs-CRP measurement in risk screening and use of this information to guide preventive therapy could result in a marked improvement in prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

PMID: 15211329 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Marsha ;;D

Title: Re: Fresh Research - Heart Disease & CH
Post by floridian on Jul 19^th, 2004, 2:10pm

Thanks, Marsha.
I wanted my CRP tested a few months ago, but I think the doc forgot to add it to the list. I was guessing mine was elevated due to several things (including psoriasis for the first time in my life).

Just read a book called the Inflammation Syndrome- knew most of the main points, but it really reinforced it and provided some new info.

Firebrix:
Fish oil can either be in the flesh of fatty fish, or in the livers of lean fish. I sometimes take Lysi (Icelandic Cod Liver Oil) which has vitamin A, and sometimes fish oil capsules from Costco, which has the vitamin A removed.