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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> clusterheads with allergic conditions
        
(Message started by: swimchica623 on Dec 13^th, 2006, 12:43pm)

Title: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by swimchica623 on Dec 13^th, 2006, 12:43pm

Hi everyone.
I've had something on my mind and I've been wondering if anyone else has thought of this before. In addition to clusters, I have a lot of allergic conditions: severe asthma, allergies, eczema (more when I was little though) and collic when I was a baby. My life has been one allergic timetable and I have a very high IgE number and I'm just a highly allergic person.
Is there anyone else out there that has unusually bad allergies and clusters? I don't mean just regular allergies, that you sniffle for a little bit and take some claritin, but allergies or allergic conditions that you have treated aggressively and are a big part of your life? Seen allergists, prick tests, allergy shots, asthma, food allergies, etc. That sorta stuff. Bonus points if you know your IgE number.
I'm wondering because since histimines are related to clusters if being an "allergic person" changes your attacks at all...just curious really if anyone wants to share some experience with allergies and clusters.
Thanks,
Lisa

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by brewcrew on Dec 13^th, 2006, 1:02pm

I am allergic to hard work. Does that count?

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by floridian on Dec 13^th, 2006, 1:05pm

Yup, allergies gallore.

My theory is that the changes in the brain of clusterheads is caused in part by thalamic mast cells. These are allergy causing cells that circulate in the blood, and they can cross into the brain and attach to the thalamus (and sometimes hypothalamus). They get turned on by something in the circadian clock, which makes them dump histamine, which keeps people awake short term. After a while the histamine makes the hypothalamus go berserk, it innervates the trigeminal nerve and causes intense unilateral pain.

Course, there are lots of things we don't understand - like why histamine desensitization and antihistamines offer only partial results, or what other genetic or environmental factors make our thalamic mast cells special.

Triptans (imitrex) seem to encourage mast cells to reproduce and become active - which fits with some people's observation that these drugs make their cycles longer, headaches more frequent, etc.

Maybe my theory is wrong. But if you've got allergies or sinus problems, they are worth dealing with for their own sake. Just read an article that linked inflammatory bowel disease with sinusitis ... the bacterial proteins drain into the gut, where they trigger immune reactions against the digestive tract.

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by swimchica623 on Dec 13^th, 2006, 2:00pm

Do you ever seem like you experience more intense attacks more frequently than others? I was thinking that a more allergic person would be more suseptible to worse hits....more histimines floating around in there and you are more sensitive to them to begin with.
I was wondering because it seems like I don't get very many minor hits...luckily I am episodic and my episodes even seem to be slightly shorter than normal, but when tehy come they are nearly all kip 10 and require hospitalization. It makes sense to me that it could be my allergic disposition that causes them to be like this?
Don't worry I have a very aggresive allergy/asthma plan separate from the cluster plan..definatly being dealt with and has been longer than the clusters.
Thanks for your reply.

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by jon019 on Dec 13^th, 2006, 3:36pm

Hi swim,

Interesting question. I've got lots of allergies, some minor, one serious. Nearly all showed up starting 10-15 years ago, whereas clusters started 26 yrs ago. Flo's info is very intriguing and the allergies could very well be connected to the ch although the time gap is puzzling.

Percieve no connection between the two re treatments for either affecting the other. No seeming connection between either when in either cycle also.

Regards

Jon

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by swimchica623 on Dec 13^th, 2006, 5:19pm

You are a bit of an allergic oddball! i know a lot more about allergies since I've been dealing with those sorts of problems my whole life, and clusters only recently. Usuaully allergies might appear a little bit earlier in life. Like I said I've had them in some form or another since I was an infant..they've morphed as I've gotten older.
Since developing allergies, did you notice your clusters changing at all?

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by thebbz on Dec 13^th, 2006, 9:48pm

[smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif] Thats too much information Flo [smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif]

Quote:

Just read an article that linked inflammatory bowel disease with sinusitis ... the bacterial proteins drain into the gut, where they trigger immune reactions against the digestive tract.

Sorry,its my graphic imagination. [smiley=laugh.gif]
jb

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by jon019 on Dec 13^th, 2006, 9:49pm

Hmmm, allergic oddball? Helen thinks just oddball (must be the shape of my shiney head ;;D)

Actually, allergy Doc says not all that unusual. One of lifes ironies. My specialty used to be the evaluation of crab and shrimp. Now I cannot touch them without risking throat swelling shut (which WOULD be a permanent cure for ch and only one step worse than Topomax!)

I don't see any change in ch related to the allergies. The ch has morphed recently (last 2 years) and currently in longest cycle ever. But morphing is the nature of this beast. It only COULD be possibly related,
gut feel is no.

Regards

Jon

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by AussieBrian on Dec 13^th, 2006, 10:04pm

No-one will ever talk me out of knowing there's a relationship between my sneezles and CH. Whether one causes the other or they spring from same font I know not - but they're related.

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by LeLimey on Dec 14^th, 2006, 2:36am

on 12/13/06 at 21:49:58, jon019 wrote:

Hmmm, allergic oddball? Helen thinks just oddball (must be the shape of my shiney head ;;D)

Actually what I said was "See Wun Hung Lo - the (in)famous Seattle half man" ::)

I don't have any allergies as such but I have food intolerances that, if kicked off cause an auto immune reaction. I just have a really overly sensitive stomach I think! Add a crappy bone disease and other niggly bits. If I was a dog (shut it Jon) I'd be taken out and shot!

Like Bri I tend to have a permanently snotty nose so Flo's theory is actually very interesting to me

Helen

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by TonyYZF on Dec 14^th, 2006, 12:51pm

Hi folks,

I have an alergy related condition called dishydrotic eczema. Like CH it is one of those "don't knowhat causes it things" Basically my own imune system attacks my skin, mostly my hands and feet. The reaction is like what you would have from poison ivy. I believe hystamine is involved. It has gotten very severe before. Generally my skin is extremely sensitive to anything. Use special soaps and detergents that are very mild to minimize irritation. I have also wondered if there is any connection.

Tony

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by wichita_pounder on Dec 14^th, 2006, 3:34pm

Was just interested in this topic, my husband is the one with the headaches, we got lucky and got rid of them for about 7 years now they are back. He has never seemed to be allergic to anything but he had them for 20 years and they always started in November and the episode would last til about March. Have tried many meds then and since they reoccured, Imitrex always has been the best but he is getting ready to try oxygen. We have wondered why always the same time of year like clockwork, maybe an Allergy, we don't know.

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by floridian on Dec 14^th, 2006, 5:20pm

The clockwork that many experience is due to the fact that the body clock is involved (in the hypothalamus). Photoperiod and sleep patterns are a big factor for many. Allergies (and temperature) can also be factors for some - mine are usually in August, and I am not only more susceptible to heat in August, but heat can also trigger a daytime hit ... most of mine are night or early morning.

Simple it aint. :(

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by brewcrew on Dec 14^th, 2006, 5:25pm

on 12/14/06 at 17:20:34, floridian wrote:

...more susceptible to heat in August...

C'mon, Flo - We're ALL more susceptible to heat in August. There's more OF it then. ;)

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by cluster on Dec 15^th, 2006, 3:25am

Dear all,

my gut feeling is also that my CH is somehow related to allergy. I used to react on gras pollen. I never went to see a doctor about this because for me it was just uncomfortable: Runny nose and watery eyes but nothing really serious. Over the years this improved, it isn't as bad any more as it was sometimes. These allergic reactions mostly happend in May/June/July. Nowadays this is exactly the time off the year my CH usually gets worse.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Mast_cells.jpg/334px-Mast_cells.jpg
(Picture borrowed from Wikipedia)

If allergic reactions release histamine - isn't it only logical that they have a bad influence on CH?

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by sandie99 on Dec 15^th, 2006, 6:29am

Well.... I'm lactose intolerant.

And I do get this odd 24-hour- allergic reaction every summer around Midsummer. We have never figured out what causes it...but basically I sneeze and sneeze and sneeze for 24 hours and then it's over. [smiley=huh.gif]

Sanna

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by floridian on Dec 15^th, 2006, 8:26am

on 12/15/06 at 06:29:03, sandie99 wrote:

It's nature's way of pressing your circadian reset button. You should move closer to the equator. ;)

I was worried that going back to Iceland in the summers would mess up my circadian cycles - it shifts my clock -5 hours, and from summer to mega-summer (never dark). But it hasn't been a problem.

Title: Re: clusterheads with allergic conditions
Post by Redd715 on Dec 15^th, 2006, 8:33am

Explain this to me a little more Flo...

The sneezing fit somehow resets the circadian clock? By what mechanism does this happen?

Is it the histamines, or the act of sneezing?