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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> Electric Lights
        
(Message started by: starlight on Feb 25^th, 2007, 1:25pm)

Title: Electric Lights
Post by starlight on Feb 25^th, 2007, 1:25pm

Here's a bit of thought: I wonder if we did not have electric light, would we have cluster headaches?
Would melatonin production normalize without electric light and would the problem be solved?

When I was taking a large dose of melatonin every night my periods normalized, they occurred on the full moon (as they are supposed to--it is electric light that screws that up--I read that somewhere a while back), they were not painful, etc. I attribute that 100% to the melatonin.
Sorry if this seems stupid, another crazy idea, but I wonder how things would have been different for us CHers if melatonin production were allowed to occur naturally with natural light and darkness and not electric light to screw things up.
Could CH be a "side effect" of modernity? Rather than it being us with
"screwed up" brains?
Before anyone jumps on this, the reality is we as humans were absolutely not designed to handle electric lights that simulate daytime at all given times of the day/evening/night. Just a thought.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by MJ on Feb 25^th, 2007, 3:08pm

Ch has been noted under other names back in the 1700's maybe even earlier.

No electricity then.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by starlight on Feb 25^th, 2007, 5:46pm

Hey MJ,

I googled after I posted this and found that information that it has been around since 1700s. (Maybe I should have googled first?)
But then I tried to see if I could find anything about communities that don't have electric lights to see if maybe they have a lower incidence but I was not very successful in my search, meaning I didn't really find anything.
But I wonder if it is possible that electric lights cause higher prevalence of CH???
It just seems like they must screw up the "internal clock" more than not having them thereby perhaps causing or exacerbating CH. I wonder if they occur in lower rates in places without electric light???

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by Kevin_M on Feb 25^th, 2007, 6:23pm

Star,

In casual reading I came across something and went to the archives of a library and dug this up from Science magazine almost two years ago.

------

SCIENCE

May 10, 1889

ACTION OF ELECTRIC LIGHT ON THE EYES -- A new disease, called photo-electric ophthalmia, is described as due to the continual action of the electric light on the eyes. The patient is wakened in the night by severe pain around the eye, accompanied with exessive secretion of tears. An oculist of Cronstadt is said to have had thirty patients thus affected under his care in the last ten years.

------

An excellent explanation was given by Ueli of the kind of light used back then, and the a small prevalence of this affliction with people who acted on stage under these kinds of lights when they were new, something with perhaps a coating or element used at the time. He gave it another name I believe but posted also a little history of it and I don't remember rightly but may have said its mention diminished from medical books with the improvements to lights. Also, I do know Thomas Edison suffered from facial neuralgia during the stressful time trying to find the right filament while working with his bulbs.
The symptoms in the Science article were what got my attention.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by starlight on Feb 25^th, 2007, 7:58pm

Kevin,

REALLY interesting article. Thanks for posting it.
I can't help but think were there no electric lights how much...less likely...it would be to suffer from CH.
All throughout history, no lights when the sun goes down except for a candle...way different.
To return to that kind of natural light/darkness scenario makes me strongly wonder if we would get them.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by chewy on Feb 25^th, 2007, 8:15pm

Dont pay your bill and you will be pain free.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by BB on Feb 25^th, 2007, 8:39pm

It doesnt explain why the incidence of CH wouldnt be higher, or why the rest of us like myself dont get CH although we are exposed to the same kind of light.

One has to have some dodgy hypothalamus to start with?

One way to test would be for you to not use electric light. Wake up at dawn and go to sleep at dusk and dont use computer? Or patch up both eyes so you cant see anything for a few days?

Just thinking aloud here.

Annette

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by starlight on Feb 25^th, 2007, 10:28pm

Hey Chewy,

IT'd be worth a try wouldn't it?

BB,

Yes it would point to some kind of "sensitivity" on the part of those who get CH--those who don't get them maybe not as sensitive? I just wonder if that could be a cause. One example would be that some connect insomnia to electric lights (people staying active until late with their lights on along with the effect from the lights themselves), yet not everyone is affected. Or depression--many people blame the stresses of modern life, yet some are unaffected.
I would just be curious to know do the Amish get cluster headaches? Or people living in areas of the world with no electric lighting? If the answer is yes, then I am wrong...again. But just curious.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by Brewcrew on Feb 25^th, 2007, 10:36pm

on 02/25/07 at 22:28:58, starlight wrote:

I would just be curious to know do the Amish get cluster headaches? Or people living in areas of the world with no electric lighting? If the answer is yes, then I am wrong...again. But just curious.

Sounds like material for a Master's thesis to me. Not sure anyone's ever asked these questions before.

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by artonio7 on Feb 25^th, 2007, 11:14pm

With this line of logic it would stand to reason that the blind would never have cluster headaches.

with warm regards,
Tony

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by BB on Feb 26^th, 2007, 12:33am

on 02/25/07 at 22:28:58, starlight wrote:

I would just be curious to know do the Amish get cluster headaches? Or people living in areas of the world with no electric lighting?

I wouldnt be so sure if even they do get cluster headaches that they would get the correct diagnosis!! If we living in this advanced stage of medical care still cant get it right most of the time, what chance do people who live in areas that have no electricity have ?

Amish people may not believe that clusterheadaches exist, they dont often see doctors nor like to go to hospitals as it is. Also they are such a closed genetic group that if they dont have it, it may just mean that they dont possess the genes for a dodgy hypothalamus and nothing to do with whether or not they are exposed to electric light.

Do we know if there is someone with clusterheadaches who is blind?

Annette

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by starlight on Feb 26^th, 2007, 12:39pm

artonio,

Absolutely not. I am not talking about not being able to see, not being able to see daylight!!! I am not talking about being blind--only about natural light and darkness cycles uninterrupted by the use of electric lights at night.
Incidentally, blind people have their own set of problems in relation to sleep cycles because of not being able to see light--melatonin is sometimes prescribed to help them.

Annette,
I would just love to know though if Amish people get cluster headaches!

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by Brewcrew on Feb 26^th, 2007, 3:23pm

The Amish use candles, don't they?

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by chewy on Feb 27^th, 2007, 7:08am

Heres the culprit. GET HIM!

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby6HtHuRFXPIAYj2jzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=12lqohvti/EXP=1172664429/**http%3A//www.cmpco.com/safety/safety_world/science/media/edison.jpg

Title: Re: Electric Lights
Post by BMoneeTheMoneeMan on Mar 3^rd, 2007, 1:02am

that is a pretty damn good question.

Fire has been around for quite a while, but it is natural light so maybe it would have a different effect.

Pretty damn interesting article Kevin, thanks

B$