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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> cigarettes stop cluster pain?
        
(Message started by: violet on Mar 25^th, 2004, 12:28am)

Title: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by violet on Mar 25^th, 2004, 12:28am

A friend who has clusters insists that a good cigarette with stop his cluster pain dead in it's tracks. What do you all think?
O2 usually stops mine.
Vi

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Flounder on Mar 25^th, 2004, 1:31am

Stick with the O2. If were talkin about a GOOOOOOD cigarettes, most CH sufferers will say it triggers an attack. For me it's not a trigger but it doesn't help at all.
If we are talkin about a regular cigarette, ain't no way it's helping but it doesn't seem to hurt. After battling the Beast for an hour and a half I need one.

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Superpain on Mar 25^th, 2004, 2:39am

On short ones sometimes it helps if you suck it down quick enough right at onset. I don't know why... You'd think it would be the opposite.

As far as stopping it dead.... No.
O2 stops it quickly, but far from dead in it's tracks.
Lots of pain involved in the O2 method. Short pain, but intense nonetheless. At least for me...

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by t_h_b on Mar 25^th, 2004, 3:52am

Oh, it helps a little. Soothes the nerves, too. Abort, no way.

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by pubgirl on Mar 25^th, 2004, 6:15am

Would 80 % of us be here if a cigarette aborted an attack?

Give me strength

Wendy

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by renny on Mar 25^th, 2004, 7:49am

re: cigs

Could not even begin to tell you why, but I want a smoke after an attack, mostly as it is beginning to subside. Goes against all natural thought process, works, who knows.

Wish I could quit...............
karen

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Edski_1 on Mar 25^th, 2004, 8:08am

Don't cigs have some vasco-constricting properties? That would be a mechanism that would help a CH...

From what I've read most knowledgable neuro's will try not to get a cluster sufferer to try and quit while in cycle, as the reliance on the cigs might be helping keep vascular dialiation down a bit...or maybe the reasoning is that removing the niccotine (or whatever it is in cigs that causes the blood vessels to constrict) won't help matters.

Most people I've read reporting here (hardly scientific, but probably a pretty good sample) seem to say at best they get slight relief, and usually after an attack. Seems that a few say they can avert an attack if they can time it right...shouldn't be too surprising seeing how many differences there are in our pain and response to other treatment, both orthodox and unorthodox. :)

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by violet on Mar 25^th, 2004, 8:40am

I don't get the cig thing. Cigs trigger my clusters! I told him the next time he has a hideous cluster, to suck some of my O2. We'll see what's better for him, the cig or the O2.
Thanks for all your input!
Vi

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Bob P on Mar 25^th, 2004, 10:45am

I smoke ceegars. Having one during a cycle will trigger an attack. I sure do enjoy one after an attack though.

The carbon monoxide in cig smoke displaces the O2 in the blood. I would think that would cause the vessels to dialate trying to get more O2 to the cells by moving more blood. Just my mechanical mind thinking and not really sure.

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by daver on Mar 25^th, 2004, 2:07pm

I've always found that, like Bob P, a smoke during a cycle would often bring on a CH for me.

For many years I was chronic, in fact I didn't even know there was any other kind, but when I quit smoking I became cyclic. I don't mean right away, but after about a year of not smoking I became cyclic. Whether or not there is any corrolation between the two I have no idea, but that was my experience.

Dave

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by FZfan on Mar 25^th, 2004, 5:47pm

I think Edski's right when he says we shouldn't be surprised that it triggers for some and helps for others. Typical of this maniacal beast.

I do crave one after an attack, and they do not trigger mine. I am not a heavy smoker, about half pack/day, but I go up to a pack a day when in cycle.

I think I read a post on here somewhere about a doctor in Europe who would advise not quitting if you were already a smoker, and I think the poster did mention something about vasoconstriction, but so what? Imitrex is a vasoconstrictor and it does nothing for my CH.

I say, smoke 'em if ya got 'em as long they are not triggering them. After all, it is a battle, and nothing is more popular after a battle than the soldier with a pack of smokes.

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by t_h_b on Mar 25^th, 2004, 6:29pm

on 03/25/04 at 07:49:21, renny wrote:

Could not even begin to tell you why, but I want a smoke after an attack, mostly as it is beginning to subside.

It's because a CH attack is the exact opposite of an orgasm except that it ends the same way, with a huge feeling of relief and contentment.

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by FZfan on Mar 25^th, 2004, 6:34pm

EXACTLY!!!

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Superpain on Mar 25^th, 2004, 7:08pm

on 03/25/04 at 00:28:02, violet wrote:

A friend who has clusters insists that a good cigarette...
Vi

I'm just wondering where one might aquire a "good cigarette"...

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Racer1_NC on Mar 26^th, 2004, 11:14am

I'm a smoker.....they are not a trigger or a abortive for me, but like others have said, I can't wait to have one once the pain fades.

Bill

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Eeyore on Mar 26^th, 2004, 10:59pm

I quit smoking for two years and started up again about two years ago. My headaches were cut in half while not smoking. I know, I know, "So why did you start back up?" Well, I could give you a 1000 excuses, but none are good enough. Stress and social life are the main two factors I guess. But all I can really say for sure is that they sometimes give me shadows and sometimes relieve me of shadows. But the truth is, I was better off without them. And, oh god, what hell I went through quitting those SOB's. I hate those dam things.
- Eeyore -

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Charlie on Mar 27^th, 2004, 2:01am

The percentage of smokers on this board the last time I looked was something like 47%. That's close to twice the national average. Not good evidence for a nicotine benefit. I smoked too until 1980 but my CH hung on for another 11 years. I see no direct link.

There is nothing good about smoking however.

Charlie

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by jonny on Mar 28^th, 2004, 10:44am

on 03/25/04 at 00:28:02, violet wrote:

A friend who has clusters insists that a good cigarette with stop his cluster pain dead in it's tracks.
Vi

Your friend does not have CH!

..........................jonny

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Nathan on Mar 30^th, 2004, 3:17pm

i have a routine.... o2 for 15, 20, 30 min or how ever long it takes to get through the attack then i come out of the bedroom and smoke a cig. if i can get through the cig with out having another attack then im usually done for the day and i can smoke as usual, otherwise i put the damn thing out and head right back to the o2 tank for another 15, 30 min, an hour, what ever.
but i tend to agree with johnny. your friend does not have ch!!---N

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by sandie99 on Mar 31^st, 2004, 3:28am

Well, Violet,
in my case I don't think that would ever work, since every time my landlady's son starts to smoke inside tho house, my CH starts within minutes. So, I'm not that keen about cigarettes, no way....

sandie99

Title: Re: cigarettes stop cluster pain?
Post by Jeepgun on Apr 1^st, 2004, 1:54pm

After slugging it out with a nighttime cluster, rolling around on the livingroom floor, squirting refrigerated saline drops up my nose, icing down my forehead, and all the other crazy, f*cked-up methods of combatting the Beast, and then feeling that neurological storm beginning to finally abate.... There are few things more deeply gratifying, especially when your whole body feels feverish, than going out on the porch, looking at the stars, feeling the cool air, drinking in the quietude, and having a cigarette, feeling the last rumbles of the cluster fading off into the distance...