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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> Chocolate
        
(Message started by: jrogdeberg on Apr 26^th, 2004, 2:49am)

Title: Chocolate
Post by jrogdeberg on Apr 26^th, 2004, 2:49am

Through the process of elimination I found out that I had to give up one of my favorite things in the world... chocolate. Miss reeses peanut butter cups, but not enough to relive those darned headaches. Verapamil keeps off any extra little clusters that try to sneak in, which they do now and then.

Title: Re: Chocolate
Post by grandteton on Apr 26^th, 2004, 4:31am

Similar to myself J'berg,

Although I also found that peanuts were just as bad. My clusters frequency and intensity were at their worst when I was eating a Snickers every day!

Title: Re: Chocolate
Post by floridian on Apr 26^th, 2004, 9:57am

Both peanuts and chocolate are rich in the amino acid arginine, which feeds the production of nitric oxide. In general, nuts have a high arginine/lysine ratio. Lysine tends to counteract arginine, and some people with shingles or herpes take lysine to reduce those conditions.

These two articles wrangle over whether we have more nitric oxide from goofy enzymes in our metabolism, or if we are just more susceptible to N.O. - not sure how to interpret the difference between the two articles, but there could be dietary triggering from nuts and chocolate. Chocolate also contains several other compounds that are biologically active.

Quote:

Cephalalgia. 2002 Feb;22(1):33-6.
Increased plasma nitrites in migraine and cluster headache patients in interictal period: basal hyperactivity of L-arginine-NO pathway?

D'Amico D, Ferraris A, Leone M, Catania A, Carlin A, Grazzi L, Bussone G.

Neurological Institute C. Besta, Milan, Italy.

Nitrite concentrations in plasma were investigated in a population of migraine and cluster headache patients and a group of healthy non-headache controls. A hundred migraine patients and 69 cluster headache patients in the interictal period, and 112 controls, were studied. Significantly higher nitrite concentrations were found in migraine patients, with and without aura, and cluster headache patients, in remission and cluster phase, than in controls. These findings suggest that a basal dysfunction in the L-arginine-NO pathway may be involved in the peripheral mechanisms predisposing subjects with neurovascular headaches to individual attacks.

Quote:

Cephalalgia. 2003 Jul;23(6):407-13.
Comment in:

* Cephalalgia. 2003 Jul;23(6):405-6.

Nitric oxide pathway and response to nitroglycerin in cluster headache patients: plasma nitrite and citrulline levels.

Costa A, Ravaglia S, Sances G, Antonaci F, Pucci E, Nappi G.

University Centre for Adaptive Disorders and Headache, University of Pavia, Institute of Neurology IRCCS C. Mondino, Pavia, Italy. alfcosta@libero.it

Nitric oxide (NO) may participate in the mechanisms underlying vascular headaches, such as migraine and cluster headache (CH), by triggering neurogenic inflammation and activation of fibres conveying nociceptive inputs to the trigeminal ganglion. Similarly to migraine, the administration of the NO donor glyceryltrinitrate (GTN) to CH patients is a known model of inducing spontaneous-like attacks. We carried out a GTN test (0.9 mg, sublingually) in 18 patients with episodic CH in active phase and 12 controls. The plasma levels of NO metabolite nitrites (NO2-), after conversion of nitrates to NO2-, were measured spectrophotometrically at baseline, at the maximum intensity of the induced response (or 45 min after GTN in controls), and 120 min after GTN administration. The basal plasma levels of L-citrulline were also assayed in patients and controls using high-performance liquid chromatography. Basal NO2- levels, similar in GTN-responsive patients and controls (48.3 +/- 10.6 and 44.6 +/- 9.5 micromol/l, respectively) were found to be increased significantly at pain peak in patients (76.1 +/- 10.2 micromol/l) and after 45 min in controls (78.2 +/- 9.6 micromol/l) (P < 0.01 vs. respective baseline values), but not after 120 min, without differences between groups. L-citrulline levels in basal conditions showed no differences between groups (patients 64.8 +/- 11.7, controls 67.3 +/- 10.8 micromol/l). These data do not support the presence of a basal hyperactivity of the L-arginine-NO pathway in CH patients. Increased NO production may be of importance in the mechanisms leading to CH attacks, but other factors are likely to render CH patients hyperresponsive to NO, and ultimately to cause the occurrence of pain and associated features.

Title: Re: Chocolate
Post by floridian on Apr 26^th, 2004, 10:17am

Found an article that says that cluster heads have high levels of antibodies to herpes and epstein-barr viruses - indicating that those viruses are active in us. More support for the idea that there is an immune activation that affects the nerves, and that diet may have a role aggravating or triggering.

Here's a list of foods ranked by their lysine/arginine ratio: http://www.herpes.com/Nutrition.shtml - foods with a low ratio (bottom of chart) are more likely to trigger inflammation. Balancing the diet with foods from the top and bottom of the chart might neutralize the effects of the arginine rich foods, but eating a peanut butter cup for breakfast and chasing it with a glass of OJ or grape juice could cause N.O. to spike.

Quote:

Ann Ital Med Int. 1990 Jul-Sep;5(3 Pt 3):303-11. Related Articles, Links

New findings in cluster headache.

Giacovazzo M.

Cattedra di Patologia Speciale Medica e Metodologia Clinica VI, Universita degli Studi, Roma La Sapienza, Italy.

The clinical profile of cluster headache, in Italy better known as "Horton's histaminic headache" is described. The Author makes an inventory of all pathogenetic theories about this excruciating pain syndrome that strikes men more than women. On the basis of findings of the Author and his School over a ten-year period, there is a "periodic lack of immunitary oversee". The salient points of various stages of this study are: low frequency of HLA-B14 antigen with, in contrast, high frequency of the HLA-DR5 antigen of the major histocompatibility system. The HLA B18 antigen of the same major histocompatibility system has been found in patients who respond to lithium therapy. A lack of the HLA-B18 antigen has been found in cluster headache patients who are "non-responders" to lithium therapy. Low titers of antibody response in the pain free periods of these subjects, and high titers in the painful periods has also been found in the serum of cluster headache patients; the lack of alpha 1-antitrypsin in basal conditions; increase of IgE (PRIST) values in painful periods; high titers of C1qSp and KgBt circulating immuno-complexes. The cellular immunity studies of the patients showed an increase of the leukocyte subpopulations Leu7+ and Leu M3+. Besides, the natural killer function that contributes to the defense-mechanism against viral disease, was very low. High titers of anti-herpes simplex 1 and 2 viruses and anti-Epstein-Barr virus have been found in cluster headache patients and in a few observations of Burkitt's lymphoma with associated cluster headache, studied in Sahel area too.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Title: Re: Chocolate
Post by sandie99 on Apr 27^th, 2004, 5:05am

Oh my goodness!
That probably explains why I had so horrible CH attacks last May! I had this huge bag of peanuts and I ate lots of them. Good that I know this now. Luckily I do not eat peanuts that often...

Best wishes & PFdays,
sandie99