First, a little background. I am a 42-year-old male that was initially misdiagnosed with trigeminal/occipital neuralgia approximately 6 years ago. I exhibited the classic symptoms of CH (one-sided head pain, eye pressure, tearing, sinus congestion, neck pain, etc.) but was treated for the neuralgia for 3 months with injections, medication, and even burning of the occipital nerve. Nothing eased either the severity or duration of the attacks. I finally resorted to twice-daily Imitrex injection, which was the only remedy to the pain.

That bout lasted for about 4 months until one day in April it totally stopped. I have not had any recurrances since that time (with the exception of the occasional twinge but never a full-blown attack). That was until about a month ago. The CHs have returned in all their glory, up to 6 times per day.

About a 10 days ago, I developed a nasty cold on top of the CHs and began taking Nyquil for the constant congestion and body aches. I took it for two days every 4 hours as directed. A funny thing happened. During that 48-hour or so period, NOT ONE CH! When I stopped taking the Nyquil, the headaches returned.

I got to thinking, did some research on the Web and found that one of the scientific findings as to the cause of a CH according to the NIH is the body's sudden release of histamines (START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE). What does Nyquil have as one of its active ingredients? An antihistamine. So, I started taking it again and wouldn't you know, the CHs stopped. It has now been over 20 hours since my last CH with an antihistamine in my system.

Since I am not sure what taking Nyquil on a long term basis will cause, I switched to a 24-hour OTC antihistamin today. I will let you know if this shows any promise.

I believe that CHs are sometimes referred to as Histamine HAs.  I have tried the OCT antihistamines in cycles past but had no luck.  I hope it works for you!   Let us know.

PF wishes!

Jeannie

Jeannie, you're right.  They've been called Histamine Headaches.  For some, hospitalization for histamine desensitization has worked.  Seems like it's even easier than that for you, and I sure hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!

Laurie

I've tried every anti-histamine you can think up.

Never had any real success.

I think i either under-dosed at the time or over-medicated..not sure.

I'm at the "screw it" point and have stopped any allergy meds and just let it run it's coarse.

I took NYQUIL and it gave me a k8.

Buuuut...ppl are different.  :-/

Kimmie, the problem most sufferers have with nyquil is...alcohol! It's got a lot in it, and since most are triggered by alcohol they avoid it.

Doxylamine is the antihistamine in Nyquil. I am not triggered by alcohol, but the Dextromethorphan triggers me horribly.

Doesn't matter what the DXM comes in, it triggers me. :/

I don't know that you can get Doxylamine seperate from the nyquil, but, Acoren might want to look into it if the 24 hour antihistamine doesn't help as well. (I'm on 4 or 5 antihistamines, so...)

I do know that not being on my main one, Ketotifen, made my hits more frequent, and worse. But then again, so was my anaphylaxtic reactions. ;)

OK, it's been two weeks since I first wrote this post and I am here with an update. NEVER MIND!

While the antihistamine did stop the attacks for two days, it did not work beyond that. I went back to about 6 attacks a day, all of which were between a 6 and 10. Also, sleeping became impossible as each night, every two hours I was awakened with an attack. Needless to say, I was at my wits end and down to my last two Imitrex shots (no health insurance at the moment).

Last Thursday, my original neurologist, who last saw me 5 years ago when these began, fit me into her schedule. Not only did she not charge me her full office visit fee, she prescribed me O2 and put me on a course of prednisone starting at 40mg per day for 8 days.

Today is the seventh day and I've been CH-free for nearly 2 days. Any attacks I felt coming on over the past week were aborted with the O2. As the days on the prednisone progressed, aside from the heartburn and dry mouth, the CHs have diminished in both frequency and severity.

Basically I am following up to let you know the moral here is a simple one...don't self medicate and expect miracles. I learned the hard way.

acoren wrote on Mar 19^th, 2009 at 8:02pm:

OK, it's been two weeks since I first wrote this post and I am here with an update. NEVER MIND! While the antihistamine did stop the attacks for two days, it did not work beyond that. I went back to about 6 attacks a day, all of which were between a 6 and 10. Also, sleeping became impossible as each night, every two hours I was awakened with an attack. Needless to say, I was at my wits end and down to my last two Imitrex shots (no health insurance at the moment). Last Thursday, my original neurologist, who last saw me 5 years ago when these began, fit me into her schedule. Not only did she not charge me her full office visit fee, she prescribed me O2 and put me on a course of prednisone starting at 40mg per day for 8 days. Today is the seventh day and I've been CH-free for nearly 2 days. Any attacks I felt coming on over the past week were aborted with the O2. As the days on the prednisone progressed, aside from the heartburn and dry mouth, the CHs have diminished in both frequency and severity. Basically I am following up to let you know the moral here is a simple one...don't self medicate and expect miracles. I learned the hard way.

Now that's refreshing.  Good on ya with the oxygen.  Keep on huffin.

     Kinder gentler Potter

hi guys, i just found this forum... great place!

i thought i might through my $0.02 as well here. for what it's worth, this time when i moved into a cluster period, my allergies completely went away. and my allergies aren't seasonal either. i work in a saw mill and am terribly allergic to the dust in there. i can't remember when  i've gone more than a day with out itchy nose/eyes.  it's been two weeks now and i haven't sneezed once... what's the correlation between histamines and headaches?

josh wrote on Mar 19^th, 2009 at 9:03pm:

... what's the correlation between histamines and headaches?

We know that in the acute phase of an attack, certain blood cells dump histamines and serotonin, and there is an inflammatory cascade. Some of the pain, redness and swelling during a hit are due to this.

We know that histamine desensitization can sometimes break a cycle. This is not a first line choice as it has to be done in a hospital (I.V. drip of histamine with monitoring).

We also know that histamine in the brain is associated with wakefulness - histamine wakes people up, antihistamines can make them drowsy, especially the ones that cross the blood-brain barrier.

There is also a lot about histamine we don't know.

Hi, I take anti histamines every day all year round.  I'm allergic to alot of things and can't afford to not take them as it triggers my asthma and my eyeballs blister...nice.
But taking this makes no change to my CH at all.  
x