Hi Everyone,

A I've mentioned before, I don't usually post on here but I can't seem to find anything in the archives so here we go.

It's pretty well known that alcohol triggers attacks for the majority of sufferers, and that as such most of us drink very little / don't drink / or don't drink when in cycle.

Alcohol has never been a massive trigger for me, about half the time it doesn't trigger a headache, and when it does it can come on any time from 5 minutes after the drink to several hours later.....

As I pretty much consider myself chronic, (the intensity and frequency of headaches just varies and I never get more than a week or two off pain free) and my social life largely revolved around alcohol I didn't consider packing it in.

About 3 months ago tho I decided to give up booze, needed to sort out my life and alcohol was starting to mess with my head in other ways, making me really depressed and anxious etc.

Anyway I wound down my drinking (was a pretty heavy one) and then 3 months ago stopped completely. Just over a week later the headaches stopped. And stayed stopped for longer than I've ever had before.

I've had two binges since within the 3 months and lo and behold both times the clusters have returned, and stayed for about a week / week and a half (getting hit once or twice a night and during the day) and then went away again.

The headaches aren't completely gone, I still get hit once every 2 or 3 weeks or so and I get quite heavy shadows regularly but its nothing like what I used to experience where I would get hit pretty much every day, and frankly I can deal with this as it barely affects my life at all.

I just wanted to know if anyone else has had this experience at all as I can't find anything on the forums and although its well known that alcohol is an immediate trigger, there doesn't seem to be anything about it being an indirect trigger / link to clusters. What surprised me as well was the length of time, on average its taken about 10 days for the headaches to go, and yet its generally recognised that alcohol and associated toxins / byproducts are out of the system far quicker than this.

Fred,
Congrats on monitoring your headaches and discovering what is apparently a large trigger in your case. I'm sure winding down your alcohol was tough, so congrats on that to. You'll save yourself time and money by staying away from binge drinking!

Can't say that I'm a drinker, don't drink at all actually. But what I can add to this is if alcohol is a big trigger for you and by stopping you drastically reduced the amount of CHs, by all means continue what you're doing. A few CHs every two weeks or so is great in my books, as I'm sure others will agree with.

In regards to your other questions, I have very little knowledge on alcohol triggers and how long alcohol can cause CHs. I'm sure one of the great members here will be along to help.

Pain free days to you!

Fred,

Given the information we've gathered over the last year and the information you've provided, I suspect you're boarder line deficient in vitamin D3. 

As alcohol plays hell with your liver and kidney functions and as these two organs play key roles in processing vitamin D3 into 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, its serum level metabolite, a return of your cluster headaches following a binge would appear quite logical...

You can prove this one way or the other by seeing your doctor to have your 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, a.k.a. 25(OH)D levels tested or go on the anti-inflammatory regimen for a few months. 

You can also read what other CH'ers are saying about this regimen at the following link and decide for yourself:

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

You might find some of other benefits from being on this regimen to your liking.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Well done, and keep up the good work. Every once in a while we have a thread running on trigges. In almost every instance alcohol does pop up as one the more surefire methods of snagging an attack. I pretty much gave up drinking 30+ years ago because it was so clear a connection for me. I still have the (very) occasional drink now and then when I'm feeling cocky or just plain rebellious, but for the most part, it ain't worth it. It's good to remind ourselves of the common experiences we have and ways to avoid stepping into the beast's arena. Thanks for sharing, and God bless. lance

It's one of those topics where we have broad agreement and little specific knowledge!

Yes, when in cycle, alcohol is widely reported to trigger attacks but the only specific comments came out of Germany several years ago:

white wine is O.K.; red wine higher risk as a trigger; distilled spirits, virtually 100% trigger. Why?--not discussed in the report but--guess-may have to do with the complexity of chemical structure found in these different products. Pure guess.....

Hey Fred, if you've any beer you need to get rid of then just send it to me and I'll ensure it's returned to the environment in an eco-friendly manner.

Bob Johnson wrote on Sep 26^th, 2011 at 10:21am:

white wine is O.K.; red wine higher risk as a trigger; distilled spirits, virtually 100% trigger.

I'll skip the white, unless it's a good gewurztraminer, but i enjoy my red wine and will enjoy a good single malt from Scotland (mind you it probably evaporates faster than I drink it).

Gewurtztraminer is a great choice, if a bit spicy for some foods. Personally, I prefer a nice Rhine over a Mosel, and definitely a Spatlese. Pass the bottle, please, I'll take the risk. I also really enjoy a good Chianti. Pass that one, over, too. lance

When I spoke to my doctor about alcohol being a trigger (never noticed it before but I thought I was out of this cycle when I went to a wedding and had a few vodka/cran drinks... horrible CH a few hours after leaving the reception) she said that it is a trigger for a lot of people but actually provides relief for some.  Sheesh I wish I was in that other group! lol