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 (Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or ). 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.

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

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.

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


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

     Kinder gentler Potter

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


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.