It seems that the overwhelming majority of CH sufferers complain on one-sided events.  In trying to connect a dot or two, I keep running into a nagging question, namely:

     If the hypothalamus is intimately involved in the CH cycle (and it sure seems to be), then what mechanism might explain the unilateral nature of the disorder?

Anybody able to help me out with this?  Thanks,

TJ

Thanks for the feedback.  Your 'handedness' comment caught me off-guard.  I did not know this....and hadn't even considered it.  It is for this reason that I have decided to enlist the help of CHers to help raise Qs in a 'brainstorming' sort of way to revisit the origin issue(s).  I'm perfectly willing to suffer the "we've been through all of this before...with minds greater than yours" comments that most likely will come.  Still, as one of the 'new guys' (only a few years and a dozen or so clusters), I may speak for others who have not yet the experience of so many like yourself. 

In a broadbrushed concept, it seems that human disorders fall broadly into one of a couple of categories:  deficits or disorders (though I've got to make those categories crisper).  Some people are deficient in, say, nutrients.  That may lead to something like nervous system disorders.  It seems logical that, at some point, the deficiency, even if corrected, will not provide the outcome that it may have produced earlier in the disorder.  In other people, they may have the misfortune of having been born without a critical component, leading to incomplete, altered, or misguided function.  Still others may suffer from trauma induced defects.  This may account for why CHers, including me, focus heavily on one approach over another. 

I have not seen a group of sufferers more willing to empathize and connect with other sufferers than CH sufferers and advocates.  I am abundantly thankful for you all, most of all...my spouse. 

I experience them on both sides; 2 months out of the year on one side and then 2 months out of the year on another, then 1 year of remission.  I've had a rare time or two where during one of those 2 months it switched sides with each headache through the whole cycle.  Very crazy how they follow such patterns.

OK, thanks all.  I'll read more.  Thanks for the direction, Joe.  Batch may be on to something in the D.  Took almost forever, but conventional medicine is looking into the link between inflammation and disease/disorders.  It's not so surprising, really.  Folks have been focused on anti-inflammatory meds and remedies for a long, long time.  Now there is intellectual curiosity about the way the body's response to inflammation may impact other systems.  Lots of interest in blood vessels and the inflammatory impact. 

So, right or left handed, sounds as if there isn't much correlation there. 

Thanks again.  Quieter days to all.

TJ

mine switch sides all the time never in the same day or during. My clusters are kind of strange i will have have them for about 3 weeks straight they will be on the right side for about 2 weeks switch to the left side for a week then go in to remission for about 3-4 days then start all over again.

Always on the left, any kind of headache I've ever gotten, it was on the left above my eye.  When I was younger, I thought I must have a tumor because it's always in that same spot.  Now I'm older and I know better, but I'm still tempted to ask if they can just "you know know, take that part of my brain out".  And I'm right-handed.

coach_bill wrote on Jul 14^th, 2012 at 8:55pm:



Same here...

Bob P wrote on Jul 17^th, 2012 at 7:53am:


Thanks, Bob,

I will definitely look into this work.  I am new around here and haven't seen all of this site.  It's a bit akin to a mansion.  Just when I get 'wowed', I round a corner and get impressed again. 

TJ

I am grateful for the link.  Quite plausible.  Are you aware of other follow-up studies (this one was 13 years ago)?  I am beginning to be less bashful about asking, even though I'm so old that we were always chided to do our own work.  Gads, remember going to the library and using a card catalog?  My take-away statement?

     "This complete correlation of functional and structural abnormality is striking."

Indeed.

Check out the link below. At the end is the PET scan images.

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

Don

My ch's are always the same (tho the actual time periods aren't certain). They begin on the left side until they reach about 8.... but as the frequency and intensity picks up they move to the right side and go to the steady 10's and 9's. Then, just as in the beginning, they move back to the left and they begin to taper over a period of weeks back down to the 7,6,5, etc. until the cycle is, at last, over. It is so predictable that I keep watch for a "left side" just so I know my cycle is winding down. It wasn't always like this, but has been for the last ten years I'd say. I still ain't even got to the right side yet in my current cycle. Bummer

12 years episodic and right sided only. One night (Oct 2000) a bi-lateral cluster. From then on, left sided and chronic with only a very rare right sided attack. Go figure ?? No ryme or reason


I4B

Hello. New here, new to CH diagnosis, not new to the headaches.

Just thought I'd share mine- always left side, always. I'm right handed. I've also always experienced ear aches/infections in my left ear and sinus stuff is worse on the left.