Posted by gary g on December 15, 1998 at 16:49:21:
In Reply to: They're BACK! posted by Jim on December 14, 1998 at 19:02:17:
well...........
I was a pretty accomplished drinker from age 17 on
cluster headache from age 22 to present 49
cluster headaches were getting gradually worse, went chronic at one point
quit drinking 15 years ago - nothing to do with CH
then went a year or more no CH hooray !!!!!
but, uhoh - got nailed with CH bout, classic fall onset, a year or so later and they continue today
my own belief is there is a biochemical and/or physiological defect in us, that makes us prone to cluster headaches, and also makes us prone to getting something out of smoking, and also makes us prone to finding relief in booze - - parallel not serial/causal; there is generally an overlap of some kind, I'm convinced;
(and NO - booze and butts are NOT the same for everyone, and it is NOT a do-gooder political problem; my wife gets physically, involuntarily ill with even minor exposure to either substance - and she's not an anti/whiner either, usually suffers in silence to avoid offending re: the smoke and quietly demurs when offered booze, would NEVER make a case out of it;.. they are BOTH poisons after all - that's why they "work")
so - for me the message is:
if I don't drink, the things I do to make staying sober a good thing MAY also help a little with CH and not smoking;
if I work real hard on finding simple, effective ways to deal with CH, those attempts MAY also help a little with not drinking and not smoking;
if I quit smoking, the things I do to stay quit MAY also help with CH and not drinking
and yes, it all just goes round and round, and for me the dance is leading to steadily IMPROVING the CH situation, and how I feel, and how my life goes,so..WHY NOT ?
this is a rolling average tho - definitely a longterm payoff, nothing overnight, no magic bullet
so - booze vs CH:
CAUSAL - I don't think so
AGGRAVATOR - absolutely
QUIT to "CURE" CH - no
IMPROVEMENT IN CH IF NO BOOZE - definitely
smoking ?
hard to tell
quit 5 or 6 years ago from 20& years mod-heavy puffing
not sure there's much of a correlation, certainly nothing like the demonstrated improvement over time since no drink; have had at least 3 CH bouts since not smoking;
logic tho:
1. smoking reduces effectiveness of medicine (KNOWN)
2. Oxygen is a big help in CH, smoking reduces amount of available oxygen in blood = don't need Werner Von Braun for this one
some of you won't like the following, if so - then it's not for you, so just take it I don't mean you,
and remember you're not the only one reading this msg bd - it's only for those who might find it useful and/or interesting
(but also remember the truism - those who get angriest about what somebody says, especially if it's not directed at them personally, are often the ones to whom it applies the most)
there seems to be a MUCH higher % of alcoholism among any given CH study group than in the general population - how can this be accurately determined ? (after all, who tells the truth about their boozing ?)
easy - you take a look at the folks who have consciously QUIT drinking altogether - they usually WILL talk about it - and it seems you find an astonishingly high fraction of CH patients who will tell you they have completely quit a long history of drinking
(plus, the # of people who feel the need to adamantly state that they have no intention of quitting booze, in these CH postings, is also a very clear hint - people who DON'T have a booze problem just don't think about it, nor do they go out of their way to defend it, it simply isn't on their "radar screen" of concern
(example: somebody asked a related, specific, very telling question here several weeks back; the response was overwhelming to the extent that the fraction of those participating in this msg bd who "checked in" was extremely higher than what you'd get out there in normal-people-land)
even if it is ALL just a commonality correlation and there is NO direct causal basis , it's still worth thinking about if, as people are always claiming, they'll do ANYTHING to help their CH -
but also remember - this only works in the first person - if you are a helper/partner to a CH patient and YOU try to badger them out of drinking, it will probably only make things worse !! IT'S GOTTA BE AN "INSIDE JOB" !
I am interested in hearing from Cluster Headache people who are former drinkers, and who have quit altogether for at least several years now, about the perceived course of their CH problem before & after quitting booze - - unfortunately short term doesn't tell us much in either CH or sobriety, because both are so variable and play out over such long timeframes - - if it appears the msg board group doesn't want to get into this, which experience tells me is fairly predictable, please email me (just click on my name button at top of this msg)