Posted by Q (198.64.206.92) on July 11, 2000 at 00:40:40:
It seems that CH-pain is the direct result of dialation of the blood vessels. The dialation stretches the nerves around the vessel and a pain message is sent. The dialation seems to be an attempt to increase the flow of 02 to the brain. WHY?
It also seems that there is a constriction of the blood vessels just before the dialation. This constriction sets up a real 02 starvation sequence. WHY?
It seems that an increase in CO2 can serve to produce hallucinations. A mixture (non-toxic) of 7 parts 02 and 3 parts CO2 produces, in those who can inhale it, certain physical and psychological changes, which have been exhaustively by Meduna. WHY induce hallucinations by CO2 by constriction?
One answer is that it is easy to do. It is child's play to send a signal to constrict the vessels to setup O2 starvation and CO2 flooding.
Another answer is that it is repeatable. Constricting blood vessels does not require a long setup process and does not require any elaborate raw materials. So, at will, the physical process can be initiated and similar results are all but insurred.
Another answer is that it is hard to trace the source of the constriction command. The normal outcome of this process is a massive pain-response. By the time that the emergency is over the culprit has been lost in the crowd. It would be similar to pulling the fire alarm bell in crowded theater and using the resultant panic to hide the crimnal. This approach is often depicted in real life, and copied in the movies, to create a diversion for an entirely different activity to be conducted under the cover of the panic. Why not in the case of CH?
So, what crime is there to cover up? Perhaps several, to wit...
First, there are the byproducts of the pain process, those most powerful drugs released to fight the pain, for which there is no physical, classical, cause. Those drugs go somewhere and some part of the mind-body benefits by their production, storage, release, and or consumption. Follow those drugs and you will get closer, I believe, to one of the fundemental reasons for the CH-attack. (This is the essence of the "dope-fiend" theory.)
Next, pain is a distraction that can not be easily ignored. CH pain is real, but has no ordinary purpose. Therefore, consider its utility as a simple distraction mechanism. The conscious mind presented with sufficient pain can focus on nothing else. Perhaps the distraction is to cover for the dope-fiend move discussed earlier, but perhaps consider too that it could be a distraction for a completely independent purpose by a second actor.
My CH seems to have morphed into a bifurcated pattern. Daytime attacks on the right, night time (sleep-related) attacks on the left. I have a suspicion that the sleep-related attacks are a smoke-screen diversion while the daytime attacks are more likely related to the dope-fiend actor. I do not know why they have chosen their respective sides, but the pattern is almost 100% consistant. For the past couple of months I have had, on average, 1 night time attack and 2 daytime attacks which follow this pattern.
Perhaps the change was related to the cocktail mixture of vitamin B, C, 5HTD and wellbutrin I was experimenting with in the late spring. That co-incided with the new attacks on the right.
Questions:
(1) Could the CO2 produced psychic effect be a trigger for the night-time type attacks? In other words, could the child-brain fear the halucination?
(2) Does the breathing pattern of SA (sleep apnea) set-up the CO2 flooding?
(3) Do the night-frights August speaks of result from CO2 flooding?