Posted by ScottL (24.181.198.48) on July 16, 2001 at 23:22:20:
I recently met with Dr. Robbins (Northbrook, IL) regarding my chronic clusters that are beating most meds. I asked him about hormone levels and he said (as was pointed out on the board) hormone levels are only tangentially involved. He stated that a recurrent, chronic cluster sufferer in Europe (GB?) actually had surgery to deadedn a small rea of the hypothalamus and suffered no further clusters (I assume he lived).
The point is that evidence seems to point to the hypothalamus as the source of evil. This begs the question of how the hypothalamus causes the pain (and other sypmtoms). Either it is not doing something is is supposed to be doing or it is doing something it should not be doing. I am reading to learn what its normal functions are.
Anyhow, I found an interesting summry of hypothalamic functions. You may be intrigued by the functions of some of the ganglia that reside in or in communication with the hypothalamus.
The link: thalamus.wustl.edu/course/hypoANS.html