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Topic: Vigorous exercise and CH thread (Read 1081 times) |
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CJohnson
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Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« on: Jan 13th, 2004, 9:31am » |
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This thread is for anything related to vigorous exercise and its effects on CH whether it be personal experience, or an article or some whacked out theory.
My own personal experience is that it will abort a headache in progress and keep the pain level down to the mid-kip range.
I can't recall a time when vigorous exercise triggered an attack, but perhaps it has and I just never made the connection. When engaging in vigorous exercise nitric oxide levels increase. Nitric oxide is a notorious vasodilator and has been implicated in alcohol related triggering of clusters. However cortisol is also increased during vigorous exercise, and it is a vasoconstrictor. Maybe there is something in the ratio of cortisol to nitric oxide that has to do with aborting or triggering CH from vigorous exercise.
PFDANs
-Curtis
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Lizzie2
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #1 on: Jan 13th, 2004, 6:53pm » |
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Curtis...
There is something on this in Wolff's Headache...talks about vigorous exercise being a problem for CH because while during it, you don't get attacks and it actually helps. But the relax phase can trigger an attack. I will have to pull the book back out and read more so I can post with the "why behind".
~Lizz
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Prense
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #2 on: Jan 13th, 2004, 7:03pm » |
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Running...8 out of 8 recent attempts has triggered attacks. There is absolutely no ramp up...instant kip 8+. Imitrex aborted all these with in minutes. (injecting trex with an elevated HR is definately not recommended...quite a ride) This was all during distance running at a moderate (6.5 min mile) pace and all attacks occured less than 10 minutes after starting. Playing tennis, basketball, etc., has never triggered for me. I don't run anymore...unless there's a good reason to.
Chris
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Bob P
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #3 on: Jan 14th, 2004, 10:05am » |
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"About 20 years ago, I had a cluster starting while I was at work. I had ridden a bike to work and I decided to head for home. I jumped on the bike and after riding about 4 blocks, the headache was gone.
When I first came to CH.com and signed into the guest book, the entry before mine was from a 60 year old guy who said he ran up the hill behind his house whenever he felt one starting. By the time he got to the top, the headache was gone.
This, along with my bike experience made me try strenuous exercise at the onset of a headache as an abortive. I figured something that worked the legs would be best as this would draw blood flow away from the head. I decided to try squats or deep knee bends as some people call them.
I awoke that night 1 1/2 hours after going to sleep with a headache starting. I took a tab of Cafergot and went downstairs. I immediately began doing squats. I did them till my legs burned and I was really huffing and puffing (for me that only takes 1 to 2 minutes). I then sat down, put an ice bag on the back of my neck and concentrated on deep breathing. In about 7 minutes the headache was gone.
The next night I did the same thing except I didn't take the Cafergot. Headache still gone in 5-10 minutes.
I aborted 60+ headaches in a row using this technique. I've shared it with others who have had success using it. I have also seem it mentioned in CH articles."
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floridian
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Another piece of the puzzle
« Reply #4 on: Jan 14th, 2004, 10:32am » |
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Interesting article I just came across - calorie reduction increases expression of genes for producing nitric oxide, while exercise blocks this effect. I think this is more long term (not abortive), but it jives with a few reports on this site of unusually heavy cluster activity after losing weight, and offers a possible way to block that. But from other reports, some people are certain that regular excercise has no effect on preventing clusters.
Quote: Neurosci Lett. 2003 Dec 15;353(1):41-4.
Treadmill exercise suppresses food-deprivation-induced increase of nitric oxide synthase expression in rat paraventricular nucleus.
Exercise is known to potentially affect the eating patterns. In the present study, the effect of treadmill exercise on the expressions of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of food-deprived rats was investigated using nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-diaphorase (NADPH-d) histochemistry and nNOS immunohistochemistry. The present results showed that food deprivation increased NOS and nNOS expressions in the PVN of the hypothalamus and treadmill exercise suppressed food deprivation-induced enhancing of NOS and nNOS expressions in the PVN. The most suppressive effect of treadmill exercise on the expressions of NOS and nNOS were observed in the heavy-intensity exercise group. Based on the present study, it is possible that treadmill exercise alleviates desire for food under food-deprivation conditions via modulation of NOS expression. |
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| « Last Edit: Jan 14th, 2004, 10:33am by floridian » |
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toader
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #5 on: Jan 14th, 2004, 10:43am » |
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I do swimming almost every day and most of the time it helps mitigate the pain. I've had one case where I had an attack during a swim and had to be pulled out of the water (staring banging my head uncontrollably on the side of the pool) - not a pretty sight I guess.
Damn hard to say if exercise triggered it or not - I mean how would you really know? I believe exercise helps. It helps me sleep. It helps my overall physical and mental state. The water is a great feeling on a cluster headache - nice and cool. I can't think of a better kind of exercise, really.
I bring an O2 tank to the pool with me and the lifeguard knows about my condition and keeps an eye on me during my laps just in case.
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CJohnson
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #6 on: Jan 14th, 2004, 3:45pm » |
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ScientificWorldJournal. 2001 Dec 18;1(12 Suppl 1):41. Related Articles, Links
Exercise-induced calcitonin gene-related Peptide (CGRP) increase during normoxia and hypoxia.
Hasbak P, Lundby C, Olsen NV, Schifter S, Kanstrup IL.
To date calcitonin gene-related peptide (present and active during a cluster headache - goes away when you take imitrex or oxygen) is the most potent vasodilatatory peptide described. Evidence indicates that the level of CGRP increases during exercise in humans. Furthermore, hypoxia, lactic acid (muscle burn during exercise is caused by lactic acid) and sympathetic activity affect the release of CGRP. We therefore studied how CGRP levels would be influenced by maximal exercise in humans during normoxia, acute and prolonged hypoxia.
PMID: 14532414 [PubMed - in process]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed &list_uids=14532414&dopt=Abstract&itool=iconabstr
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-Curtis
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Tara Ann
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Re: Another piece of the puzzle
« Reply #7 on: Jan 17th, 2004, 12:42am » |
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on Jan 14th, 2004, 10:32am, floridian wrote:| Interesting article I just came across - calorie reduction increases expression of genes for producing nitric oxide, while exercise blocks this effect. I think this is more long term (not abortive), but it jives with a few reports on this site of unusually heavy cluster activity after losing weight, and offers a possible way to block that. |
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Wow never heard that.............last years cycle was 3 months long for me (I was quite heavy too) lost almost 100 lbs over the year since then .... NOw have been in cycle since june......hmm FOOD for thought lol
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Kookierunner
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #8 on: Jan 22nd, 2004, 12:36am » |
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I run three times a week. About 90 minutes after every run I actually start a bout of CH. At first I wondered if my body was just dehydrated. However no matter how much water I drank, the CH always showed up 90 minutes after the run.
In my previous period of CH attacks two years ago, I was swimmming more than running. I ALWAYS had an a CH attach about a hour after my swim.
For me, if I'm in my CH cycle, I try to tone down the intensity of my exercise. I tried vigorous exercise at the start of an attack a few weeks ago and while it seemed to keep the pain level down during the run, the pain level increased after the run. Perhaps I didn't run long enough, but I can only run at a vigorous pace for so long.
I want to add that I've been on melatonin (2g a night) for three weeks now. First ten day or so, my CH bouts were reduced from one a day to one every three days. I'm now nine days separated from my last attack. I'm one of those who highly recommend at least trying melatonin if you haven't. Since taking the melatonin, I'll feel a shadow about 90 minutes after a run, but it never progresses any further. I can definitely live with that!
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t_h_b
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #9 on: Jan 22nd, 2004, 2:53am » |
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You might try upping your melatonin a little bit. When I raised mine from 0.3mg to 0.5mg the shadows pretty much went away. I still get very occasional CH (usually from drinking) or shadows, and every once in a while some weird things--like I woke up at 2:30 am this morning (time for a CH, but no headache).
Are you taking 2 grams or 2 milligrams? If the latter, I'm glad to see that a relatively low dose is working for you--I think the 10 to 12 mg doses are unnecessary overkill.
Good luck with getting rid of your CH completely!
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No, it's not a headache--it's a Stage Ten Primary Chronic Periodic Idiopathic Trigeminovascular Cephalalgic Crisis.
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Roxy
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #10 on: Jan 22nd, 2004, 7:03am » |
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I have never been triggered by exercise or relaxation, but I have aborted ch's with exercise. It doesn't work every time, but it helps enough to give it a try quite often. I've had 8 knee surgeries, so running is out....I have to just walk as fast as I can. This doesn't work in the summer when it gets really hot at home.....the heat will counter the exercise, and ramp me up fast.
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Charlie
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Re: Vigorous exercise and CH thread
« Reply #11 on: Jan 22nd, 2004, 8:59pm » |
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Exercise almost always helped me. It has an effect on circulation as Bob says. Drawing blood to muscles stops or starts processes that act to abort the attacks.
Good for you too.
Charlie
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