hi,just wondering about your own individual triggers,is it every single time you eat,smell or whatever that it triggers or is it occaisionally or do you just assume that certain things are triggers coz thats the last thing you ate,smelt or had contact with??  stuart

For myself, my triggers are few ... But they ARE triggers ...  With any of them, within ten minutes I am slammed.  I have even tried, just to see if they truly are triggers, and YUP, they are.  Virtually every time.  About 85% of the time they trigger a hit.

But then, that is just me ...

YMMV

Chuck

Cheap perfume......does it everytime.

Hi Stuart,

When in cycle (which I'm not right now luckily) I have certain triggers who will 100% surely trigger an attack, usually a BIG one. They are:

Middle eastern food, coz of the seasoning.
Beer and most other alcohol.
Sunlight.
Perfumes and deodorant.
Terpentine and the likes (dissolvents).

There are others but they will provoke no real nasty ones. The above mentioned will however.

Greetings and pf time soon,
Pascal.

Mine aren't too dissimilar to the others.

Alcohol
Strong smells (perfume, chemicals, etc)
Weather changes
Painkillers like aspirin and paracetamol

These always cause hits at the higher end of the scale - 7-9's and I feel much worse afterwards when I'm triggered (as opposed to just getting them in a cycle).

Em

Emily, off course after some 15 years of episodic CH I know Ibuprofen, paracetamol and what have you not, will do nothing to stop the hit (duh..... thanx to the Dutch guy for pointing out the obvious  ;D).
But I find it interesting you mention them as triggers. I too have thought that on many occassions, but wasn't really sure. They could be though.  I have noticed several times that when I took some of those against hightened muscle tension, I would be rewarded with a lovely 8 or higher.
I'm curious if someone here could back that up with a research?

My CH is just a fledgling. They started last March and the hits have rarely been as ferocious as they were in the first 6 months before a dx. I just kept taking the painkillers in the hope it would help. DUH!

Once finding out it was CH, I stopped taking them altogether, realising it wouldn't help.

I then had a cold and had one of those hot drink medicines and WHACK. It happened with a cough medicine and then when I twisted my knee I took some painkillers and I could feel it coming. That was the final confirmation I needed to recognise it.

I keep well away now!

Alcohol has been a trigger every time, but if I have sip a single glass throughout a large meal, where the alcohol becomes so diluted that I don't feel it at all, then it's not a trigger.  

I found a new one this week. Mowing the yard in 100 degree temps!

Don't think I have too many surefire triggers, but two that have definitely bubbled to the surface, so to speak, are naturally great personal favorites. The first is Demon Alcohol, which I can't drink anymore or maybe just for awhile. So in order to anesthetize myself against the horrors of modern life and the election season I've switched to another mind-numbing and soul-destroying soporofic, American television. Just not the news channels.

I also note however that my regular evening hot bath is something to be avoided. When in cycle or, like now, in the seemingly interminable (okay, it's only been a month or so but it seems like forever) slow "low but steady pressure/pain" slide away from a cycle, that particular evening delight is a great way to bring on a massive strike a bit later on. Yet, oddly, standing under the blast of a hot shower during an attack seems to give me some temporary relief.

I'd read somewhere or other that a small number of participants to a CH study, or maybe it was respondents to a survey, listed hot baths/steam baths as a trigger. I asked my neurologist about this and he didn't know anything about it. And he's pretty knowledgeable about this nasty business all in all.

Wondering if anyone else here has experienced this.... I'm guessing it must have something to do with blood vessel dilation?

Oh well. I console myself with the knowledge that showers use less water.

David

A long run - an hour or more. The run always feels great, no shadows or anything, then BAM within 10 to 15 minutes I'm on my knees.

Alcohol, when in high cycle. Although, I've been getting riskier these days and I think it doesn't effect me like it used to. But before I knew what I had, I had some nasty hits in bars (boy is that fun)

Food or scents don't effect me.

I have long remission, so I never really thought about triggers until this season.  I've been avoiding soy, MSG, nitrites, alcohol, smoking, caffeine, cheese, and chocolate at the recommendation of my Dr.  I can't say it has helped with the big ones and since there isn't a lot left, there isn't really anything that I've been having daily, which is how often I'm getting them presently, that I could attribute as a trigger.  I will say that the pre-season, the months of shadows leading up to the severe bouts, were much easier this time around.

Best of luck to you finding yours.
many PFD to you.

my only deffo is a hot bath.the day i wrote this post though i had just aborted with o2(properly)had to go supermarket(40 mins)then petrol station and within 10 mins of leaving petrol station bang,we just assumed the petrol had triggered it,this has never happened before or since,thats why i asked wether its always,sometimes or we just assume that things are triggers.thanks for replies stuart

chewbaccamonkeylunch wrote on Aug 8^th, 2008 at 4:17pm:

I found a new one this week. Mowing the yard in 100 degree temps!

And you expect us to believe that the wife fell for that hair brained excuse???    ;)   ;D

(Maybe I should have tried that one out, back when I was married ...)

Chuck

wanna_swap_brains wrote on Aug 10^th, 2008 at 2:26am:

within 10 mins of leaving petrol station bang,

It has to happen more than once to be a trigger.  If it was (and that IS a trigger for a few people) a true trigger, it should happen almost every time.  Or at least more times than it doesn't trigger.

Chuck

wanna_swap_brains wrote on Aug 10^th, 2008 at 2:26am:

my only deffo is a hot bath.

Stuart, thanks for that - you're the only other person I've heard of for whom this is the case. I knew I wasn't crazy!  Wait.... wait.... that's wrong. I am crazy. Sorry.

David

My trigger is:
my wife hits on the master or amex
and “drops” on the shoping street (Bahnhofstrasse) in Zurich,
or els where……

Michael

balanchine,i now only have cold baths,try sitting upside down(head near taps not feet)with cold tap running on your head.also see if your missus will wash your meat and 2 veg as you cant move ;)

No missus. Showers instead. Sure do miss the baths though. As for the meat and vegs.... I have my memories....sob.... choke....

no missus,guess you do need the (extra) cold showers then,good luck mate

David, My first CH this cycle was during a hot bath.  I haven't been so masochistic as to repeat this act to test if it is a trigger.  :)

Hi

My triggers are weather changes usually when its about to rain, strong smells like chemicals or perfume and being hungry if im hungry i always get hit hard

Regards
Brian

Over the last 12 years I can only say I know of one trigger. Alcohol. I avoid it like the plague when I'm in cycle, and drink it like it's going out of style when I'm out  ;)

Here is mine-


hot steamy baths
Cold capri sun juices ( got hit everytime after drinking one)            
        but not cold red bull or soda?

shadows from sharpies or magic marker smell


Thanks to the board I read right away about alcohol so I never drank while in cycle.  Have only had 1 beer and 1/2 of one since out of cycle- still too scared.

I couldn't pinpoint any other triggers in terms of food etc- the rest seemed pretty random to me-

1. burnt foods (eg: popcorn)
2. When the barometric pressure changes rapidly
3. woodburning fireplaces. (smokey)

maalstroom wrote on Aug 1^st, 2008 at 6:35pm:

Emily, of course after some 15 years of episodic CH I know Ibuprofen, paracetamol and what have you not, will do nothing to stop the hit (duh..... thanx to the Dutch guy for pointing out the obvious  ;D). But I find it interesting you mention them as triggers. I too have thought that on many occassions, but wasn't really sure. They could be though.  I have noticed several times that when I took some of those against hightened muscle tension, I would be rewarded with a lovely 8 or higher.

I've always suspected this, but thought it must just be my imagination. I never read that the usual headache medicines don't work on CHs until today, so I've always used them (been a CH sufferer for about 7 or 8 years). I thought they worked somewhat, because my CHs will go away eventually (1 to 2 hours usually), but maybe that's how long the CHs would last regardless of whether or not I take them.

The thing I HAVE noticed, is that within a minute or two after popping the pills (usually excedrin, but sometimes tylenol), my CH that I could barely detect coming on will all of the sudden just explode. I always thought it was probably just because that's what it would do regardless of whether I took the medicine or not, but maybe it is actually triggering the attack.

Whenever it happens, I imagine the CH being a living thing, and I always think something like "damn... I've pissed the beast off". It's like I've awakened the CH.