Hi, Wonder if you can help me?  I am painfree at present - thank the Lord, but am wondering if fasting is likely to bring on an attack.  By fasting I mean not eating or drinking for 26 hours straight.  Anyone have any ideas on this.??
thanks Judy

Judy wrote on Sep 28^th, 2008 at 4:25pm:

Hi, Wonder if you can help me?  I am painfree at present - thank the Lord, but am wondering if fasting is likely to bring on an attack.  By fasting I mean not eating or drinking for 26 hours straight.  Anyone have any ideas on this.?? thanks Judy

Why this magic number of twenty six?

                   Potter

hello, Judy, & welcome aboard.  I have noticed that when I fast before tests there is a reduction in intensity of hits.  Can't explain it but it was welcome.  That is the only time I fast.

Charlotte

thanks, charlotte.  augurs well then for me.
Potter, nothing magic about it.  Jewish Day of Judgment - Yom Kippur - lasts 26 hrs in South Africa - from sunset till darkness the following night.

Hello Judy,

Over the past 2 years ive found fasting to an extent OK.
The best way to avoid an attack, make sure to drink water regardless, if you feel an atttack starting make sure to ease yourself with some bread and butter.
Since being diagnosed i have fasted to this extent and found as long as i am not dehydrated then i am fine, if you ever feel an attack coming on abort the fast and jump on ur Oxygen or whatever your Silver bullet is!!

Shana Tova!!!
PFD TO ALL
Simon ;)

Thanks, Simon.  Will follow your advice.  Shana Tova to you and PFD always.
Judy

I mean no disrespect to your beliefs, Jude, and speak only for myself.  Out of cycle it doesn't matter when or if I eat so long as the beer supply never falters.

In cycle, however, it's a whole different paddock of wallabies and daily routine is of paramount importance. Sleep and get-up at the right times, regardless what's happened during the night.  Three meals at set hours whether I can stomach them or not, and millions of water.

Missing a meal, even if I only snack, means disaster and I'm less likely to eat the next one either and so the downward spiral begins. Reversing it can be a helluva headache, if you'll pardon the pun.

To each their own and the only common denominator we've found so far is that we've no common denominator so here's cheers to your happy yom kippur, if that's the right thing so say, and may your baah mitzvah have a golden fleece.

Cheers, beers and oi vei,

Brian down under.

When I was episodic I would get hit every time I didn't eat anything in 12 hours or so,  I had a tumor in my stomach back then and wouldn't notice the hunger pains so I would forget to eat and my CH would remind me.  Now that I am chronic and no tumor the only time I dont eat is when I take too much Imitrex.  I dont know the rules of Yom Kipper but  if you're aloud to drink fluids there are many different types of vitamin water or even Gatoraide that will help you make sure the beast dosn't hit because of your fast.   Good luck and hope you are pf through this.           Phil

Skipping even 2 meals is almost a guaranteed trigger for me when I'm on cycle. Like everything else, off cycle it makes no difference. If you've never tried it before while on cycle I'd keep the oxygen at the ready! Good luck.

Guiseppi

OK...my opinion...

Have always recognized ""low blood sugar" as a precipitor of "hits".
Many times eating was the last thing on my mind...had to force myself
because I knew the consequences of "fasting" were dire. Even candy throughout the day (which I rarely eat out of cycle).

Shalom,

Jon

Okay, I just checked to see when this starts, and since you have a bit of time... As icky as this may sound, I'd suggest a test run if I were you. That way you'll know if you can handle not eating, or if you needed to sneak a snack in.

I know it goes against the observances, but really, I don't think anyone, expecially the big guy, would want you to suffer unessesarily. This way you could also plan to eat in privacy, although I'm sure everyone will understand that it may be a medical nessesity... That and it would help keep your holiday from being interrupted by a headache!

Myself, I get the worst hits when I don't eat. I wound up at the ER last night because I hadn't been eating and wound up in a state of screaming from the hit I had. After they gave me fluids, nubain, and food, I felt a hell of a lot better. For the most part, the fluids and food made a big difference.

Good luck, and I hope everything goes well and is PF!

--Mystina

Hi Judy,

Here is my advice in short:  DO NOT DO THAT.
I have been told by a neurologist that if you have CH DO NOT SKIP MEALS, IN FACT DO NOT EVEN EAT THEM LATE IF YOU CAN HELP IT.
There is no point in messing around, possibly throwing your system off enough to predispose you to a cycle.  Also, whether a person has CH or not, going 26 hours without drinking is just plain unhealthy.  Why would you intentionally dehydrate yourself?  I have never heard of a fast that suggests a person not drink?  Anyway, the above was told to me by a neurologist.  (in caps).  It sounds like a bad idea to me, Judy.  Good luck.

No offence taken Brian-down-under.  Thanks for all the responses re fasting. I am new to the website but am finding it very helpful.  Have never even known of the necessity not to skip meals, sleep hygiene, importance of water, etc.  so am very grateful for all this advice.  Must say it makes sense to me, as looking back I realize that I get hits when my routines are broken.  thanks guys.  
Judy

Hi Judy,

Great bunch of people on here!!!
As ive noticed everyone has different triggers and you need to understand more of what your own triggers are.

Re the Fasting, always remember you are not meant to fast if it is in detriment to your health!!!!  thats why i take it as i go if i feel as though i need to eat i will but mostly i just keep hydrated and occasionally a piece of bread. ;)

Good Luck

PFD TO ALL!!

SI
(Fast well)

One occasional visitor here (J Morgan, also from S-Africa I think) credits fasting with breaking cycles - but he does a detox diet with maybe 300 or 500 calories for several days.

I guess it depends on your body type, blood sugar control, etc.  I think occasional short term fasts are good for the body in general,  but individual conditions need to be considered. 

I would definitely drink water - electrolyte control is usually pretty good for a few weeks if fluids are adequate, but dehydration can mess things up quick.

Skipping meals not only brings on the beast, but also migraines for me.

Just came across this article that says that an excess of calories turns on a mode of inflammation in the brain - they mention the hypothalamus in particular.  Not sure if calorie reduction would help some people.

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  This only goes to show that, although we are all bound by the same beast, we are very different individaully.
  For me, I would generally skip breakfast ( that's just the kind of guy I am) then many days, due to the nature of my work, I would be too busy to eat lunch. It was only when I would eat something at 4:00 or 5:00 that the beast would show its' ugly face.

Jim

Cage the Beast

Judy,

Pixie-Elf may have a point.  Do a little test and see what happens.  The body is a marvelously complex system with a lot of check and balance homeostatic processes that regulate pH, blood pressure, and serum levels.  Your body will let you know when it's not working right if you're listening.  

Having said that, fasting to the point where you start metabolizing body fat (that usually takes around 72 hours of no food intake to totally deplete the liver's store of glycogen/blood starch) has a known result of loading your system with ketones and you'll have induced metabolic ketoacidosis.  

This is all well and good if you want to lose weight and you're on the Atkins diet.   Ketostix (ketone test strips) will turn pink to purple when you piddle urine on them.  

However, if you have cluster headaches, and you fast to the point where you've forced your body into metabolic acidosis by burning body fat, your pH drops, that leads to a constant state of vasodilation, and now you've set yourself up for more frequent and more severe cluster headache attacks...

In short...  be very careful if you fast.

V/R, Batch