Hi all,

Has anyone else had any success in improving clusters by avoiding certain foods? I've found that avoiding the following foods can decrease the intensity of my clusters to the point where I don't even need to take pain meds when I have one if I'm strict about it.

Foods I avoid-
-chocolate
-coffee (never really drank much coffee but it fits with the profile of aged/fermented so I avoid it on principle, plus I think I read somewhere that coffee is one to avoid)
-alcohol
-tobacco (including the smoke from other people's cigarettes, pipes, etc.)
-soy sauce + other Asian sauces like fish sauce, tamari, etc.
-aged cheese
-sauerkraut (pickles to a lesser extent, I still eat a little relish on occasion just not whole pickles)
-marmite/vegemite
-MSG
-fermented celery juice (this one might sound weird but it's in 'all natural' hotdogs as a preservative and I noticed that it gave me fairly strong shadows after eating it)
-vinegar (incl. powdered vinegar in snack foods like potato chips, pretzel pieces, etc.)
-protein shakes (not sure what it is, but the whey-soy protein/meal replacement/weight lifter shake things that you make by mixing powder with liquid trigger HA's for me)

The weird thing is that while the above might sound kind of random, if you look closely they are all fermented and/or aged products.

I've been doing this since my late teens (mid-thirties now) and have had lots of time to experiment with being strict vs. cheating, etc. and have found it to be pretty effective when followed on a strict basis. Anyone else have any luck with stuff like this?

Nope. Can't say as I have.

I can say this: If I avoided all the things on your list, my life would not be near as rich.

I simply got my serum 25(OH)D level up to around 75 ng/ml and I can and do participate in almost everything on your list without serious consequence.

Except the fish sauce - that's just nasty.

Brew wrote on Sep 1^st, 2013 at 8:19am:

Nope. Can't say as I have. I can say this: If I avoided all the things on your list, my life would not be near as rich. I simply got my serum 25(OH)D level up to around 75 ng/ml and I can and do participate in almost everything on your list without serious consequence. Except the fish sauce - that's just nasty.

What Brew said........

Chronic for 14 years and every time I thought that I found a trigger, it turned out to be untrue - no matter how badly I wanted to find them. Your list has a distinct lean toward what a Migraine sufferer would post as being triggers.

Yes, of course your Cluster Headaches may be very different than mine. I understand that.

Invest the effort to get your 25(OH)D serum level checked.

Marc

Nope... I've heard some say MSG triggered CH and of course alcohol, but that's about it.

I eat and drink what I want. The only thing I can figure triggers mine is the barometer. Anything else is random.  :-*

baramater such as high heat, rain, snow, deffinetly effect my ch and trigger and make more intense.  However, foods have no trigger response on my ch only my migraines.  I get both ch and migraines.  No fun.

Over the years I've been hit after eating Chinese ONCE (never again and I eat it regularly). Kip couldn't near MSG. I could drink alcohol except beer or red wine. Today I can drink a beer without a problem, but still don't go near red wine (didn't like it anyhow).

But the barometer is the only thing that's stayed constant over the years. When it goes up or down - I get hit and I live in Texas so that's a problem most of the time. I don't do well in the summer or the rainy season.

I really don't drink a lot but I eat what I want and don't bother to check what's in things. But we're all different and if it triggers you - then don't do it.

But what I've learned over the years is that things CHANGE. For about 12 years I couldn't get near a beer, but then all of a sudden they don't bother me - go figure that one.

If there's one thing we've discovered here is that these things are totally unpredictable and we're all different. About the only thing that works on MOST of us is O2 and most of us swear by it.  :-*

Hi Bean,
Checked out your list that foods you avoid. For me like
many clusterheads. Alcohol is a no no during a cycle, plus
processed foods, chocolate is another, it's what's in it is
the culprit. As for coffee this has been a life saver for me
in past.

Hoppy.

alcohol - this is mostly theoretical as I've never had a drink and I've been told to not have anything to drink.
MSG - I haven't had it in 2ish years because it was giving me migraines and when I've accidently had it, it gives me a headache within a few hours.
tobacco smoke - from others, I don't smoke personally.
small amounts of caffeine, but not high amounts (probably just a coincidence)
Aspastame (or however you spell it) and other artificial diet sweeteners wreck my day.

26 years chronic.  Food was never a trigger.  EVER.

Like Linda, I never found food nor drink to be related to this horror.

Charlie