J Headache Pain. 2013 Jun 6;14(1):48.
Impact of continuing or quitting smoking on episodic cluster headache: a pilot survey.
Ferrari A, Zappaterra M, Righi F, Ciccarese M, Tiraferri I, Pini LA, Guerzoni S, Cainazzo MM.
SourceHeadache and Drug Abuse Inter-Department Research Centre, Division of Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia- Policlinico, Largo del Pozzo, 71-41100 Modena, Italy. anna.ferrari@unimore.it.

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The majority of patients suffering from cluster headache (CH) are smokers and it has been suggested that smoking may trigger the development of CH. The aim of this pilot survey was to describe: 1. the differences between current, former, and never smokers CH patients; 2. if smoking changed during an active cluster period; 3. if CH changed after quitting.

RESULTS: Among a total of 200 patients surveyed (172 males, 28 females; mean age ± SD: 48.41 ± 12 years) there were 60%, 21%, and 19% of current, former, and never smokers, respectively. Current smokers reported longer active periods (12.38 ± 10 weeks) and a higher maximum number of attacks per day (3.38 ± 1) compared to never smoker CH patients (5.68 ± 4 weeks, P <0.05 and 2.47 ± 1, P <0.05, respectively). During the active period most of the patients stated to decrease (45.7%) or not to change (45.7%) the number of cigarettes smoked. Among those who decreased smoking, most (83.8%) reported that they had less desire to smoke. After quitting, the majority of former smokers stated that their headache had not changed.

CONCLUSIONS: PATIENTS WITH EPISODIC CH WHO ARE ALSO SMOKERS APPEAR TO HAVE A MORE SEVERE FORM OF THE DISORDER. HOWEVER, IT IS UNLIKELY THAT BETWEEN CH AND SMOKING THERE IS A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP, AS CH PATIENTS RARELY IMPROVE QUITTING SMOKING.

PMID:23742010[PubMed]

Doctor Goadsby had an interesting aside to this debate a couple conferences ago. His concern is that many of the more successful medications would be impractical for older CH'ers who had smoked their whole life. Interesting take on the whole debate.

Joe

In the past two years I smoked 75% less than I used to switched to organic rolling tobacco. Also had the worst cycles.

I was 30 years a pacer. Quit smoking and became a rocker same day.

About a year ago I switched from the regular traditional cigarettes to crisscross cigarettes that don't have all the chemicals reg cigs do my hits are down but still friggen chronic.  But hey I'm saving some money  :D :D

I know if cannabis was legal here I'd try it, but having been addicted to smoking previously, I'm not keen to take on the habit again. Especially as passive smoke triggers attacks for me. Having said that, has anyone taken up smoking after a long break (say, a decade or more?) and found it aborts headaches?

Hi HungryHippo,
The jury is still out on wether smoking is a trigger or not in
CH's. But what is known, is that smoking during a cycle will
make a CH more intense. [smiley=smokin.gif]

Hoppy.

If you are going to smoke, go for Organic tobacco.  Our own surgeon general C. Everett Koop came out almost 15 years ago on television saying that the reason tobacco is giving people cancer is because it is fertilized with radioactive fertilizer.  Conservative estimates put the level of radiation absorbed by a pack-and-a-half a day smoker at the equivalent of 300 chest X-rays every year...

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Fun Fact-US National Cancer Institute, with an annual budget of $500 million, has no active grants for research on radiation as a cause of lung cancer

-Ricardo


BTW-my take on why tobacco may be helping some peoples clusters...I have a suspicion (that is just a suspicion...) that it may have something to do with the MAO inhibiting properties of tobacco

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I can't say one way or the other, but was a smoker for the better part of the last 33 years, then dropped tobacco for ecigs (electronic). I've been tobacco-free for over 24 months. Also, quit alcohol completely 4-1/2 years ago. Seeing as my clusters began changing for the better more than 5 years ago, neither of these changes in my lifestyle/habits had anything to do with CH. But, I'm just one of however many we are...your mileage may vary.

I do know that just a few swallows of beer would get a CH going for me quicker than greased lightning, and I did slow down on smokes a little during a cluster...seems they would intensify a CH enough to make me take note of it. With ecigs, I puff away when ever I want, even during a CH...haven't noticed any difference. For cluster-heads, maybe there's more to ecigs/vapor than just being a healthier alternative to smoke...but again, as with everything to do with CH, what works for me may not work for the next.

Tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart, liver and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (including emphysema and chronic bronchitis), and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer).

Jenna123 wrote on Oct 11^th, 2013 at 2:28am:

Tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart, liver and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (including emphysema and chronic bronchitis), and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer).

Wish that had been written on the rock I was living under /sarcasm :D

Posts like this are the reason you have to have at least 10 posts before you can post a link. These are computer generated SPAM that looks for a word, like tobacco, then posts a generic post with an advertising link attached.  ;)


Joe

Interestingly, the mortality of smokers is identical to that of non-smokers.

There is a crucial difference between MORBIDITY and MORTALITY.

Smoking increases morbidity but we still experience a broad range of conditions which lead to mortality.

Hello,

Google with
"Interrelationship between alcohol, smoking, acetaldehyde and cancer"

...and then decide...

brg Isto






Anyway interesting article...

brg. Isto

Only in England
Only in England...do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and put our junk in the garage.
Only in England...can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in England...do Supermarkets make the sick people walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

[smiley=smokin.gif].

Hoppy.

Hoppy wrote on Oct 15^th, 2013 at 7:51pm:

Only in England Only in England...do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and put our junk in the garage. Only in England...can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance. Only in England...do Supermarkets make the sick people walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. [smiley=smokin.gif]. Hoppy.

it's like this in the United States too

"Only in England...do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and put our junk in the garage.
Only in England...can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in England...do Supermarkets make the sick people walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front."


[smiley=crackup.gif]

Only in England do they do it with a stiff upper lip and a bad attitude

All I know is cigarette smoke is a trigger for me, even if I just smell the stuff on somebody after they have smoked.

I am an Episodic CH, and am a smoker...heavy smoker...and from what I have been analizing, in my case...it is not a trigger, but maybe does make the attacks heavier? Don't really know, all I know is that when the beast comes to mess with me, I will not smoke, have done that and it made it soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much worse. 

I think I am allowed to comment here having been a lifetime heavy smoker (30+ years) and now a non-smoker. My CH cycles definitely decreased in length and severity to almost nil after I gave up, never mind how much healthier I became almost overnight so it MUST be worth it for all smoking clusterheads. I have now been in remission for several years. I am not claiming I am cured though ( ;D) Joe/Guiseppe is right: For 20+ years in the UK Goadsby and his team impressed on sufferers that as smoking causes progressive vascular problems and many CH prevents and treatments act on the vascular system you could be counting yourself out of current and future treatments, e.g. people with atherosclerosis and similar diseases can't have verapamil and sometimes not triptans either. Anecdotally I have never seen as big a proportion of people charging for the Exits for a cigarette as I have seen at cluster headache conferences. They are linked IMHO but is it that bastard deformed CH brain that just makes us addicts??

chronic 8 years 6 months almost now. Quit smoking 1st brain surgery I had after 23+ years of being a smoker. That was 2 years 6 months ago. I am still chronic.
My father is a neck breather, speaks with a voice aid and breathes thrugh a large hole in his neck.He was a smoker. Reason enough to quit despite still being chronic I am healthier now.

AussieBrian wrote on Oct 14^th, 2013 at 12:47am:

Interestingly, the mortality of smokers is identical to that of non-smokers.

There are isolated studies that did not find differences, but the convergence of evidence is that smoking does more to shorten people's lives than any other single factor. On average, research indicates it reduces lifespan by 7 to 15 years - more for some, less for others, but on the average, 10-20% of one's allotted years. Overall, there is a clear and dramatic reduction in lifespan when long-time smokers are compared to those who never smoked.   

Some of the studies that did not find a potential difference were not designed to look for such differences. Others were statistically under-powered.  And at least 5% of all studies come to wrong conclusions due to noisy data and the limits of sampling theory and having an arbitrary cut off of p=0.05. But taken as a whole, there is overwhelming evidence that smoking is not harmless, and that it does have a cost in terms of quantity and quality of life.

AussieBrian wrote on Oct 14^th, 2013 at 12:47am:

Interestingly, the mortality of smokers is identical to that of non-smokers.

Very clever wording since it is one death per person.

Hoppy wrote on Oct 4^th, 2013 at 4:15am:

Hi HungryHippo, The jury is still out on wether smoking is a trigger or not in CH's. But what is known, is that smoking during a cycle will make a CH more intense. [smiley=smokin.gif] Hoppy.

You can put me down as it was no question a trigger.  Since I quit. I have less CH.

Hi Chad,
I tend to think, on this one, again we are all different. I've
been a smoker since i was 14, my CH's started when i was
27. So i can't blame smoking. And, when in a cycle, smoking
was never a trigger for me. I tried a stopping once, for a
couple of weeks during a cycle, did'nt make any difference.

Cheers, Hoppy.

Hoppy wrote on Jan 11^th, 2014 at 1:19am:

Hi Chad, I tend to think, on this one, again we are all different. I've been a smoker since i was 14, my CH's started when i was 27. So i can't blame smoking. And, when in a cycle, smoking was never a trigger for me. I tried a stopping once, for a couple of weeks during a cycle, did'nt make any difference. Cheers, Hoppy.

I hear you brother, like you said everybody is different.  My other trigger alcohol got the best of me last night.  Had 1 glass of wine last night and shortly after, BAM!  The O2 has been less helpful this cycle, but it works usually on the second try.

I think the majority of us clusterheads are in the same boat,
myself included, when it comes down to alcohol being a
major trigger in CH's. But, for me it's only a trigger when i'm
in a cycle.

Hoppy.

Hoppy wrote on Jan 11^th, 2014 at 5:32pm:

I think the majority of us clusterheads are in the same boat, myself included, when it comes down to alcohol being a major trigger in CH's. But, for me it's only a trigger when i'm in a cycle. Hoppy.

Likewise.  Out of cycle, I'm in the clear for cocktails and anything else that triggers this demon.

Smoking is always bad no matter you are well or not

Edward Smith wrote on Jan 27^th, 2014 at 11:08am:

Smoking is always bad no matter you are well or not

This.

I smoked for 12 years, been quit for 12 now. I still had cycles whether smoking or not.

If smoking is preventing or helping you cluster headaches in anyway, you could switch to glycerin E-cigs to get nicotine to help your headaches.

or if you still like herb, get a desktop vaporizer. Your lower risk of cancers and other serious health problems will thank you and so will the healthcare system.