I only browse from time to time here. Anyway I was a chronic cluster sufferer for well over 5 years. Now it seems like the past 1 year I have been off and on (seasonal?). Anyway, Right now I have been without a headache for months so I am on no medications.

However, I recently noticed that since my clusterheadaches have slowed down and become seasonal I have a new weird symptom.  My sense of smell has become overwhelming, to the point where it has actually cause some problems and made other things better.

The good:
*I know eat a few different foods that I never really liked in the past.
*It helps me when I go deer hunting...seriously. I can actually smell a deer before I even see it

The bad:
*I have also lost the ability to eat certain food
*This is embarrassing but sex is sometimes unbearable because of the smell. Its both me and my wife. Its now got to the point where both of us (my wife) shower before and I still have issues.
*Certain perfumes are overwhelming to me and it nearly makes me sick. So I have a hard time being around anyone who uses something strong

So anyway I was wondering if anyone else here is highly sensitive to smell. I looked up Hyperosmia and apparently it is linked to Cluster headaches.

Not nearly to that extent, and not all the time.  It's weird - it comes and goes.  But sometimes Gary is REALLY sensitive to smells.  It hasn't affected his ability to eat (or anything else), but it does drive him nuts sometimes.

Laurie

Hello there:

I get extremely sensitive to odors when I am about to be hit with CH and throughout the attack.

An example:  Driving down the highway on a very hot day with MAX A/C on in the car with windows closed, I can smell grass being mowed a mile or more away.

Other odors that are triggers make me wonder if the odor is a trigger or rather I'm getting a CH first.  Between CH, I only have an average sense of smell.

Wishing you well,

Ray

Interesting!!!

Food for thought

I think I have got more sensitive to smells as CH years have passed by.

Have always had a problem with certain smells in cycle and they can be triggers for me e.g. eggshell paint (not sure if that is a universal term but it has solvents in it)

but I recently found on holiday (out of cycle) that I had to leave several events and two buses because of a woman's perfume which was "jangling" my pain side so I feared an attack and was making me feel sick.

This was new but I went into cycle only a few weeks after returning so maybe was "brewing"

Food for thought as maybe it was an early clue/warning of a pending cycle ????


W

A little different here...I used to make my living with my nose (seafood evaluator). Probably ended up there because growing up my Dad couldn't smell and I was his nose. So...have always had a sensitive sniffer. CH didn't help (or hurt) my performance.

Certain odors are "triggers"... like zinc welding, strong perfumes, solvents...In high cycle, I get strange odors (that aren't there) when in, or about to get, a major hit...main one is ammonia. Neuro said she had never heard of this...

Best,

Jon

Interesting indeed.  Only in this current cycle I've noticed my heightened sense of smell, ONLY during an attack and shortly before/after.  I could kill my husband if he smoked around me during an attack.  It causes nausea on top of CH.

My house stinks.
My house stinks.
My house stinks.

Do I need to shampoo the carpet and wash the walls?  Dog odor?  Disgusted, I walk around the house sniffing after an attack, thinking how embarrassing it is to live in a stinky house.  My sense of smell is back to normal in a few minutes.  The house doesn't stink anymore!  So I light a cigarette.

Yes yes and yes. My sense of smell has heightened - pretty much everything you said. I can't handle sharp smells - perfume is the best example I can come up with now. I remember wishing it was banned from my work - it wasn't a popular movement needless to say. It sucked and I couldn't believe how much more I noticed it.

It doesn't even have to be a lot, I was reading a magazine and the little cologne sample hit my nose as I turned the pages and BAM, that was all it took.

There has to be some neutralizer out there that would help. Maybe we should keep coffee beans in our pocket :-/

Yes. It's the most sensitive when I'm in a high cycle, but the general sensitivity has increased over time.

Ditto for me- in fact, I've been nauseous all day after going to Michael's Crafts store (all that %&#@! holiday cinnamon scented crap.)  I also have a more "tender" sense of hearing- like the high pitched whine of the television set hurts my ears, but my SO can't hear it at all.... :D

Interesting...I'm not sure I've ever thought of a link but yes, the sniffer does seem to be more sensitive. I'll be watching my next cycle and thinking on this some.

I almost strip down outside the house and feel like I need to burn my clothes if I go out to a bar where they smoke. Can't stand it. (And I bartended my way through college - so go figure)

I've noticed over the last few years that I'm becoming more sensitive to odors.  Like others have posted, during a CH cycle, just walking into our regional mall can set me right off.  I think they pipe in some really obnoxious smells into the whole building--nevermind having to walk through a perfume department where they're aiming for you.  Even when out of cycle, I have an aversion to many perfumes now....could be just psychological at this point though, and I wouldn't say that its extreme.

Yes.

My sense of smell has heightened over the years. In cycle I am a freakin bloodhound. I've always been able to identify the line-up of spices in a dish, but now I can smell them in the cabinet. I swear, I thought I was getting super power or something :P

The perfume counter in a department store is like hell in an aspirator. That is an instant hit to be avoided at all costs. I went to the mall with someone that parked outside Dillard's. I was unfamiliar with that particular entrance until I was assaulted by that perfume ninja lurking behind the column. WHAM! CH hit in mere minutes. Never again. I swear I can smell each individual scent in that hades.

Here's a hell-trap to avoid: Michael's Arts and Crafts....they have all of their Christmas-piney-sugary-cinnamonney-scented candle-crapalooza out for the masses- within two minutes of walking in the door I thought I was going to throw up!!  ;D

My sense of smell has been more accute over the years as well.  Like linux I seem to be able to smell sex.  I'm not saying good or bad and it hasn't stopped me from having it but I seem to smell everything.  ;D  A place I can no longer stand to go into is Subway.  The smell of those resturants is like a slap in the face to me.  I can't even stand to be around people who have been in there as it is like someone who just came out of a smokey bar.  For some time I thought everyone had b.o. or bad breath too.  But now I kinda know my sniffer is in overdrive.  It just seems like alot of smells are in High-Definition now.

jon019 wrote on Dec 5^th, 2008 at 8:09pm:

A little different here...I used to make my living with my nose (seafood evaluator). Probably ended up there because growing up my Dad couldn't smell and I was his nose. So...have always had a sensitive sniffer. CH didn't help (or hurt) my performance. Certain odors are "triggers"... like zinc welding, strong perfumes, solvents...In high cycle, I get strange odors (that aren't there) when in, or about to get, a major hit...main one is ammonia. Neuro said she had never heard of this... Best, Jon

I'm much like Jon; when approaching a high cycle & throughout I get a strong chemical smell that no one else can smell.
During low cycle my hooter's not worth a pinch of cocky smitt.

Cheers
Barry

My sense of smell is stronger while in the middle of my CH cycle.  The worst is the smell of gasoline!!! That's one fume that gives me clusters for a few days all day.  

And, unfortunately, I sit about 10 feet from the men's room at work.  Needless to say, after the men's room is put to use, I feel like I'm gonna hurl.  I don't get CH's from the smell, but still!!!!!  


Laura

Yes, indeed!  Sense of smell got extremely heightened before this current cycle.  My wife noticed it before I did.  I was telling her to not put perfume on and this one body spray that she likes was nauseating.  

Had gasoline smell trigger shadows at the gas station yesterday.  Also, told my kids, rather than ask, that they didn't brush their teeth this morning.   I usually ask them to make sure before they leave for school...this morning I didn't need to.   Smelled funky breath from across the room.   :o

Wow!  I didn't know what that word meant.  

I have had a heightened sense of smell since before ch.  I had heard that while pregnant, women will have a heightened sense of smell and figured mine never went back to "normal" after I had kids.  My family always teases me about this because I can smell something before it becomes obvious to everyone else.  Interesting.

Beth

ETA: I can't stand the smell of anything while getting hit!!

This is really interesting!   My husband says that I should work for the FBI... sniffing out drugs and bombs!  My sense of smell is very strong.

I had no idea that it could be related to CH!

Jeannie

Beth,  I also had that problem when I was pregnant.  Getting money out of the ATM used to make me throw up.  I couldn't stand the smell of new money!

I think most of us get a stronger sense of smell when in cycle, last night after work I could smell the difference in my own sweat after adding a new protein shake to my diet the day before.

The part that concerns me is that your headaches have changed and you're having the new nervous symptom. Sudden changes like that can be a signal that something is wrong. It could be something as small as CH morphing, a toxin/allergy to a new cleaning product, but it could also be a tumor. If I were you I'd go get an MRI or at the very least a physical/eye/reflex check just to make sure.

One thing with CH is that we tend to have incredible tolerances to pain, things that would put others in the hospital we don't even notice. So be careful.

Hi - 10 years late to this thread but it still was the top result on google. I've had CH for about 20 years, and this is the first year I've definitely noticed an extremely heightened sense of smell during my current cycle and they will trigger. Today I left work because I could smell the shaving cream of a coworker 4 cubes away and it was making me very nauseated. Lotions, creams, perfume, hairspray.. All so much stronger and what used to not bother me at all now makes me feel like I'm literally eating/drinking the stuff.

It's almost like the CH is just honing in on any little thing that I would normally find slightly annoying, and using that as an excuse to launch a full blown CH attack, which causes my sense of those things to be heightened out of self-defense??

Interesting about heightened sense of smell. I recall reading some CH'ers reporting smells to act as a trigger. Personally never noticed the heightened sense of smell. However, I have very often when in cycle experienced heightened sense of hearing.

"Different strokes for different folks."

-Gregg

Interesting suggestion. Before I started with CH my sense of smell wasn't too great, but about the same time it started, my sense of smell improved significantly, especially for burnt toast (so much so I hate smelling it).

Hard to know if it is a coincidence or not.