I am a Clusterhead like most of you and would like to wonder if any of you who Smoke Marijuana (Bud, Weed, Trees) well i smoke Regular Marijuana what can grow by itself and have noticed that times where i have shadows i can just toke it up and it will go away....now other times it just seems to have no effect whether preventative or trigger, smoke same amount everyday and only days with cycles do i get hit....do any of you feel the same way? my doctor keeps trying to insist that it is a TRIGGER like ALCHOHOL but i disagree 100% what do you guys think?

You will find that this horse has been beat to death.  Dope is a huge trigger for ch.  Oxygen is the preferred method for aborting ch.

               Potter

There have been many posts on this subject.  Most people here would agree with your Dr.  

Yep...What Beth and Potter said.

Jeannie

nope your doctor is right. has something to do what it does to your vanes. like when your eyes get bloodshot when your stoned. its a surefire trigger for me. on the other hand many off us have gotten some relief from mushrooms and lsd.

edited to add: [smiley=deadhorse2.gif] [smiley=deadhorse3.gif] [smiley=deadhorse4.gif] ;D

THC is a vaso-diolator (sp?) which for CH'ers tends to be a really bad thing, as everything we use to fight CH is a vaso constrictor. You'll find we're an open bunch and are not a bunch of puritan "anti pot" zealots! If we thought it'd help you, we'd tell you so. Be really careful with it when you're on cycle as you could end up triggering a nasty KIP-10!

If you haven't already, do read the oxygen info linkmon the left. Enjoying an incredible success rate on the board, worth a try!

Joe

Just a thought,

Were you using THC when you started getting CH attacks ? if yes,  there is the answer your looking for.

Based on your post It sounds to me that you are a normal THC user regardless of your CH attacks, and you are hoping it would be valid treatment for your CH's. It sounds like you have a CH knowledgeable doctor, be grateful for that even if you disagree with his thoughts on THC therapy. There are also allot of people that drink during normal states and will not touch a drop during a cycle and that have quit all together just to avoid being triggered.

As the others have stated there has been allot of self research done and the results say it's not a good thing to do for CH attacks. For me with this many other suffers saying be careful I would take there advice and try everything that has been proven to work.

What other treatments have you tried? what was your experience with them? let us know maybe we can help in areas you or your doctor haven't thought of yet. But don't let a disagreement on one thing discourage or bias you into not trying others.

~James

I'd also have to agree with your doctor. I've noticed that on days that I smoke the headaches I get that night are worse than on days I didn't smoke.

I can reproduce the results consistently. If I smoke today, tonight the headaches will be more frequent and stronger than if I don't smoke.

Still, they won't be as bad as the ones I'll get if I drink alcohol. I completely refrain from drinking when I'm having my headaches!

Back in my younger years i too found it to be nothing short of a horrible idea to smoke in a cycle.

I sure wish this entire thread could be stickied for future use.

Dead horse indeed.  This subject comes up at least once every 4 to 6 weeks,  and we all have to say the same things over and over again.  A lot of folks take our collective word for the fact that this is a trigger and a lot get totally defensive.   ::)

The important thing to think about is who are you proving this to and how are you doing it?
As with so many things related to CH they are different to all of us it just might be possible that you are the exception, however if you are seriouse about getting an answer there is only one way.
You will have to give up that beautiful green friend for a time and see for yourself!
I quit for 6 months straight to include before/during/after my cycle and this was pre any abortive medication so i really lived out the pain, and i found no difference in the pattern or ferocity of my attacks.
That said i seriously cut down during my cycle and avoid smoking anything within atleast 2 hours of an injection or i get real bad nausea.

I understand your reluctance and feel your pain but I recomend that you take the hard road and prove it to your self and your doc either way. Some truth isnt worth hiding from.

Peace and PFD to you

Ollyjay

i live in VA where Marijuana is not legal and my doctor actually suggested me trying it ! i have been smoking weed for about 8 years. helps me relax. But during my days with the attacks i would stay away from it. becuse i thought it would make it worse. but about 3 months ago i tryed it during the shadows of my attack a round a 5 in pain ! and after smoking about .5 i was completly fine ! thank god ! now everytime i start to have an attack i smoke and am fine ! it is great ! now i will say that if your attack wakes you up in the middle of your sleep the Marijuana will not help. you have to smoke before the pain reaches a 7 in intensity. preferbly the earlier the better. and smoke out of bongs pipes bowls vaps or doobie . dont try and smoke out of a blunt during an attack it contains nicotin and makes it worse ! Also dont smoke mid grade. only the good stuff because mids will make your headache worse ! hope you find this helpfull ! it is also deff not a trigger i quit for a year at one point to see if that was causing it but still had the chronic CH!

I can't help but think that people whose headache condition is improved by weed are not suffering from CH.

Brew wrote on Apr 12^th, 2012 at 1:15pm:

I can't help but think that people whose headache condition is improved by weed are not suffering from CH.

I've wondered that myself. 

Potter wrote on May 15^th, 2009 at 3:54pm:

You will find that this horse has been beat to death.  Dope is a huge trigger for ch

I agree, it has been beaten to death.  The thing I disagree with is where everyone ignores the pubmed article (originally in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain Volume 49, Issue 6) entitled Cluster attacks responsive to recreational cannabis and dronabinol. (a link that has been posted many times but for some reason people seem to want to ignore it)

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A 19-year-old right-handed university student presented to the Montefiore Headache Center for evaluation and management of his cluster headaches. Over the past 2 years, he had a cyclical pattern of stereotyped attacks occurring predictably every 1 to 2 months, lasting approximately 2 weeks. During these 2-week cluster periods, he experienced 1 attack every other day. Each cluster period was typically followed by a remission phase lasting 1 to 2 months. However, over the past 3 months, the frequency gradually increased to 1 to 2 attacks daily.

The majority of attacks would abruptly awaken him from sleep at 12:30 am or 4:30 am with excruciating right temporal and peri-orbital pain. Each episode lasted 3 to 4 h untreated, with the pain reaching maximal intensity within 10 min and declining within 10 min at its conclusion.

He did not drink alcohol, but noted that marijuana use at the onset of his headaches consistently brought complete relief within 5 min of inhalation for each attack.

It is a small study, one person.  but you KNOW that if there is one person there has to be more (like me and all the others who have reported it to work)  If I have smoked it often, it stops working (kinda like every other drug I take for clusters).  If I get a strain that is more sedating than hallucinatory it doesn't seem to work as well either (no surprise here, hallucinogenic substances have a pretty damn good track record for busting clusters)  More than anything, I find it EXTREMELY useful for getting rid of my clusters, even tough one's if I combine it with either opiates or ketamine...opiates don't really seem to work at all for me unless I smoke with it, then it kicks it's ass.

As far as
   
    "I can't help but think that people whose headache condition is improved by weed are not suffering from CH."

My response would be that I can't help but wonder if the people that get help from reefer are hesitant to post about it because so many people try and claim that these people don't have clusters...

My real question with everybody is this--just because it doesn't work for you, why are you so inclined to write it off?  Exercise doesn't work for everyone...Why aren't we telling the people that can't bust with excercise that they don't have clusters either?

After the the number of people that I have talked to claiming that cannabis HAS worked for them, I actually recommend it now--mostly because if you are one of the lucky ones that it actually works for, you have a non-toxic remedy available for you. (no small feat in the world of cluster headache drugs) The stipulation with my recommending this, is that you should make sure that you have an imitrex shot, some O2, or some other quick acting abortive ready in case you are one of the ones that it doesn't work for.

As far as the whole blood vessel dilators are bad for clusters idea, I think that's another subject that has been beaten to death and essentially thrown out--many dilators help CH, and many constrictors make them worse.

Well written sir, and a nice reminder to all. Remaining open minded can at times prove incredibly beneficial.

Joe

Quote:

As far as the whole blood vessel dilators are bad for clusters idea, I think that's another subject that has been beaten to death and essentially thrown out--many dilators help CH, and many constrictors make them worse.

For example? lance

wimsey1 wrote on Apr 24^th, 2012 at 7:36am:

Quote: As far as the whole blood vessel dilators are bad for clusters idea, I think that's another subject that has been beaten to death and essentially thrown out--many dilators help CH, and many constrictors make them worse. For example? lance

Here's a copy of something I put on Clusterbusters a while back...

Caffeine works by vasoconstriction right? Here's a quote by Dale Pendal in an amazing book I have, Pharmakodynamis.  "While caffeine is generally a vasodilator, it has the opposite effect in the kidneys and brain, actually decreasing blood flow to the brain.  It is the increase in cerebrovascular resistance that makes it effective against migraines caused by cerebrovascular  distention."   
      
How about ginger, an amazingly effective Vasodilator, why does it help so much for clusters? 

I don't know how many times I've heard that sumatriptan works by vasoconstriction...It's sulfonated DMT, I think it's doing a lot more than just vasoconstriction.  (my guess is your brain gets flooded with serotonin, just like DMT does, but it's JUST serotonin, not halucinogenic DMT)

Pseudoephedrine, a known trigger for clusters is a vasoconstricter.

Feverfew, a substance many migrainers and some cluster sufferers get relief from is a vasodilator.

capsaicin, another really good vasodilator, has helped a lot of people with migraines and clusters....

Here's a couple links, admittedly about migraines, but I think the parallels with CH can easily be seen...

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-Ricardo

Ricardo, I have no academic background with which to substantively argue your examples, except from my own experience. Just to take two of your examples: ginger and pseudophedrine. Ginger has helped me not in the least, while I accept it has helped some. Pseudophedrine has helped, at least in the beginning, and has never been a trigger for me. I think your example, and explanation of caffeine, comes closest. Like verapamil, it is probable it's ability to help comes not from vascular interaction but some yet unclear neuronal action. Based on articles Bob J has posted it seems that here too we have run into the complexity of what a CH actually is, why it does what it does, and a rather hit or miss regimen of prescriptions. Bottom line for me is: it helps or it does not. Not being a medical researcher, I really don't care if it dilates, constricts or whatever. Does it make things worse for me or does it help? And I'm afraid we are not universal in our agreements here. If we were, I suspect causation would be much easier to determine. Blessings, and thanks for your unique insights! lance

wimsey1 wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 7:26am:

Ricardo, I have no academic background with which to substantively argue your examples, except from my own experience. Just to take two of your examples: ginger and pseudophedrine. Ginger has helped me not in the least, while I accept it has helped some. Pseudophedrine has helped, at least in the beginning, and has never been a trigger for me.

I think that what you're saying drives home my real point very well--that there is NO drug that can reliably GIVE everyone a cluster, and there is no drug that can take away everyone's cluster.  My guess is this has more to do with individual brain chemistry than the idea that "these people don't have clusters because there clusters don't act like mine"

I also think that you would be hard pressed to find any cluster headache researcher that still subscribes to the idea that vasodilators= bad/vasoconstricters= good for clusters.

I understand your personal experiences, everyone is different.  But here is one study (again with migrainers, but the whole dilation/constriction theory that they have thrown at us has consistently been the same for migrainers and cluster sufferers) showing a combination of feverfew and ginger, both vasodilators.  The conclusion was that it was "safe and effective as a first-line abortive".  This shows that not all vasodilators are going to trigger you, and some of them may actually help. 

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I suggest we move away from telling people that marijuana is a trigger because it is a vasodilator, and move towards telling people that for some reason that we do not yet understand, some people are triggered by marijuana, some people get relief, and some people have no effect on their clusters. 

If it helps at all, I'll give you a bit of my experiences.  Right now, I am being treated by a one of the first Neurologists that I have thought actually seems to know what he's talking about.  He has passed the United Council for Neurologic subspecialites headache medicine exam--the ONLY accreditation out there to prove that you know what is up with headache medicine. 

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His diagnosis is that I have cluster headaches, and he knows that marijuana seems to help me.  If anyone else has passed a rigorous test like this, and disagrees with my neurologists opinion, I will be glad to reformulate my ideas.

Last thought--to me, it really is no surprise that we have such varied reactions to Cannabis.  I know many people that have tried recreational marijuana, and you will hear some people say it makes them anxious, some it calms them down.    For some it wakes them up, for some it makes them sleepy.  Some it inspires creativity, some it makes them stupid and stoned.  My guess is that individual brain chemistry and cannabanoid receptor differences makes it so that all sorts of people get different reactions.

And ya'll are right...we should try and make this a yellow sticky :)

-Ricardo

Oral ingestion of cannabis does help migraines and many other medical conditions. As for my cluster attacks...smoking dope is = to sticking my hand in a meatgrinder. We are all individuals with personal physiology what works on one will not work on another, what triggers one will not trigger another. No scientifically known cause or cure. That has been presented here over and over. It is the nature of this syndrome. ENIGMA it is. I wished I could eat a big cookie :D
tachead

Look we all have an absolutely shitty condition! And we are all trying to cope with it and trying our own ways to treat them due to the lack of research being done! Now answer this if just because I say pot does help my clusters sometime (not every time) that I must not have them please explained why some preventative work for some, some abortive works for some, oxygen works for some, working out works for some but none of these things listed work for all of us! ! ! Everyone is different okay! don’t dismiss someone’s illness just because one thing may work for them and it does not work for you. That is just ignorant. In that case everyone with cluster would all be given (Topamax Prednisone and Sumavel) <---- just and example of what I am on. I am 23 and had this condition since I was 11 I have the chronic form and I am pretty sure when I am on the verge of pushing my hand threw my eye, and crying my eye's out cuz i feel like someone is shoving a knife threw my eye. I know the condition I have !

Quote:

You will find that this horse has been beat to death.

It sure HAS!!!!!!!!!

Weed is a vasodilator.   Please listen to your doctor.  And us.

lydia nichole wrote on Jun 5^th, 2012 at 4:44pm:

Look we all have an absolutely shitty condition! And we are all trying to cope with it and trying our own ways to treat them due to the lack of research being done! Everyone is different okay! don’t dismiss someone’s illness just because one thing may work for them and it does not work for you.

Lydia, I couldn't agree with you more. We have an absolutely horrible condition about which too little is known. I'm glad you have found something that works for you. It beats the alternatives. As for recommending a treatment, or an abortive, with the sense that it is "nearly" universal, we need to be very cautious. Even O2 doesn't work for everyone, nor does Red Bull, or even Prednisone. The opposite is also true: some interventions that seem useless to most of us, may have beneficial outcomes for some.

I think the true genius of this site is the shared experience of what has worked most of the time for most of the sufferer's, as well as what has worked some of the time for some of the sufferer's. We are emotionally invested because we are in so much pain.

Please realize no one is trying to minimalize your experience. Like you, we are only trying to find relief. God bless. lance

What Lance said. A gentle, loving reminder. This is the internet. Not everyone is going to agree with everything you say. If you're looking for the most comprehensive collection of treatments and experience for CH, this is the place. If you're looking for a place where everyone will agree with everything you say....well...not so much. :-/

Hey, if cannabis, in whatever form, works for you, then use it. The important thing is it works for you, not that we all agree that it works.

Joe

Here's the thing I'm not getting...  Seems like we are mostly in agreement that marijuana in many many cases is very helpful for migraines.  If you are believing the vascular theory of migraine and clusters, how does this make sense?  All along the clusters and migraines have been lumped together as "vascular headaches" Are we now saying that cluster headaches go along with this theory, but not migraines?  Are cluster headaches vascular headaches, but not migraines?  Next time you have a doctor tell you about how vasodilators are bad for clusters ask if they are bad for migraines too...Then ask them why marijuana works for so many peoples migraines.


Linda_Howell wrote on Jun 5^th, 2012 at 8:15pm:

Weed is a vasodilator.   Please listen to your doctor.

Here's a paper by Goadsby...

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"the same group using the same methods has shown that vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), another member (with PACAP) of the secretin/glucagon peptide superfamily, can induce an equal craniovascular vasodilation but does not trigger migraine at all (Rahmann et al., 2007). So it is not the dilation but receptor site activation that is important in migraine. Simply stated, the vasodilation is an epiphenomenon neither necessary nor sufficient for the symptoms."

I would be very surprised if the same thing was not found with clusters.  One of our Clusterbuster's is actually seeing Goadsby as a patient, maybe we can see if he has the time to shed a little light on the subject.

Truthfully though, I have to admit that I see no real point in arguing either side of the vasodilator argument when talking about marijuana.  Mostly because of the link I posted earlier that showed

A 19-year-old right-handed university student presented to the Montefiore Headache Center for evaluation and management of his cluster headaches. Over the past 2 years, he had a cyclical pattern of stereotyped attacks occurring predictably every 1 to 2 months, lasting approximately 2 weeks. During these 2-week cluster periods, he experienced 1 attack every other day. Each cluster period was typically followed by a remission phase lasting 1 to 2 months. However, over the past 3 months, the frequency gradually increased to 1 to 2 attacks daily.  The majority of attacks would abruptly awaken him from sleep at 12:30 am or 4:30 am with excruciating right temporal and peri-orbital pain. Each episode lasted 3 to 4 h untreated, with the pain reaching maximal intensity within 10 min and declining within 10 min at its conclusion.

He did not drink alcohol, but noted that marijuana use at the onset of his headaches consistently brought complete relief within 5 min of inhalation for each attack.

Does anyone out there really think that this is not cluster?  I'm completely open to people debating this, or to bring out any sort of problems with this study...But nobody does, we just ignore it and tell people that weed is bad for everyone with a cluster, even though we routinely have people popping up saying that it has helped them. 

That's why I say who cares about vasodilation, we can argue back and forth till we're blue in the teeth without getting anywhere.  What we can not argue with is that some people who have been diagnosed with clusters feel that they get relief from Cannabis, including the one person in this study.  The Headache Journal of Head and Face Pain thought it was worthy enough to publish it in their journal (Volume 49, Issue 6, pages 914–916, June 2009).  Why are we so quick to ignore it?

There is no point in arguing; There is no way to prove anything on either end they don't get relief from it. I’m sorry it doesn’t help you=( I don't always get relief from it either. Just like oxygen doesn't work for everyone every time they use it. I hope that they find something that works for them and I hope that if they post about it people don’t try and dismiss them really being CH suffers because of it.

lydia nichole wrote on Jun 7^th, 2012 at 10:47am:

There is no point in arguing

I disagree.  There is a MAJOR point to arguing this...We are routinely having respected people on this site completely ignoring peoples experiences (not to mention respected medical journals) because of their personal experiences or two sentences about how weed is bad by their doctor.  We routinely tell people "your doctor is wrong, don't listen to him" UNLESS it's about cannabis helping clusters.  We have people saying it's not the worst idea to try toxic drugs like lithium, to inject botox, or to have major major surgeries done, but REEFER?   No way, don't even try it?

Kinda reminds me of all the people who were saying the clusterbuster folks were crazy for thinking they could take a drug and have positive impacts on their clusters for months at a time.  Every thing in Western Medicine went against this idea, and if you told your doc or any cluster researcher about it they would tell you you are wrong and that drugs don't work on the brain that way. (and if we listened to them INSTEAD of our experiences we wouldn't have BOL-148 coming down the pipeline)

By being close minded to peoples experiences we are doing no one any favors. 

How about we try and listen to peoples experiences on this more and try not to tell people what to do so much? (not to mention trying to diagnose people that are not our patients...)

I would really love to hear anyone's opinion on the page from Headache Journal of Head and Face Pain.  Somebody please tell me why we are just ignoring this.

I'm not trying to knock anyone if something works for them that doesn't for me. I've had CH for 24 yrs and at one time thought MJ was helpful. But found it was increasing my daytime hits and became a major trigger.

I feel it's my duty to tell others that. Just like the fact that Imitrex and Mushrooms didn't or don't work for me. What I'm seeing is MJ does help a small %..

I question the 19 yr old that claimed MJ stops his hits in 5 min. His frequency of attacks increased and this sent him looking for treatment.??

The only way we discover what CH treatments are best, require all of us to state what does or doesn't work for us. I personally hope everyone finds what's best for them.

Don

Skyhawk5 wrote on Jun 10^th, 2012 at 11:01pm:

I'm not trying to knock anyone if something works for them that doesn't for me. I've had CH for 24 yrs and at one time thought MJ was helpful. But found it was increasing my daytime hits and became a major trigger. I feel it's my duty to tell others that. Just like the fact that Imitrex and Mushrooms didn't or don't work for me. What I'm seeing is MJ does help a small %.. I question the 19 yr old that claimed MJ stops his hits in 5 min. His frequency of attacks increased and this sent him looking for treatment.?? Don

Thanks Don, that's the kinda stuff that can really help, especially as a reminder that even if the Ganja helps you at first, you have to pay attention to what effect overall it has for you.  With myself, I have noticed a similar but not identical pattern.  Some days I will start getting hit and go for a strong coffee and a toke and that's all I will need for the day.  Other times I find it helps for a couple hours, but then I need to repeat the whole thing...But if I keep doing that all day I just end up getting hit hard towards the end of the day.  I don't know if this is a direct action of the weed or if the clusters are just determined to make an appearance that day.  Either way, now I've figured out that if I try it twice and it's still hitting me I've got to give up and try a different strategy.  (incidentally, this week it has been a godsend for me and has gotten me at least three days where I woke thinking I was going to need imitrex but didn't after taking a toke or two.)

As far as the 19 year old, it would be interesting to see a follow up ten years down the line to see how it's still working  for him.  I know in my earlier years Cannabis worked a lot more often for me, but that might just be because I was smoking less of it then.  As far as him having something that worked, but still feeling like he needed to get "treatment"--it doesn't surprise me.  It really sucks to have your medicine depend on the black market, not to mention that your insurance isn't going to pay for it.

-Ricardo

Well I quit smoking MJ for 9 month at one time (when I was pregnant with my now 4 year old and still had clusters just as bad and gave it up for a year before that because I thought that was triggering them. But when ever my doctor asks me whet my triggers are I reply "everything" because I don’t know, I have quit ciggs, I cut out the caffeine, I did the migraine diet, I have done everything and I still get them all the time (well a little less frequent now, because of the topamax) everyone’s body handles everything differently so it would make sense that we could all have differnet triggers

Ricardo,

We have the Medical Marijuana Law here in Michigan. I have a CH friend here with a license, that says he couldn't survive CH without it. So I do understand. If MJ or anything else can prevent even one Kip, then go for it.

I play in a band and one of the other members imbibe at practice. He will go to another room when I'm in high cycle. When I'm not, it doesn't matter. I've told my Neuro about all of this and said, "I would eat kitty litter if it would help." He told my wife," I would give him Heroine if I thought it would help."

All that being said, I appreciate your candor, it takes some guts. That's what we need, to know all options.

Lydia, you have some guts too.

Don

THANK YOU=) I believe we are all so strong. No one but us know what we truly go threw. No one truly can sympathize with us because they have never experienced what we experienced what we do. I would probably do anything if I knew it would for 100% sure keep the CH away. i am so sick of having my life controlled by the beast !

lydia nichole wrote on Jun 12^th, 2012 at 11:27am:

No one truly can sympathize with us because they have never experienced what we experienced what we do.

The people who have the best idea of what we go through are our supporters who know us so well and get to see us during a CH in tears with the pain fighting to kill off the beast with oxygen or imitrex.

Mike NZ wrote on Jun 12^th, 2012 at 3:42pm:

lydia nichole wrote on Jun 12th, 2012 at 11:27am: No one truly can sympathize with us because they have never experienced what we experienced what we do. The people who have the best idea of what we go through are our supporters who know us so well and get to see us during a CH in tears with the pain fighting to kill off the beast with oxygen or imitrex.

Thank-you Mike.

I thought it was helping me a couple of years ago, but I now believe that it was just the end of my cycle anyhow.

But it may be a reasonable treatment for some people. Not a particularly effective one across the board, but something helpful for some people with certain brain chemistries.

Part of it may be this. According to the Wikipedia page on Melatonin:


Quote:

Many psychoactive drugs, such as cannabis and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), increase melatonin synthesis.

[smiley=smokin.gif]...Does wonders on the nausea and pain perception, even more so than my perpetual ondansetron script.  Neither triggers, prevents, nor aborts my CH.

AppleNutClusters wrote on Jun 28^th, 2012 at 5:31am:

[smiley=smokin.gif]Neither triggers, prevents, nor aborts my CH.

The more and more that people recount their experiences with marijuana, to me, it seems like more and more evidence that the idea of blood vessel dilators = bad for clusters is not accurate.  Even out of the people that say it triggers them, most seem to be saying that it happens later in the day--NOT right after they smoke.  Marijuana is a MAJOR blood vessel dilator, so if blood vessel dilators are a trigger, you would think it would happen immediately after smoking, not hours later.  Interesting...

It could just be the smoking bit, regardless of what's being burned.  If smoking MJ did trigger hits for me, I'd be baking some very special brownies to find out for sure.  That's the scientific way, isn't it?   ;)

I did not bother reading all these, personally if I smoked more than a very small amount I can forget sleeping! Time for me a chill pill or I will be wanting to be by myself. Does not help at all, but its not a horrible trigger but no sleep for me if I smoke so not a every day thing for sure  :P

AppleNutClusters wrote on Jun 28^th, 2012 at 3:21pm:

I'd be baking some very special brownies to find out for sure.

You know what's funny?  Smoking doesn't trigger me, but eating it definitely does, every time.  (although I stopped trying a long time ago)

I have never had it trigger one eating or smoking it never makes it worse, sometimes it doesn't help so i just don't event try but it does help with the nausea and it helps me sleep. It really helps me a lot.

hello. My name is Jack and is 30 years old and from Norway. I started getting headaches daily in 1999 and after many investigations and testing of drugs I got diagnosed with cluster headaches in 2004. I started then with medication aimed at CH without any relief. I've tried oxygen, sumatriptran, imagran, aspirin, ibux and the rest of the traditional medicines against CH got some response from morphine but it was only fair as this turns out even a bear. but to get morphine in Norway I have a doctor who monitor me all the time under medication.
I considered whether there was any reason to continue to live with this pain. In 2005, I read on the internet that cannabis should work against migraines and that this was used in the past as a treatment. I went many rounds with myself before I dared to try, but after a while the temptation to find one product that works really great.
I tried to smoke first without CH pain but felt the pain I have in the back and shaking of my hands was gone. random I thought.
When CH pain came the day after I was ready with a pre rolled joint, it went max 10 min after I took the first breath as the pain gradually went over. This was awesome as I've always been bothered by a minimum of 40 min to 2 hours several times a day for almost 6 years.but I thought again that this must be random and decided to try again when the pain comes back. It was two days before I got back pain which was odd since I tend to have this daily. I smoked again and the pain gradually disappeared after 10 minutes I was completely normal again. after that day, I smoke regularly cannabis to keep CH pain was gone and it has worked I can now go a few weeks without getting CH pain. But in September 2012, I was arrested at home on suspicion of cannabis use. I get 18 days in jail, 3,000 kr ($ 410) fine and lose my drivers license 1 year.
I also lose my job when I was an auto mechanic and must have driver's license to do my job.
and not least, I have lost a medicine that actually works for me and my CH pain.
I am now back where I was in 2005 and it is frustrating.

but whatever cannabis has worked for me for 7 years and I can testify to that
and I've never driven a car after having smoked. do you have a driver's license in Norway we lose it because of the use of cannabis even if you are not driving.

WOW!!
That's really harsh! To lose your drivers license because of cannabis use when you were not even driving is wrong in my opinion and feel sorry that your laws are so strict! The laws in the U.S are getting more lenient every year and in many states they have commissaries that give out medical marijuana with just a Dr's prescription  and as long as you carry that prescription or "Card" giving you permission to use cannabis then your safe and most police will not even question it. Maybe you could be the one to lobby your government for the same laws??? Best of luck in your treatment of your CH.....Johnny :)

Smoking Marijuana is not necessarily the best way to use it for treating headache pain. Marijuana is such a complex medication that when you smoke it it gives off a different chemical compound than if you use it in edibles. Smoking anything while having a CH is not recommended for anyone as it can give rebound headaches and actually cause you to have a CH but everyone's different. Edibles are a much safer way to go and still get the pain relieving qualities of marijuana.....Johnny :)

If I had cannabis on prescription can not the police take away my license but in Norway it is not possible to get cannabis on prescription unless I get AIDS or cancer. I'm now working to try to get it on prescription from a doctor in the Netherlands when I can legally use cannabis in Norway and I will get back my driver's license. but the doctor in the Netherlands requires a recommendation by another doctor that cannabis helps prevent cluster headaches. my doctor in Norway is afraid he will lose his job if he is writing a recommendation for me.He says that it is not done any research on this and will not take the chance of losing his job to help me, even if it helps me and has done so for seven years. I wonder if there is anyone here on the forum who can sit with the knowledge of this or can tip me who I can contact to get some knowledge about this tema.USA are many years ahead in research on cannabis and have a different view to use than Norwegian doctors

Years ago when I was an alcoholic I would smoke weed when in cycle because I could face life head on. It wasn't a trigger of and by itself but if I had a shadow a hit would make it a full blown CH.

Cocaine on the other hand did help and enabled me to even have a cocktail. But after being a cokehead for 10 years I would not recommend trying it.

I dated a doctor and was surprised to find that they still have pretty easy access to liquid cocaine, at least in the E.R. It's apparently still used primarily as a nasal anesthetic, comes in the usual brown glass vial, but is colored blue in order to curb abuse. Analogues like lidocaine, bupivacaine, and novocaine have largely replaced it as they are not addictive.

Which is to say, if cocaine helped the CH, have you tried using nasal lidocaine?

i used to smoke bud on the regular but when i was in cycle or got a shadow or headache i never touched the stuff because i found it made the intensity of the pain worst....i no longer smoke weed or cigs as im 3 months clean....but i think we all try and look for methods of copping ...e.g once i put a cold towel on my head when i suffered and i thought it worked but it must have been just a coincidence because then time i did it i ripped the towel off my head and nearly ripped my head off my shoulders haha

I understand that this topic landed on this forum around the time that the wheel was invented (maybe not this particular thread), but I just wanted to tell about my experience with marijuana involving CH's and ask a question about another abortative. I quit smoking pot all together in college when I first started getting my headaches. I very strongly believed they pot was a much stronger trigger than alcohol (or atleast to me). My next question involves mushrooms. Is this a myth? I know that no neuro would prescribe "medicinal mushrooms" because of obvious liability reasons. I have evenwatched National Geographic episodes about how mushrooms provide relief to CH sufferers. However, during the episode I don't recall seeing any respectable Doctors or Head Ache Centers backing this concept up, or even any clinical studies. Just wanting to the pro/con arguements from people who know.

Tim in Texas wrote on Dec 14^th, 2012 at 5:36pm:

I understand that this topic landed on this forum around the time that the wheel was invented (maybe not this particular thread), but I just wanted to tell about my experience with marijuana involving CH's and ask a question about another abortative. I quit smoking pot all together in college when I first started getting my headaches. I very strongly believed they pot was a much stronger trigger than alcohol (or atleast to me). My next question involves mushrooms. Is this a myth? I know that no neuro would prescribe "medicinal mushrooms" because of obvious liability reasons. I have evenwatched National Geographic episodes about how mushrooms provide relief to CH sufferers. However, during the episode I don't recall seeing any respectable Doctors or Head Ache Centers backing this concept up, or even any clinical studies. Just wanting to the pro/con arguements from people who know.

It works.  Come to a convention and meet us.  I'm 3,000 days+or- PF.

            Potter

Tim, probably the best place to get the answers you're seeking will be START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE. It's a forum much like this one, and has all of the data on using hallucinogens responsibly in order to treat CH. For many, it provides complete relief over time, and in most cases, won't require you to "trip" or hallucinate. Check it out for sure.

Dr. Brian McGeeney has written an amazing piece on the help that cannabinoids and hallucinogens can offer the migraine and cluster headache sufferer.

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

I know this post is somewhat out of date, but I figured I would put my two cents in... Unfort. for myself Marijuana quite often triggers CH's, but then again I'm in a cycle 365 days a year. So it may be very helpful for episodic CH's. I've found if I already have a ch, ill smoke and it actually helps... But if I smoke while having no cluster its a flip of the coin. I agree with Lydia, everyone is verrrry very different when it comes to CH's... which makes it very hard to treat. So when it comes to a very safe herb like Marijuana hell give it a chance who knows!! :o 

I agree with Lydia, everyone is verrrry very different when it comes to CH's... which makes it very hard to treat.

True dat!

Joe

ok, so, I have been having clusters since I was 18, 38 years ago, and had to post something on here as if it saves one person a single headache is worth it.
These  headaches are evil and devious, what works one season, may not work the next, verapamil worked like a charm first time I used it, didn't work after that , has to do where the cycle is and how to interrupt it. mary Jane may work for some people I say try it , try anything that may help, amitriptiline, verapamil, sumatrapin has always worked to stop the attack, but not interrupt the cycle. nasal irrigation worked 2 years for me, then stopped working, mushrooms or lsd has been studied lately as it seems to work to stop the cycle and thats really what its all about stopping the cycle.
if you have a headache that ibuprofen stops , you dont have a migraine much less a cluster, imitrex injections or nasal spray stop the attack the fastest in my opinion, but don't stop the cycle, I have tried everything there is to try, and
have to change it almost every cycle, as the same thing won't work more than two times, but the imitrex or generic sumatrapin always stops the attack.
I have stopped the cycle by changing where I was physically, taking a plane ride somewhere going into the mountains, anything that makes your ears pop may also do the trick.
avoiding the cycle, I have never found anything that works, except when I took amitritiline, for a year, skipped a year , mine always come in march or april depending on climate, may be pollen counts or something, but once started will go on and on for months sometimes till I can break it, am currently going on two months of this cycle and started amitrip again.One year , during a horrendous attack, tried the nasal irrigation and it stopped immediately, like magic. Hope this helps someone

I am episodic, 6 weeks every 14 months. Iam very lucky to have such a short and far between cycle. I have smoked herb for the last 10 years. It has never been a trigger for me, but like many others, a cap full of liquer and I am at a k -10 within minutes. Many also say depakote does not help. Yet I have finally held off the first cycle in 12 years only changing to depalote a month before my cycle was to begin. 3 HAs at k -2. Not a cycle but a dream. All this being said. We are all very diff and I feel we get ch differently. I had a 3cm by 5cm aracnoid cyst on my temporal lobe. On my ch side.  I feel that had something to do with my situation.  God bless and p/f wishes to all here.

I smoked weed for a long time but once I started getting cycles every spring summer for the last 5 years I quit.  I found it to be almost an immediate trigger for me, and they were quite painful way more than usual.

I personally think that marijuana is a huge trigger.  As I slowly started getting worse and more painful headaches I noticed MJ was a huge trigger and quit for good.  I dont know if it dont trigger you in to one congrats.  I'm gonna agree with most on here that it is definetaly a trigger.

My second strongest trigger, after alcohol, is floral old woman perfumes.  They get me every single time. I think all would agree with, find YOUR triggers and stay as far away as possible.

Note that there is a huge difference between different MJ strains, and each one has it's own properties. For some people the right stuff can be more effective then Imitrex.

I hope that someone can shed light on this as it seens a little unusual.

I don't smoke much pot these days as I#m out of the loop and don't have someone to buy from....but...

I won't touch it if I'm in the middle of a bout (same goes for alcohol).

When I have toked close to a cycle, I've been fine that night.  No shadows, no cluster attack.

BUT - the next day, definite continuous shadows, and the next night, a high KIP.

Anyone else has this 24 hour delay?  Can anyone explain it?

Not really we are all different, but you could checkout our sister site ClusterBusters, the link is to your left at the bottom of this page.

Cheers, Hoppy.