Have an argument with my wife and need some data if possible. Anecdote if not.

Background:
I am finishing a long cycle for me (6mo) which was particularly hard. Cycle started off slow but eventually the beast showed up to party and I ramped up my Verapamil and O2. As of last week I am finally off verapamil and have been pain free for 4 weeks with only one shadow.

My question to y'all:
As alcohol is a trigger I often test that my cycle is really done by having a nice glass of wine or two. No headache, then I wait three years or so for my next cycle. My wife is worried that alcohol could prolong my cycle and wants me to wait (esp until after a big family event late October). Does anyone have any evidence or anecdote of alcohol causing longer cycles vs triggering a headache during an attack??

Any thoughts are much appreciated. I don't care about the alcohol so much as it's a marker that I don't have to fear the beast anymore. I so desperately want to box away that fear until next cycle. But I respect my wife's worries and desire that I not unnecessarily prolong this particular nightmare.

???

Yo Peter....

Mixed thoughts...I think there are various triggers that do precipitate a cycle....MSG used to do that to me. Did not experience with alcohol....the beer test was either a success...or a FAILURE and I had to wait a while..... only one way to find out..............

I do note that one of the few Kip 10's I ever had was as the result of a bottle of NO alcohol red wine....
and did set off a cycle...but Kip 10's are fortunately RARE beasts for most...I remember EVERY second of that 6 hour descent into the abyss...............

Best

Jon

We must be the only people in the world to have a 'beer test' so it's little wonder others think we're mad.

I can't report personally on this because I happily drink me grog before, during and after individual headaches and cycles, which has caused much hate-mail to land in my in-box.

Anecdotally, however, many CHeads have major problems with booze being an almost immediately trigger for a headache while in cycle, though I don't recall anyone saying it triggered an actual cycle nor extended one.

Mind you, and as you already know, your wife is right regardless.

Hello Peter,

I can only speak for myself here. I am a chronic sufferer so I don't enjoy episodes. I'm in cycle all year round for the last 3 years.

I never touch alcohol....never. After many years of episodic suffering and searching for triggers, I finally found that alcohol is the a certain trigger for me.

I have tested this twice over the last 3 years and each time the result was the same......ugly.

However, it would appear that, like everything else in CH world, everyone is different.

Best regards,

Peter.

Interesting mix of triggers.

Several years ago we had good reports that red wine would trigger attacks but not white wine. The explanation had to do with the chemical complexity of red vs.wine.

But we have long agreement that alcohol, alone, is a trigger. So the answer to your question is ????

It's never prolonged a cycle for me though it is definitely my most major trigger. It actually lets me know when I'm about to start a cycle.

The last cycle I had last year I discovered Batchs' D3 therapy and was actually able to imbibe as long as I kept up the treatment, the cycle lasted no longer than usual.

I'm with Peter's comments. The general understanding is that alcohol can trigger an attach WHEN we are in a cycle but not CAUSE a cycle.

We have received comments from Europe that WHITE wine does not trigger an attack altough RED does. I have shared that experience. The assumption is that the chemical structure of red wine may have ??? not in white which trigges an attack.

  I would say that alcohol contributes to an attack if you are the type that gets loose.  If it causes you to change the way you act and move, chances are good. 
  If you are the type that pretty much carries on as usual, acting and moving the same, chances are low.
  If you do a little of both, it's a gamble.
  Consider my opinion with a grain of salt.  I'm that crazy member proposing Dale's Black Eye palsy.
  Nerve irritation will prolong the cycle.

For me, when I was in a cycle and drank alcohol it would guarantee a bonus, but between cycles I could drink as much as I liked with no visit from the beast.

Cheers Hoppy

For many years on this site, there were a lot of us chronics who could not detect any impact from alcohol.

That "us" includes me.

Marc

Hi Peter,
My cycle is episodic. I do not drink alcohol while in cycle as it is an immediate trigger for me. So whether or not it prolongs a cycle, is something I never became aware of as I simply would not drink to begin with to know.

Side note: I gave up drinking alcohol last February for lent, and still haven't drank alcohol despite Easter being long gone. Feel much better without alcohol in my social life, as I found myself struggling my entire adult life with not stopping at just one drink.

I recognize this is a compulsive type of personality issue and finally realized after countless times of getting myself in trouble due to over indulging with alcohol.

Compulsive behaviors is another subject possibly relevant to CH's and how we CH'ers are "wired" differently than others. Are most CH'ers compulsive with their actions...smoking, eating, drinking alcohol, drug use, accomplishing tasks, etc.?! I for one have a compulsive personality and have matured enough to recognize it is easiest for me to just not indulge in something that I struggle with self control.

Sorry to get off topic, but at least you have another opinion to add to this thread.  ;)

Gregg in Las Vegas

Compulsive actions, habits, addictions are partially traced back to the hypothalamus as are cluster headaches. Doesn't mean we are all druggies or drunks that smoke too much, just that there is a connection.
My opinion is no. Alcohol does not extend a cluster cycle. It does not trigger a cycle but can trigger an individual attack.

I recently was working to taper off my verapamil as per my neurologist (360mg to 240mg to 120mg).  I also take depakote 500mg 2x/day. 

Alcohol was most certainly a trigger.`However, I also have found that a single drink if it doesn't trigger one right away then a few days later I will most certainly get one. 

(I have recently had to go back to my original dosage of verapamil.  As a chronic CH sufferer, I got 3 in the last 2 weeks after being down to 1 per month.  Wasn't going backwards.)

I was headache free for 13+ years. I think everyone is different. I was an extremely heavy drinker. I was told 6 months ago I had to stop because of my liver. So, in short I didn't get CH's @ the peak of my drinking career & now that I don't, my headaches are back as of 5 weeks ago. Go figure.

In theory, alcohol is a trigger only during a cycle and once you're out of cycle you can go back to drinking. Of course this is not the case with chronic CH, in which the sensitivity to triggers is always there to some degree.

In practice, many go from being episodic to being chronic in some point, and certain triggers are known to trigger cycles   (using Viagra or nitro glycerin, switching to daylight saving time, extreme seasonal changes etc.). So you have to assume that drinking alcohol always carry some risk.

Personally, I stopped drinking altogether after I saw this study from 2009, that found a link between CH and a mutation in the ADH4 gene, which is connected to the breakdown of alcohol in the liver
START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE