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 5th, 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?
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