Zeitgeist-
Lol No, I haven't.  I was hoping to get that by responses from non-masturbators in this thread.

Potter-
Wtf do you want from me brother?  A cover is a hat, you're saying my hat's too tight.  Hilarious.  I'm a combat vet.  Infantry. It has nothing to do with this topic. 

Brew-
Yes, I'm a total newbie, but I also share the same condition as everyone else on this website.  I may be drawing conclusions, but at least I'm putting something on the board.  What is getting you off by trolling this thread?

Yeah, because I'd take the time out of my day to do all of this to "get my jollies".  I've been diagnosed with clusters for 3 years.  I'm putting all of the pieces together on everything I've learned since then.

Your profile says you're 51, act like it.

You crack me up.

Not.

And I do hope you understand the difference between a hypothesis and a thesis.

Elliott, you need to go else were find your kicks on some other board

MDR wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2012 at 8:11pm:


What pleasure would I gain from this?  None.  I'm abstaining from porn and posting the results based on links between dopamine and the trigeminal nerve.  Please stop flooding my thread.

elliot - No, I'm not taking sides.  But I cannot dismiss the dopamine idea. Restraining myself from sex or masturbation is not a realistic prospect for this sucker, but if someone will in order to produce results related to you hypotehsis, I praise them.

But be aware - From time to time people show up on this board with "the final solution" to CH, and quite a few are well, pissed and also concerned that sufferers in their desperation will waste valuable life and suffer great pain all in vain. I respect that, and so should you.

(Edit, expanding:)
A number of people on this board have a lifetime of CH experience. I myself have 21. You have 3. Most of us are painfully aware that the causality behind CH is complex, not simple. It is almost common that people show up on the board with a message of restrain from this or restrain from that, do this, do that, do less of this or more of that and your CH will be gone.

If you search, you will find people advocating masturbation as the best abortive ever. Please consider this, and store it somewhere in the back of your mind. If nothing, it will help you understand the opposition you've faced. Basically, we're a collective, having accumulated hundreds. maybe thousands of years of severe pain saying Don't f. with us. Again, please consider this. Some of us smell snake oil miles away.
(done expanding)




Over to the science here.  I'm not able to tell if dopamine and CH is not related.  In fact I got a hunch you're on to something.  But the theory will have to explain quite a number of phenomena related to CH - like:

• Why can one masturbate multiple times a day, all the year, and still suffer from CH only in periods?
• Why can I have sex at all?
• Why are some people episodics and others chronics?
• Why does Imitrex and O2 abort?
• Why do a number of stuff prevent?

(expanding)
My general belief is that we must accept, allow and even encourage bad ideas in order to get the good ones. This requires a certain environment.  Bad ideas may inspire the better ones, and very often they do. Good ideas are born from a graveyard of bad ideas, as I see it.

This is why I welcome ideas, even strange and apparently stupid ones. Obviously the complete understanding of CH requires knowledge not yet revealed. It may even require a paradigmatic shift in the science of brain chemistry, or electricity to explain CH. This is why I'm open, and not instinctively dismissive.  Sometimes the truth is not the obvious. All practicality says that if I throw a ball, I apply an amount of power that drives the ball ahead, and when that power is consumed, the ball will hit the ground. Like an airplane with a limited amount of fuel. Enjoying very special minds like Newton, we know that this is not how it works. For all I know, the understanding of CH may require a similar ground-breaking thought, an idea that seems incredibly stupid - at first.

Having said that - there is logic, the best tool ever created. And there is this board which is the best source of information about CH in the known universe.
Just to make sure it is mentioned.
(done expanding)

Having an opposed idea is hard. But I wish you good luck!

Quote:


1.  I believe it still has to do with the circadian rythm.  Forcing changes upon it through daylight changes.  I believe that the endocrine system undergoes an adaptation phase that has trouble "doing work" with damaged dopamine receptors. 
2.  Sex is linear.  Assuming its not with multiple partners, the dopamine release will be conditioned and adapted to within the boundaries of nature.  Even several partners.  Pornography affords hundreds of partners at our disposal, ousting our primative ancestors in one session an experience they could not achieve in a lifetime.
3.  Two possible scenarios: genetically "flawed" brain mapping.  This could be be biggest variable in CH in general.  Some people are born with webbed toes, some with malfunctioning receptors.  Second scenario:  misdiagnosis of severe, non-cluster headaches. 
4.  Enhancing oxygen and blood flow to the brain promote healthy nerve transmissions.  Not quite sure how imitrex works though.
5.  I have never been put on an effective preventative, but I assume they also promote blood flow to the brain.  Really don't have an answer for this one.

All that being said, those are my best GUESSES.  I'm really optimistic about how this trial is going though, cluster free today and hopefully forever.

Cheers

Batch wrote on Nov 24^th, 2012 at 10:23pm:


Batch-  not trying to downplay this, but 3/4 of teens and adults in the United States are vitamin D deficient.  I drink my milk and as a Marine get my fair share of time in the sun.  I WILL do my best to get this test done, but just know that I really feel that vitamin d could only play a part in this.  Vitamin D plays a role in producing dopamine after all...

Brew wrote on Nov 25^th, 2012 at 5:08pm:


Could've sworn you said you were done with this harassment.  You're 51 years old.

MDR wrote on Nov 25^th, 2012 at 7:59pm:



Not so much masturbation MDR, as the chemical there is an opioid.  What stimulates the dopamine cycle is the "hunt" for material.  Dopamine is what gets people to move from playboys to hustlers.  Softcore to hardcore

What about us CHeads who go nowhere near porn, ever, and keep our hands out of our own trousers?

AussieBrian wrote on Nov 25^th, 2012 at 9:41pm:



This is an important variable and feedback from you guys adds to the study.  Are you saying you don't masturbate to porn or at all?


UPDATE:  Another CH-free day.  Had a shadow of a shadow.  Things are looking good. 

I'm losing my mind doing this though.  For Science!