OK, I know this sounds crazy and it is kind of embarrassing to even post about, but hey, anything for the sake of possibly gaining more insight/knowledge.

"Poppers" is a slang name for a recreational inhalent drug that people typically use to enhance sex. It also makes you laugh like hell for a minute or two and then you feel completely normal again.

So, the embarrassing confession part, I've done it with my friends and it is super funny because you really do laugh like a mad man. It makes you light-headed and warm all over and goes away after about 2 minutes. I never really thought much of it, only did it a couple of times, and filed it under the "stupid/silly things you do with your buddies" folder.

Fast forward to a year later, today. I've suddenly entered a CH cycle that came on very quickly. I am getting hits here and there while dosing up on the Vitamin D3 etc. regimen. My friend randomly made a joke about poppers. Since my thought revolve around CH when I'm in a cycle, it sparked my curiosity. Now I am curious what effect they would have on a CH attack.

Since I don't know much about anatomy, drugs, what effects they have, etc. (I worked in politics and am now a grad student studying finance/econ) I thought I would throw it out here to this board.

I am not advocating anyone screw around with anything like this, I am just throwing my curiosity out to this world because there are a number of you that know stuff like this inside and out! Thoughts?

I guess if I was really curious I would just go buy some at the crazy porn shops here in Manhattan and try it when I feel an attack coming on. But, the risk of making a hit of mine, which have been every other day or so at an average K3 or 4 for only ~30 minutes, shoot up to a higher K is pretty scary. 

Here is a link to the appropriate wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppers

Pain-Free wishes to you!
-Chris

Also a little more about me because I don't ever post on here...

I first got CH at age 16 in Fall of 2001. I aborted my first cycle with prednisone and kept them away for 6 months with Inderall. Then they came back and I entered a sort of "experiment" in prescription pills with the Docs that lasted a few years until I settled on using clusterbusting methods. I threw in some experimenting with Kudzu and used oxygen and pretty much have had 6 week long cycles every 18 months or so for the past 6 years. The busting got too scary for me though, I do NOT do well with any kind of mind-altering drugs like that. Last winter I felt twinges of CH entering my life and started the Vitamin D3 etc. therapy I'd been reading about here on the site. It blasted everything away and I felt great until a week ago when I started feeling CH again. I ramped up the D3 treatment but it is not being completely effective yet, although thing are getting better. I use ginger tea and caffeine as my go to helpers to abort.

I guess that is my "CH Chris" in a nutshell haha. Other than that, I am 27 years old, living in NYC, studying at Columbia University and loving my life!

I've never publicly said how grateful I am for this message board. Literally, since I was 16 years old, this board has been an incredible source of information and comfort to me. Often times when I am having an attack I feel that I am the only one in the world, and then I remember there are all these people here that know my pain and it makes me feel better! Sorry that your pain is a source of comfort for me! haha.

Quote:

I think I'll pass.

G'day Chrismo, and welcome. Yes, blood vessel dilation isn't good because it puts extra pressure on a nerve we try to protect. Equally it seems your poppers cause a drop in blood pressure which may or may not be a good thing.

Interestingly, a listed side-effect is, "can cause headaches, some extremely severe".

All that aside, glad we've been able to assist over the years and your questions are ever welcome.

Cheers and beers,

Brian down under.

chrismo5555 wrote on Nov 27^th, 2012 at 11:01pm:

Blood vessel dilation is what causes the pain part of CH. In a CH attack, blood vessels in the head can dilate up to twenty times their normal size.

chrismo5555 wrote on Nov 27^th, 2012 at 11:01pm:


The idea that blood vessel dilators are bad, constrictors are good for clusters is highly debatable.  There are a number of vasodilators that have been proven to be helpful, but I've sung that song (with lots of evidence and links to doctors like Goadsby singing the same song) till I was blue in the face.  People get stuck in their opinions and are resistant to change.  Oh well.

Just for the hell of it, I'll throw another one out there-

Two different types of nitrate-induced headaches have been described: (i) immediate headaches that develop within the first hour of the application, are mild or medium severity without characteristic symptoms for migraine, and ease spontaneously; and (ii) delayed, moderate or severe migraine-type headaches (occurring mainly in subjects with personal or family history of migraine), that develop 3–6 h after the intake of nitrates, with debilitating, long-lasting symptoms including nausea, vomiting, photo- and/or phono-phobia. These two types of headaches are remarkably different, not only in their timing and symptoms, but also in the persons who are at risk. Recent studies provide evidence that the two headache types are caused by different mechanisms: immediate headaches are connected to vasodilation caused by nitric oxide (NO) release, while migraines are triggered by other actions such as the release of calcitonin gene-related peptide or glutamate, or changes in ion channel function mediated by cyclic guanosine monophosphate or S-nitrosylation.

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Migraines are not clusters, but the outdated idea that they are triggered by blood vessel dilators are the same. 

Nitrates however, are really bad for clusters.  For quite a while now researchers have used nitrates as a reliable cluster trigger if they want to try out a new med on some poor patient, in the hopes that it will get rid of there nitrate induced cluster.

-Ricardo