Posted by Jack Boyd on July 20, 1998 at 07:52:57:
In Reply to: Cluster cause posted by Jimbo on July 19, 1998 at 17:00:12:
I am afraid none of this is that simple.
When we talk about cause we probably need to talk about predisposition first - we are probably born with something that makes us susceptible to this ( there is ample evidence that there is a tendency for this to run in families ).
The seasonal component. I have had clusters in every month of the year but they have most often occurred in the late fall/early sping and that seems to be somewhat common among others.
My read on all of this goes something like this:
1 - we are born with some predisposition
2 - a cycle is brought on by our brain chemistry going wacko from who knows what.
3 - once in a cycle there are very clear triggers that we all experience ( sleep, alcohol, etc. )
I know that there has not been a great deal of research done on this stuff and that is probably due to the facts that 1 - this is relatively rare and 2 - in spite of the extreme pain it is not life threatening but I wonder if we could get some research people interested simply because this thing called cluster headaches is so darn weird. Medical/scientific types like challenges and will pursue research for other reasons than money - I wonder if we are speaking to the right people?