Posted by Steve W (207.115.62.87) on July 10, 1999 at 09:38:49:
In Reply to: Re: I May Have Cluster Headaches Too. posted by drummer on July 10, 1999 at 06:27:29:
T.,
You and I are quite a bit alike, in that we both have clusters and that caffeine is both a cause and a help to them. When I was your age, I used to get clusters in the fall. Now I'm over twice your age and they come when they will.
I used to go through periods of working lots of overtime to complete projects I was on. I would drink lots of coffee to keep my eyes open and the juices flowing. The problem is, the body always wants to get back in balance . . . sleep the right amount, work the right amount. I would be full of caffeine all day. When I went to sleep and was unable (unless I wanted to attach and IV to my arm while I slept) to keep the caffeine coming, my body would get to a "caffeine deficit" condition and the cluster would come out in full force and wake me up. Then, of course, I would take some excedrin with a couple of coffee chasers, and after a couple of hours, I would shrink my poor over-expanded blood vessels back down to a non-painfull size; and be beat, but o.k. After a few weeks of this, the caffeine doses would have to get larger and larger to constrict the blood vessels until . . . oh, oh, a carload of caffeine won't have any effect, and you have a 12-14 hour CH to deal with . . . WAY NO FUN.
For me, I avoid caffeine like the plague. Even though there are mornings that I would love the euphoric boost of a steaming hot cup of aromatic coffee (now everyone is running for their coffee cups), I know I will pay dearly for it, if I start that routine again. So I have some decaf tea instead . . . (in the news yesterday, 1 cup of black tea a day reduces your chances of heart attack by 44%).
If your system is truly like mine, get to the doctor and get some imitrex shots to abort future CH attacks, and get some preventative drugs (Prednisone, Verapamil, Depakote . . . see the posts for the good, bad, and ugly of each), and get off the caffeine.
Now having said all that, there are lots of folks on the board here that caffeine helps, and they don't get rebound CHs from it. I wish I were one of them.
You just have to try different things to see what works for you.
Good luck young man. I hope by the time you are my age, CH are a thing of the past on this planet.
Steve W.