Posted by John R on September 18, 1998 at 00:41:05:
In Reply to: Exercise posted by Sean on September 17, 1998 at 23:17:52:
Absolutely. Several years ago my nerologist sent me home with a copy of an article on clusters in one of her journals. It mentioned in passing that some people reported success with rapid aerobic excercise at onset of pain. (Others apparently can trigger a CH by exercising--never noticed that for myself, though.)
So I tried running rapidly at the beginning of the pain, and it definitely worked, but it was even more hit or miss than the oxygen. Part of the problem may have been that I was trying to get relief running in the heat of Phoenix... Anyway, I've been using jumping up & down (as in jumping rope, usually without the rope) at onset, usually when I awake an hour after going to sleep. As the years have gone by, the O2 has worked less and less. I transitioned to jumping up and down while breathing the O2, which worked really well for a number of years. Then the last year or so, jumping up and down without the O2 has worked the best. Lately that quit working and I'm so glad I found this website and the cold air idea. It has worked well for several days now.
Just as I was about to start writing this response, a CH started coming on very fast and by the time I got my footstool and O2 mask on it was already raging. Much quicker onset than the normal fast. This was really fast. Anyway, the combo of cold air from the air conditioning vent with my eyes open and breathing the oxygen mainly through my nose really worked fast. Even though it was really tough to stand still on a stool when a headache is raging, it still worked and totally killed the CH in about five or seven minutes.