Posted by Jeremy on October 06, 1998 at 22:30:03:
In Reply to: smoking and clusters posted by Matt on October 06, 1998 at 13:09:07:
06 OCT '98
My neurologist told me to stop smoking too.
All doctors tell their patients that for
every condition. It gets them off the hook
if their treatment fails.
Neurologists, by their own admission,
DO NOT KNOW what causes cluster headache syndrome.
According to the profiles (found under links to
this website) about 26% of ch sufferers smoke-
which is the same % as the general population.
I think it is a disgraceful lack of sensitivity
to the human condition to simply tell a patient
not to smoke. Don't they know most of us would
stop if we could, and not all of us can afford
Betty Ford.
If it's not smoking, it's something else-
we are all compulsive and a bit self destructive
in some way. Smoking is just more visible and
currently socially unacceptable, and is becoming
a scapegoat for pratically everything.
I wish the mds would address the compulsive needs
which drive us to destructive habits.
As for me, I've suffered from severe heads since
I was 6yo. The clusters started in my teens.
All this way before I started smoking.
Believe me, I wish the smokes WOULD cause the
clusters- they are so painful I know it would
get me to stop, just as I FELT the link between
alcolhol and clusters which has turned me
against even so much as a drop in years- I didn't
even have to TRY to stop.
Ask your doctor to provide clinical statistics
or other medical evidence w/ description
of specific mechanisms to support his claim.
In the meantime, don't add insult to injury by
feeling it's your fault for smoking.
WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST
Jeremy