Posted by John (194.182.124.202) on January 14, 2001 at 04:03:58:
In Reply to: Alchohol might help!!(?) posted by Thomas on January 13, 2001 at 19:04:07:
This is not a recomendation but for informational purposes
only.
I have had Cluster Headaches since about 1990. I didn't
know what they were until last year. With somewhat of a background
in science I diverted much effort to find a cause/effect relation to
this nightmare by paying attention and sometimes making notes of
preceding circumstances. I failed to find any conclusive cause/effect
relationship. I did notice what seemed to be an increase in frequency
related to alergic conditions caused by pets, and consumption of
alcohol.But heres the strange part.
I would only get the headache if I only had one beer or two. If I was
at a party and drank five or six beers nothing. So I decided to experiment
one night as I awoke with an oncoming cluster. I went to the kitchen and
got out one whole six pack, then proceded to drink 4 beers as fast as
possible. I had not been drinking previously that evening.
Within 10 minutes and apon the consumption of the fourth beer, the
CH was gone before it had even fully hit. As anyone who suffers from these things can imagine, I was elated. Not to mention a little drunk.
So naturally I adopted the practice of killing a few beers whenever
I felt a CH coming on. At first I thought it might be a temperature thing
related to a bad tooth. Without getting into the physics, there is a characteristic of alcohol that makes it an extremely good coolant when
dropped to a low temperature. So I started almost freezing the beer to see
if that required less consumption. It did not. Then I resume the "kill 4 beers as fast as possible" approach and the effectiveness returned.
The down side, of course, is that whenever I would go into a period of chronic
CH's,(daily) I became an alcoholic. This is why I don't recommend alcohol
for the treatment of CHs.
But, for me, If I have to choose between clawing at my face and pounding my head against the wall in unbearable pain and slamming 3-5 beers or shots of
alcohol...