Posted by pinksharkmark (12.128.176.190) on July 05, 2001 at 17:35:12:
In Reply to: smoking posted by BobG on July 05, 2001 at 13:57:54:
He says that it is easy to focus on the headaches and lose track of the fact that CH is a SYNDROME... as a matter of fact it is commonly known in Europe as "Horton's Syndrome".
A syndrome is a collection of symptoms. With CH it can include unequal-sized pupils, drooping eyelid, sinus discharge, red eye, heavy tearing from the affected eye, sleep apnea and more.
He says that another part of the syndrome seems to be the addictive tendencies, nicotine, alcohol, etc.
Just as not all clusterheads exhibit all symptoms, not all clusterheads smoke, but there is no question that as a group, clusterheads include significantly more smokers than the general population does.
His experience with treating clusterheads has led him to believe that there is no significant relief from CH to be had by stopping smoking. Of course, he ALWAYS recommends that his patients stop smoking, as do all doctors these days, but his reason for doing so is for general health of the patient, not as a cure for CH.
pinky