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My first scan showed 'several' of them and the Neuro mentioned Migraines, along with the radiologist who read the scan. As stated above, they are often see in migraine patients. Just don't let them try to turn you around and now say you don't have CH, but Migraine. It also shows with CH and that too is stated above. In 15 years, I have had 3 scans. The white matter Flairs or whatever they are called have remained the same over time. Even with my dog knocking me out!! Your Neuro will be able to explain it better. I researched my behind off and scared myself silly since they said 'mini-strokes' at one point. There was a caveat there though, as in 'might be'. I have had no issues to date and still function as I always did, so I don't think that I am stroking out. With the consistency of the scans, my neuro does not think I am losing it either. I suspect that CHers are prone to them, just as Migraineurs are. They just have not studied that yet.

I quit 3 years ago and it did not help at all. None of my research supports the idea that quitting would help, but it did state that a higher percentage of CHers smoke than the general public.

You see those nice Medical O2 tanks on my deck? THEY WERE FREE!!!!! Yes. I saw my Neuro last week and requested a script for O2. He gladly obliged and WE filled out a form. Our local O2 carrier is Lincare. The form has a bunch of questions unrelated to Clusters, so we left those blank. There were a lot of blanks! It stated ' minimum of 15LPM with a non-rebreather mask for 15 minutes, as needed for Cluster Headache'. My delivery came in 24 hours!! They will bring however much I require every week. 'How long does one tank last for you? How many next week?' So, should you need it and you are on Medicare, you can now receive it!! I am in heaven. Also in cycle, but this project makes it SOOOO worth the pain. I am delighted to have this cycle and uncover this stupid mystery we have been wondering about. Thanks to all of those who were able to attend 'Headache on the Hill'!!! WE WON!! Ok, time for a massive HAPPY DANCE. Yes, I will Pin this!

Again, this is about migraine, but the emphatic point from a leading headache expert is that WMLs are essentially inconsequential. In the case of migraine, it does seem that people with migraine are somewhat more likely to develop WMLs. https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/migraine-and-brain-lesions/

....i'm saying i have never seen it reported...but absolutes re CH do not exist...if there are fixed/visible physical manifestations, it would seem they are rare...i would not take that to mean there is no evidence. mostly talking the dreaded brain scan, while also noting that the pupil of my affected side eye is permanently constricted. eye docs/neuros just shrug... ....since it was well known at work that "jon has CH"....i was approached by folks suffering from "headaches" of various kinds on a fairly regular basis. one friend of a friend had many of the classic symptoms of CH (unilateral, excruciating, autonomic symptoms, same daily timing. etc) and i was asked "is this cluster headache?". sure sounded like it, but i am NOT a physician, refused to say, and strongly urged a visit to a neuro and "a scan to rule out potential underlying causes". a careful diagnostician would consider this routine (and one of the reasons to find a HA specialist). he took that advice and it turned out to be a rapidly growing tumor that was life threatening...found/removed in time. i do not know the details of location....and i do not wish to alarm....so you are on the right path to eliminating other cause with the neuro visit...

...yeah...THIS! ...for reasons other than CH i've had multiple scans of various kinds.....nearly every one shows "something" that draws comments re potential causes. it's radiologist CYA and always scared the spit out of me until i came across a urologist who bemoaned that....and another physician who said "we ALL have "anomalies" ...you are more likely to die with than from....a scan in and of itself is rarely determinative of anything". ...do your research, i did, but use it to ask questions rather than come to scary conclusions... ...fwiw...and this is a personal observation based on years of being in the clusterhead community. there are conditions that mimic CH symptoms...and which makes a diagnostic scan worthwhile, but, i've never seen any lit that describes CH being a causative factor in scan anomalies...

It would be foolish for me to say it's nothing to worry about, but . . . "White matter lesions are among the most common incidental findings—which means the lesions have no clinical significance—on brain scans of people of any age." https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/what-are-white-matter-lesions-are-they-a-problem My daughter's first MRI for CH, more than ten years ago, showed some WMLs. Nothing bad has happened to her in that regard. People with migraine have white-matter lesions more often than other people. Imma guess that's probably true for people with CH, too.

Hi HCF, I had something similar with my last MRI.. exact wording was (Overall unremarkable MRI of the brain. Tiny foci of T2/FLAIR signal abnormality within the RT external capsule is likely of little clinical significance.) When I spoke to my neuro he explained it to be "white matter" most likely some scaring/scar tissue. I certainly can believe that these bangers have caused some scaring... He also mentioned that it can be somewhat common in people with migraine or CH. I did the same research thing that you are doing and only scared myself worse than I needed to. Talk to your neuro about it and you will most likely feel much more at ease. It's really easy to research yourself into a fright.

I am guilty of using this site for tips on the psilocybin prevention. And it has worked so far for me, I am headache free for TWO YEARS!!. But when it started working i stopped coming here dailey, i am gonna change that.