didgens

Hi .. so sorry ,, can i ask how old you are and when yours started ? i know telling people what my son is going through i get "oh yeah i get migraines sometimes" .. sheesh. what have you tried on here ? RC ? vit m (i think those are mushrooms but not sure ) ,, im really sorry your dealing with so many people who arent getting it. sometimes they dont want to get it, they dont want to see that much pain.

or someone could slap you Smelling salts release ammonia (NH3) gas, which irritates the mucous membranes of the nose and lungs, and thereby triggers an inhalation reflex[7] (that is, it causes the muscles that control breathing to work faster[7]). Additionally, the irritant properties activate the sympathetic system as a response leading to elevated heart rate, blood pressure and brain activity. Specifically, many of the benign fainting events are caused by excessive parasympathetic and vagal activity leading to dilation of blood vessels, slowing of the heart and decreased perfusion of the brain thus leading to decreased muscle tone in general and postural muscles in particular, allowing the person to collapse. The sympathetic irritant effect is exploited to counteract these vagal parasympathetic effects leading to reversal of the faint. Similar action can be produced by cheek slapping which is often administered to fainting persons.

interesting http://www.hearthealthywomen.org/treatment-and-recovery/nitrates/nitrates.html

maybe nitrates in the food ? i do seem to remember he had a problem before when i bought this different "store brand" smoked bacon,, and i know all the nitrates in the bacon. That would lend some creedance as to why white wine gives me hot flashes but vodka doesnt .. nitrates ???

Sooo its a crap shoot what will happen to my son. I have to think there are hundreds if not thousands out there like my son that get them sporadically, and never get a diagnosis and just suffer through them. So far knock wood he has had 2 in the last week. 1 Monday night (after a seriously radical change in sleep pattern that weekend) and a milder one on wednesday. nothing since. VERY VERY bad allergies in the whole house right now. he took 1 Claritin each day the last 2 days. I dont know what to think.. I guess there is nothing for me to do but sit and watch him, armed with this site and all the knowledge you wonderful people have gleened from self experiement (much like me with my menopause, but dont take me there ) ,,

there was no msg listed on the package ,, secret ingredient perhaps ?

i just found this .. he seems to have a problem after eating asian food .. maybe its the ginger ,, i had suspicions about this before .. now i really wonder Vasocontrictor •Bugleweed,Butcher's Broom, Chamomile, Camphor Oil, Cypress Oil, Ephedra, Ergot, Goldenseal, Heather, Ma Huang (Ephedra Sinica), Witch Hazel, Yerba Buena Vasodilator •American Hellebore, Skullcap, Barberry, Black Cohosh,Black Haw, Coleus, Fenugreek, Feverfew, Garlic, Ginger, Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng, Goldenthread, Hawthorn, Horseradish, Ho-Shou-Wu,Lemon Balm , Linden Flower, Nettle, Olive Leaf, Parsley, Prickly Ash, Siberian , Ginseng, Valerian, Vervain, Common Yarrow

ok BeJee .. your comment about the 80's made me laugh out loud at my desk. Hmmm licorice ,, well i know my mom isnt supposed to eat licorice because she has high blood pressure and its a vaso constrictor. so i can see licorice working. maybe better than caffine .. maybe quicker ? i'll take a look at that.

i was following his busting attempts .. then he just disappeard after his last attempt.

I have a real suspicion that hormones play a part. Everyone here talks about alcohol being a trigger. I am giong through menopause right now .. and ONE SINGLE SIP of alchohol will put me into a major hot flash. Im thinking same mechanisim. I wonder if the information women are using to stave off hot flashes would be useful for CH ? is there a cross ? worth looking into.

thanks !

I found this statement on a website very interesting. Maybe someone here can attest to its accuracy. My sons doctor would not prescribe o2 .. so maybe i'll just get it myself. "Furthermore, the purity of welding oxygen is much higher than that of medical oxygen yet particular specifications vary greatly across manufactures. " Read more: Medical Vs. Welding Oxygen | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6370762_medical-vs_-welding-oxygen.html#ixzz2JfMfgoqV

sorry for asking so many stupid questions.

WOW.. thats just awful. Im so sorry. do you mind if i ask if you only had the one ? or after that stress did you just have several day ? im so sorry all this happened to you .

hi weatherman ,, so no relief with any kind of antihistimine though ? im afraid to give him anything thinking it could trigger something worse or more prolonged. i think im going to look into the whole RC regime though so if it escalates i can be prepared to try something else anyway. I have been writing on the calendar when these hit him. and last year in feb was his first one during waking hours. in oct they only came on when he is sleeping ... in feb they are when he is awake. does anyone else have this odd pattern ??

thanks H ! i will continue to read and research here ,, this is an amazing site. I myself go to power-surge for my menopause issues ,, same thing ,, docs just wanna throw useless meds at us .. but i digress

Im sure someone has asked this all before and if there is a thread with this already if someone would be so kind as to point me to it that would be great. if not perhaps you can share how this all started for you in the beginning ?

ok so i work on a college campus where my son attends college. we just started the new semester on monday. it was hard for him having that headache on sunday night. He was able to come early today and take a lunch break with me. we went for fish ,, on the way i noticed he was sniffling and i asked him if he had a cold ? he said no, but his nose has been really really itchy and dripping and he is sneezing alot. He said he feels like hes dealing with allergies, but that he's never had this before. I told him that allergies can come on at any point in someones life. he said that sucks. then later during the meal he told me he had another one of his headaches yesterday during class, i asked him if it was a regular headache or one like he had monday. he said it was like mondays same spot same eye but not as painful. now i am concerned becuase it was only 3 days between the 2. Can you all here tell me how this all began for you ?? was it all of a sudden your getting 4 - 10 headaches a day ?? how old were you ? do you smoke ? etc ? this has me heartbroken. thank you all so much

thanks ! any information is good information

ok the only thing in the chicken that he doesnt normally eat are straw mushroom extractives white pepper sake no msg and we do not have any california laurel in our yard but i will investigate others (great ,, if im in jail for creeping around neighbors yards will someone come bail me out ??) Â

spiny .. thanks for the info about Santa Anas .. yes there is a definate barometric pressure change with these winds .. everyone in So Cal feels it .. it can make me feel light headed and dizzy at times. very common feeling here, almost like your at high (very) elevation.

Thank you both for the reply. Acutally he ate this orange chicken i bought a day or two before his headache last week. the same orange chicken he ate last year with the same effect. I need to see what is in it. I will definately check on the California Laurel. I know things were blooming unseasonally here because we had a very weird spell of 80+ degree weather for a week, then back to cold and rainey. the whole family was sneezing with itchy eyes. Also a side comment my husband suffers from what is called SUNCT Syndrome. SUNCT syndrome (short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing) causes stabbing or burning eye pain that may resemble cluster headaches, but attacks are very brief (lasting about a minute) and may occur more than 100 times per day. Red and watery eyes, sweating forehead, and congestion are typical. This rare headache is more common in men than women and does not respond to usual headache treatments. He also does not have them hundreds of times a day .. he gets them from time to time and will actually holler out loud and grab his head.. they pass in 90 seconds or less. I have to think that they are related. He tells me his grandfather suffered migranes. Also note the imitrex nasel did nothing my son. I could not get the doctor to prescribe oxygen. I am just sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if the month will bring another one like last year.  thank you both again for commenting. it means alot.

Oh he also states he cannot sit still moving makes him feel better ,, and for him they last about 40 minutes to an hour. He differs in that he only has one of these at a time (ie. 1 a day) and in patterns past they are about a week to 2 weeks apart. I know its so different then you cronic sufferers here but i know it is the exact same pain. so why is he different ??

Some time ago i posted here. My then 19 year old son started suffering what i belived where cluster headaches. Some here basically said "oh those arent cluster headaches" and so i sort of stopped comming here. That was last year in October (15 months ago). I took him for MRI and they found nothing but a polyp in his sinus'. after that he didnt have anymore ,, for a while anyway. THen in February again he was hit again. But only 2. I charted these in a calendar (but did not tell him i was keeping track). The doctor prescribed Imitrex nasal spray which i was hesitant to use. the headaches went away. I calmed down .. back to normal worrying etc. Fast forward to this october ,, low and behold headaches back again for him. The Imitrex did not work. I watch him and he is classic .. same side of head, 1 hour after falling asleep ,, droopy and dripping eye and running nose.. (he says the next day after he has one of these he has a residual headache like the shadowing you all talk about) they go away again and then low and behold AGAIN back now at almost the exact same time within 15 days of last year. My husband said he noticed my sons eye before it came on was quite bloodshoot. In my documentation what i have observed is this. BOTH in October and February last year and this we are experiencing Santa Ana (windy) conditions .. windy, dusty pollen in the air. This time I myself had the worst itching of my eyes i wanted to scratch them out of my head. My other son was sneezing and sneezing last year. So what i want to ask all of you is this. Many people get headaches for different reasons. ie. my husband cannot stand bright sunlight, i myself NEVER get headaches, some people get them from food they eat. Isnt it possible that people get a "cluster headache" or this type of headache from different things ??? maybe everyones trigger isnt the same thing ? but for whatever reason these people get this type of pain based on an individuals personal trigger ?? i am now convinced that its allergy related with my son based upon what everyone else is experiencing in the family at the time ??

omeprazole is a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) .. try Zantac which is H2 (Histimine) Blocker and I have read that Histimine plays a part in cluster headaches.. also TUMS which nutralizes the acid.. I would try these other 2 to see if any change.