Caffeine as a suppressor

[Vanguard]

Hello, I’m a new member of Clusterbusters, though I’ve been following this website for a long time.

I got my new cluster again, which usually lasts for approximately 2 months (1 of which has already passed). My CHs are surprisingly endurable (a pain level of 7/10 and a duration of 30-45 minutes).

When I got my attack today, I immediately remembered reading something on Clusterbusters about caffeine being an abortive. So I drank a cup of coffee. It didn’t abort my attack, but greatly reduced the level of pain. Is this a known occurrence, or just a placebo?

[BoscoPiko]

Hi vanguard

Caffeine has been discussed on here quite a bit with mostly positive references. It is know to help quicken the abort time when using O2 (quick shot prior to jumping on the tank) as well as helping with all sorts of things us cluster heads suffer with so my guess is that no, it was not a placebo. It's hard for me to be certain if something definitively caused an abort or if the CH attack just happened to end at the same time but I do remember grasping for straws one hellish attack and having it end with a cup of coffee..

[CHsince99]

Yes, caffeine is a great vasoconstrictor.

My clusters also last about 8 weeks.  (Almost every year or so for 25 years.)  But I don't know what a mild CH feels like -- I'd rather "check out" than face a full-blown cluster without oxygen.

I've been able to skip a couple years by doing the following:  at the first indication of a shadow, completely cease both alcohol & exercise, and start taking 100 mg of caffeine every four hours.