Posted by gary (208.133.217.70) on January 31, 2000 at 16:08:00:
In Reply to: Someone here will know... posted by Paco on January 31, 2000 at 14:55:18:
there seems to be a very common need to see the cause/effect riddle as a single link, that would be in effect all the time, or not at all
I suspect we will find that we CHers come "predesigned" to be affected by external conditions (environmental) in a way that THEN sets off a chain (Drummer calls it a cascade - nice descritpion) of biochemical events that in turn produce the attacks - spontaneously or in response to a few absolute triggers
i don't have any problem at all with the notion that alcoholl will light the fuse if we are activ (in a cluster) but not if re are in remission -
but then, I see the whole cluster period as being the active disease state - and the attacks just an included symtpom of the disease activity
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let me try an analogy -
there are eye problems linked to nutritional deficiency;
if someone has the eye trouble, bright light is very painful-
but the light is not causing the underlying eye problem - just the pain when the problem is present;
take away the light & you still have the problem-
BUT -
remedy the underlying nutritional deficiency,
and the eye problems clears up -
bright light is no longer painful
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as far as the question about WHY alcohol would cause a severe attack -
alcohol is next close to ether in it's effect on our body-
there are DOZENS of physiological effects
PERHAPS a promising path of investigation would be to FORGET about characteristics of CH, and see what alcohol and nitroglycerine have in common, biochemically