Posted by danl on June 14, 1998 at 07:34:09:
How is it that almost everyone with Cluster who has tried the Diflucan /Candida thing has had a positive experience. When you consider that most cluster sufferers go decades before a complete remission, it becomes more than a great coincidence.
I, myself, along with at least six others have had complete relief.
This is the first March, April, and May I have been headache free in over twenty years.
One fellow got two weeks of relief from four months of daily’s before they came back and he went back to his old meds.
Another of us started on Diflucan and quit because he broke out in hives.
Everyone who claims to know anything about this thing tells us that one sign of Candida infestation in the gut is the "toxic" reaction caused by dead or dying yeast cells.
As far as I know, women taking Diflucan for vaginal yeast normally have no ill effects. The question is were the hives a result of Diflucan or of intestinal yeast?
You can read about yeast in many places. One extensive paper is at :
http://members.aol.com/docdarren/med/candida.html
However, let me go beyond a connection to yeast and talk about "Leaky Gut Syndrome" and Cluster Headache. Here’s a theory based in facts.
Fact: Cluster has responded to antifungal medication and diet in a high proportion of cases among those who have tried it.
Mentioned above. See the score board at clusterheadaches.com Admittedly, not a lot of us have tried, but there are not a lot of us around. Just recently found others to communicate with on the net.
Also we’ve been conditioned to consider successful treatment as getting to wait for the next bout to begin.
Anti-fungals do have an effect. The connection is the question.
Fact: Diflucan kills Candida and other fungi. How does that affect Cluster Headache?
That’s what Diflucan was intended to do. There are other anti-fungals that may work as well. It is strange however, to take a medication for cluster headache in order to obtain a result that it was originally intended to give.
Fact: Candida overgrowth in the gut can cause Leaky Gut syndrome.
As can other irritations, infestations and infections.
Fact: Leaky gut is recognized as a real condition that allows foreign chemicals into our system and can stress the immune system.
There was even an article in Nov. 17, 1997 Newsweek.
Do a search for leaky gut and lupus, arthritis, autism, Chron’s Disease, or MS, and you’ll find the connection popping up all over.
Seems that one possible cause for all these conditions is our system forming anti-bodies that attack our very own tissue.
See this theory tied to MS at : http://medstat.med.utah.edu/kw/ms/etiology.html#top
Fact: No one knows for sure how or why Cluster Headache hurts.
I’ve seen various explanations for the pain mechanism for "vascular headache" and apparently it’s not settled yet.
Why couldn’t the pain be caused by a virtual "attack" by the immune system on the nerve( dont forget the optic) and/or vessel tissue, the same as is claimed with these other conditions?
Fact: Cluster usually occurs in synchronization with the circadian rhythm as does eating and digestion but is not related to any specific trigger.
These facts certainly don’t exclude Leaky Gut. With leaky gut, "Triggers" for cluster could very well be the same chemicals that are found in gut during the normal digestion process.
A higher metabolism (and maybe increased liver function), during digestion may explain why one fellow’s aches go into remission when he’s on the third shift.
See the involvement of the liver as well as some substances that we have long associated with cluster mentioned in a good paper (web site below) on leaky gut. Look for the role of mast cells, histamine, and serotonin being involved with a regenerating feedback effect on increased permeability. When you read this think of the headache as part of an allergic reaction. (Clusters used to be called Histamine Headaches you know)
On the practical/physical side, the feeling of a fast approaching Cluster Headache attack may be our sensing the beginning of this regenerative cycle.
This crescendo type permeability is discussed in: http://www.healthy.net/library/articles/galland/Leakygut.htm
Lithium has been cited as having a positive effect on Cluster and could well have an influence in this area of the cycle involving serotonin.
See the role of lithium in a page from Clusterheadaches.com :
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/about.html
Note also here the mention of mast cells, serotonin, and histamine.
Fact: When clusters come they like to stick around for a while.
A list of "good friends" to most of us cluster people during a series includes coffee and NSAIDs, both of which are mentioned as possibly contributing to increased permeability of the gut. How many of us have ended a too-long episode by finally "crashing" into a "sleep-a-thon" of continually sleeping between bouts until the whole thing went away.
There are more facts out there. Look around, keep an open mind and think about it.
A good simple discussion of healing leaky gut is included in :
http://www.positivehealth.com/bakissue/intest.htm
Fact: Leaky Gut can be determined by testing
It appears the French have been testing for it for some time by giving a calibrated ratio of mannitol and lactulose. In healthy persons one is absorbed and the other is not. With leaky gut, they both show up in the urine. Looks as though the test cost less than a Rx of Imitrex. Wouldn’t it be another real coincidence if a person with vascular headache tested positive.
Fact: You may be right. I may be crazy,
but my head doesn’t hurt any more.
Who knows, maybe Lupus is to MS the same as Cluster is to Migraine
Wishing all of us painless nights and days.
Dan Line
Cadline@fuse.net