Posted by pinksharkmark on March 22, 1999 at 10:46:44:
In Reply to: CH and cigarettes posted by Ken H on March 21, 1999 at 12:40:07:
I have seen MANY posts here about people who used to smoke, quit, and had no change whatever to the frequency or severity of the CHs, even after as long as fifteen years. I have never seen a post mentioning cigarettes as a trigger, but I must admit I haven't yet read each and every archived post. If anyone knows of such a post, please direct me to it.
I have smoked for almost thirty years... a pack to a pack and a half a day, and not "lights", either. Of course there are a zillion other reasons to quit than CHs, and I wish I could do it, but.....
Oddy enough, I have found that smoking during a CH actually seems to ease my suffering: either because it is a distraction, or a familiar and comforting crutch, or maybe because nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, so the enflamed and enlarged blood vessels causing the CH actually shrink a bit from the nicotine. NOT that I recommend anyone trade cigarettes for other things that work. Also, I don't use O2... can't get it where I live (fairly rustic section of the Dominican Republic). Obviously, smoking while huffing O2 would be a major no-no!
A neuro I consulted in Canada said much the same as your Doc did. It is his opinion that while more clusterheads are smokers than the average of the general population, it is an associative thing, part of the general clusterhead syndrome, rather than a causative factor. In other words, whatever the makeup is of an individual that tends to make him prone to nicotine addiction also makes him tend to be hit by clusters more than most, and also to be a heavier drinker than most, although not necessarily an alcoholic.
It would be interesting to find out exactly how many clusterheads are or were heavy smokers.