Posted by Todd (64.34.202.197) on July 29, 2001 at 19:45:35:
Periodically, this board welcomes someone (usually new) who feels he/she has found the cause, or the trigger or at least a co-existent condition related to CH.
Whether it be candida, hypoglycemia, seizure, head injury, sleep apnea, maternal migraines or whatever, it is very important that we all remember that it is very likely, given the large number of people who post here, that many of us will have other ailments.
Coincedental illnesses or events cannot be said to be related to CH unless overwhelming evidence demonstrates a connection. Here are a few examples:
For many years (and yet today in many sources) clusterheads are said to be large men with rugged faces, orange peel skin and lantern jaws. Approximately 40 clusterheads met in Atlanta last month. I don't recall a single one meeting this description.
Example Two: As a child, I slammed my finger in the back door of my house. Fingernail turned all black and nasty and eventually fell off. Three years later, I smashed the same finger in the door of my parent's car. Same nail reaction. Two years after that, I smashed it again (yes, same finger) in a friend's garage. Lost the nail again. Oh, btw, this is the same finger a cousin pretty much chopped off with a hatchet.
To the best of my ability to determine, no one in my ancestry suffered from CH. Since the finger thing was the most dramatic series of related injuries I've suffered, shall I conclude that it is the cause of my CH?
I applaud and encourage all new theories, ideas, thoughts and suggestions, but firmly believe that it behooves all of us (including those suggesting the theory) to be very cautious when running down the road of these concepts.
I would again refer people seriously interested in looking into these theories to the book by Jes Olesen and Peter J. Goadsby Cluster Headache & Related Conditions. Published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 263073 3. (TY, again, MD) It includes approximately 40 research studies and their results, covering many, if not most, of the ideas we come up with here.
Here's a link if you should decide to purchase this (unfortunately overpriced) book.
KTSSU,
T