killa in manila said:
I have been taking an ECA stack for thee weeks. I stopped taking it two days ago and I now have the biggest headache and feel sick. I was just curious on what causes headaches when you stop taking an ECA stack? I though clen ave you bad headaches but this is something else. Thanks guys.
I have a couple of theories....
Ephedrine is a potent vasoconstrictor with corresponding increases in the catecholmines(adrenaline and noradrenaline) inducing a state of hypertension with co-responding high blood pressure. This could cause the headaches. It's vaso-constrictive properties are diffuse.
Sumitriptan is used to treat migraine and vascular headaches. It is structurally related to serotonin and is a 5HT1 agonist with vasoconstrictive properties.It has a selective but heterogenous effect on the carotoid arterial system.
Withdrawl of ephedrine can cause diffuse cerebral vasodilation with co-responding hypotension which could also cause headaches from low BP ie. minoxidil and viagara.
In
RARE cases ephedrine can cause cerebral vasculitis(inflamation of the vessels in the cerebrum) which could result in sub-cortical cerebral hemorages...mostly in cocaine users. However during this progressive stage, headaches will definitely occur.
As far as the caffeine is concerned......
Caffeine-induced headache in children and adolescents.
Hering-Hanit R, Gadoth N.
Department of Neurology, Meir General Hospital, Sapir Medical Centre, Kfar Saba, Israel.
[email protected]
Caffeine is the most widely used behaviourally active substance. Excessive caffeine consumption, mostly in the form of coffee and tea, is a well-recognized cause of headache or migraine, and withdrawal can cause headache. Nevertheless, caffeine abuse headache is not listed as a separate category in the International Headache Society classification, 1988. We report our experience with children and adolescents with daily or near-daily headache and excessive consumption of caffeine in the form of cola drinks. Over a period of 5 years we have encountered, in a tertiary headache clinic in a general hospital, 36 children and adolescents (17 girls and 19 boys) with daily or near-daily headache related to excessive caffeine intake in the form of cola drinks. The mean age of the subjects was 9.2 years (range 6-18) and mean headache duration was 1.8 years (range 0.6-5). All were heavy cola drinks consumers; at least 1.5 L of cola drinks per day (192.88 mg of caffeine daily), and an average of 11 (range 10.5-21) L of cola drinks a week, which amounts to 1414.5 mg of caffeine (range 1350.1-2700.3). Patients were encouraged to achieve gradual withdrawal from cola drinks, which led to complete cessation of all headaches in 33 subjects, whereas one boy and two adolescent girls continued to suffer from migraine without aura not frequent enough to justify prophylactic medication. Children and adolescents with high daily caffeine consumption in the form of cola drinks may suffer from caffeine-induced daily headache. Gradual withdrawal can be achieved without withdrawal headache and with complete disappearance of the induced chronic daily headache.
and also....
Acute and chronic effects of caffeine on performance, mood, headache, and sleep.
James JE.
School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic. , Australia.
Despite being the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world, there is considerable confusion regarding the effects of caffeine. This study examined objective indices of performance, and self-reported mood, headache, and sleep in 36 healthy male and female habitual caffeine consumers exposed to a pattern of moderate intake. A double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design with counterbalancing was employed in which all subjects participated in four experimental conditions involving the ingestion of placebo or caffeine 3 times daily for 6 days followed by a 7th (challenge) day of placebo or caffeine ingestion. No evidence was found that caffeine improved performance, either in the context of acute or habitual use. On the contrary, performance was found to be significantly impaired when caffeine was withdrawn abruptly following habitual use. Participants reported feeling more alert and less tired following acute ingestion of caffeine, but feeling less alert in conjunction with chronic exposure to the drug. In addition, caffeine withdrawal was associated with reported increases in frequency and severity of headache, and with reports of sleeping longer and more soundly.
Here's another....
Influence of caffeine and caffeine withdrawal on headache and cerebral blood flow velocities.
Couturier EG, Laman DM, van Duijn MA, van Duijn H.
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Sint Lucas Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Caffeine consumption may cause headache, particularly migraine. Its withdrawal also produces headaches and may be related to weekend migraine attacks. Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) has shown changes in cerebral blood flow velocities (BFV) during and between attacks of migraine. In order to examine whether headache and changes in BFV could develop from controlled caffeine alterations, 20 healthy volunteers without a headache history, underwent clinical evaluation, TCD and serum caffeine measurements on four occasions, comparing conditions of regular caffeine intake, caffeine withdrawal and "re-caffeination". After 24 h of complete caffeine abstinence, 10 suffered from moderate to severe headaches with complete recovery within 1 h after caffeine intake. The BFVs in both middle cerebral, both posterior cerebral and basilar arteries were higher following the withdrawal period, reaching statistical significance in the left middle cerebral basilar and both posterior cerebral arteries. BFVs decreased significantly within half an hour after caffeine intake in all subjects, and were similar to baseline values after 2 h. Our results emphasize the relationship between caffeine withdrawal, the development of headache and alterations in cerebral blood flow velocities. Also, these findings indicate that accurate interpretation of TCD measurements should account for the influence of caffeine on BFVs.
Hope this helps....B32
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