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Just to wish you all a happy new year, and as I always tell myself: Yesterday, the weather always will be acceptable. <3

As I said in my other post, I’m pleased to have you here - whilst sorry you are in a bout, you have a good vibe that I resonate with. Yes! I have thought more than once about most of your suggestions and I love it - whether there is an out of the box solution or something custom, there is an old world charm about the forums here that I really do appreciate but understand if it was a little more in line with the times like integrated into an app it might be able to add more value, whether support, social connections, helping more people, fellowship etc. Someone from the awesome admin team might be able to give an update on any behind the scenes improvements that are in the pipeline. I’m sure I read somewhere there were some website things in the works. Good on you for offering your skills man, that’s what I just love about this community, people are too good.

Ok so this is a few suggestions ideas, and i'm not sure exactly where this post belong so mods feel free to move it anywhere you feel fits. I am a product designer and I work also as graphic UX designer sometimes, and while using the website here I started to get a few ideas, so here it comes: - That one is an easy one: Can we implement a dark mode toggle for the website? I feel like all of us clusterheads would appreciate it greatly:) -The other idea is a tad more complex but i'm sure that there are other members that could team up with me to achieve this: a clusterbusters app! It could include different parts but basically would be a comprehensive toolbox: -one repository of treatments and resources available at hand, it could be parametric so you can basically tick your journey in treatments and whenever they match other users treatments create a node, refer to forum chats on that topic etc. -a logging app, like cluster uck, where you log and keep track of your cycles, attacks and medication protocols, the logs and time stamps can be automatically link to location in order to log atmospheric pressure, pollution, etc -the forum, an inbox, etc Its just an in between attacks idea, but please let me know if you think this is potentially interesting, I am so thankful for this community, I would love to give back to it with whatever skills and time I have. Happy holidays everyone <3

@Craigo thank you for the laughs:) I can definitely use those atm! I don't touch hákarl ever tbh! it stinks more than it taste but unless it would abort CH I don't think I would eat it. And yeah somehow CH have a sneaky way of teaching you about the fragile balance within our bodies hey. Ok now I thought my mycology knowledge was rather advanced but I've never seen that NZ mushroom before! How funky! tbf i'm not too educated on non western fungi except for a few celebrities ofc. Here I pick mainly psilocybe semilanceata, it is potent indeed and quite consistent which is an advantage but definitely not as exotic as your alien testicles:) cheers mate, hear you next year!

Do you guys say this as you slurp another piece of fermented shark from the tin? Hehe. I really love that saying though, I will remember that! Sorry to hear about your bout with pneumonia, glad you are on the mend from that - hopefully the steroids and I suspect antibiotics didn't mess you around too much. A couple of years ago I had a real bad run with a recurrent bacterial infection that used 5 rounds of antibiotics before my doctor presented a biologic which I had said absolutely not in a million years - saw a functional doc, got it under control but low and behold that was the one year I fell from cluster free remission whilst maintaining the target vitamin D3 range - opened my eyes to a few different topics including microbiome - sorry to say I don't know that the fermented shark packs a probiotic punch like kim chi though. You also mentioned in another post about foraging up there in Iceland for medicine, I suspect your varieties would be quite different to what's found in more warmer climates. It's the same in New Zealand, we have mystical magical varieties down under, one example being Psilocybe weraroa, they look like little blue testicles and pack a heck of a punch. Happy to see you here on the forums - I recently landed here earlier in the year, good bunch of folk here and we all seem to love cats. I feel like this is the more appropriate place to share recent research. So... I sign off by saying Happy new year and thank-you for the old one!

@Craigo thank you! this is reassuring news:) And yes i'm taking quite small dose of calcium blockers anyways, for the blood pressure, which indeed keeping my blood pressure in check has shown to work well as prophylactic measure. I'm currently (hopefully) on the verge of successfully bust a surprise cycle triggered by weaning off steroids that were prescribed for a pneumonia.. it has been messy since it was a surprise cycle I somehow panicked and started using sumatriptan spray to abort and I quickly realized that it made things worse so I dropped and went back to my dear fungi But since it has been such a roller coaster I started to dive back in the CH treatments and research rabbit hole.. and wanted to make sure i'm not doing anything stupid again out of panic! Thank you again and happy holidays, and as we say in Iceland: Happy new year and thank you for the old one! <3

Another review in pediatric migraine just published. Here we start to see an intervention with probiotics to modulate the microbiome. Let's see what happens in 2026 with this evolving area of research. Targeting the microbiome in pediatric migraine: gastrointestinal manifestations and the therapeutic role of Bifidobacterium longum Pi-Chuan Fan, Huey-Huey Chua, Chia-Ray Lin, Tzu-Hsuan Lai, Lih-Chu Chiou, Wang-Tso Lee Gut Microbes on December 27, 2025 https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2025.2606487 Abstract: Migraine is a disabling neurological disorder that often begins in childhood or adolescence and is frequently accompanied by gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. However, the microbiota signatures and gut–brain interactions underlying pediatric migraine, particularly in the presence of GI disorder, remain poorly defined. This study aimed to explore the clinical and microbial features of pediatric migraine, as well as the therapeutic potential of probiotics. We prospectively enrolled 126 pediatric migraine patients (ages 6–19) with or without GI disorder and 50 age-matched healthy controls. Fecal microbiota was profiled using 16S rRNA sequencing. Patients with migraine were stratified based on Rome IV-defined GI disorders and evaluated for headache characteristics, PedMIDAS scores (disability assessment), plasma calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP, thought as a key biomarker of migraine), cytokines, and fecal calprotectin. Probiotic effects were tested in both young (3–4 weeks) and adult capsaicin-induced migraine rat models, and an exploratory pilot study involving 23 pediatric migraine patients. Compared to controls, migraine patients exhibited distinct gut microbiota with reduced Bifidobacterium longum. and elevated Bacteroides. GI disorders were present in 46.8% of migraine patients and were associated with significantly higher rates of abdominal pain (50% vs. 13%, p <0.001), greater migraine-related disability (PedMIDAS: 60 ± 13.2 vs. 29 ± 7.0, p = 0.042), elevated fecal calprotectin, and enrichment of Streptococcus gallolyticus. In contrast, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, positively correlated with B. longum, was linked to milder symptoms and shorter disease duration in migraine patients without GI disorder. In animal models, B. longum attenuated trigeminal activation in both young and adult rats. An exploratory pilot study showed B. longum supplementation led to reductions in headache days, intensity, and frequency. These findings reveal distinct gut microbial signatures in pediatric migraine, and identify B. longum as a promising microbiota-targeted therapeutic strategy. Our work highlights the therapeutic potential of modifying the gut–brain axis in childhood migraine.

Thanks CHfather – I don’t recall Batch’s earlier advice either, likely before my time. We’re talking roughly 200–500mg calcium in a multi vitamin and most probably consume at least that daily through a standard diet. Check out this ask the Doctor post from Havard, although the patient was taking a different class of calcium channel blocker I suspect the answer would be the same. While high doses of intravenous calcium are sometimes used to reverse an overdose of a calcium-channel blocker, the 600 milligrams of calcium in your daily supplement isn't enough to interfere with the drug's ability to lower blood pressure. In fact, oral calcium supplementation has been shown to lower blood pressure slightly in some people. So you can continue to take both without risking your bones or raising your blood pressure. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blood-pressure/do-calcium-supplements-interfere-with-calcium-channel-blockers As for vitamin D3, this study by Holick and colleagues looked at supplementation with 10,000iu D3 (amongst other doses) and found no change in serum calcium (albeit an increase in 25(OH)D and decrease in PTH). You could see an increase in calcium labs maintaining 80-120ng/mL however if maintained within normal reference my understanding is that you are good. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53864-1 You could jump on one of the Facebook or Reddit groups and ask the question there, I know a couple of chronic warriors that take both verapamil and the regimen together and are doing well. One comment about verapamil that stuck with me was that many warriors find the immediate release vs the sustained release works better for CH prophylaxis - why I am not sure but thought to add. Happy holidays all.

@jon019 ofc it's individually different I know, I wasn't trying to throw a survey for data collection or something. I just like food and cooking and i'm curious about people's cravings and foods choices during cycles, ofc we started straight talking about what we avoid but really what Id like to hear is what people DO eat during cycles;)

Yea I'm sure your rt about the refined sugars but like i mention it's likely all in my head I make my own jerky so not worried about processed meats all that much but could most probably do better without the salimi and cheese. Gosh, when i think about all the things I've avoided for the simple happenstance of an attack after, it makes me feel silly (boy do i miss bacon)! Thank the man upstairs that I've never had one after going potty or my poor bladder would be in ruins lol!! Your lunch sounds good and makes me a bit hungry... Prayers for an early termination of this cycle of yours!!!

@BoscoPiko yeah I know that sugar is not really recommended for inflammatory situations, though it seems to me that it's more about refined sugars that are an issue rather than fruits, fruits contain sugar indeed but so much less than a glass of coke or something. I also tend to stay away from cheese during cycles and whatever processed meat especially smoked ones. My very late lunch today is: hard boiled egg, avocado, dried mango, green chilies and cashews:)

Hi Nikkk, Sort of the same as you. Nothing like a banger to zap your apatite away.. Lots of little bites in between the hits. Cheese cubes, almonds, salami, jerky sweet peppers and hummus etc. I tend to stay away from to much fruit because I somehow correlated sugar to an attack (most likely all in my head) no pun intended there

A topic slightly away from the horror stories and pharmaceutical chats here; I love cooking, I cook all the meals in my home, I can't stand ready made meals as they are never like how I want them. But..when i'm in a cycle there's no way that I have the energy to cook. Also I dont have much appetite and definitely have different sorts of cravings than usually. So I tend to stock up on nuts, avocados, fruits, veggies that don't require cooking, I also tend to not salt things but rather drop lemon/lime juice over the nuts and sprinkle chili pepper over it. I tend to stay away from bread, pasta, etc. This way I can just grab a cutting board or a plate and drop bunch of foods on it and i'll eat a bit at a time between attacks. More because I know that I need energy to face the next one than because i'm hungry per say. And you guys, what is your diet during cycles?

@CHfather thank you! Ill try to get some bloodwork done soon to see where i'm at. I was just surprised that my doctor seemed to not see any issues here though.

That seems right. As I say, this is just what I remember. Looking back, I see this post from a well-informed member in 2015: "People taking verapamil (calcium channel blocker), for instance, do not necessarily need to take calcium supplements as they do not play well together. If you do take both, then you need to take them far enough apart daily so that they do not interfere with each other." Maybe @Craigo can comment.

@CHfather thank you for your response; If I understand correctly you mean that if I take my calcium at 8am I should take the calcium blocker at 20pm?

There was a time when Batch suggested that people should take the calcium in the D3 regimen as far apart as possible from any calcium channel blocker meds. I haven't seen that lately in his guidance. (I think it's also true that in the early days there was a separate calcium pill that was part of the regimen, but now it's just what's included in the multivitamin, I think.)

Hi again everyone, sorry if i'm over sharing on here lately, i'm just getting out of a cycle after having been pain free for years and so i'm going again down the research rabbit hole.. I personally respond generally really well to mushrooms busting and D3 regimen seems to help too; However due to high blood pressure i'm taking alpha and calcium blockers daily for 2yrs now, Isoptin retard 120mg, and losartan 50mg. My question is: can it cause issues one way or the other to use calcium blockers while doing the D3 regimen? When addressing it to my doctor, he was just surprised by the amounts of supplements but he said that it's all green light by him, and that the calcium blockers aren't an issue there. Thanks in advance, <3

Hey all, I was reading again about the D3 regimen and then about foods that seem to somewhat help as support during CH cycles; Im currently in a cycle that has been rather messy but I think i'm close to bust it. Anyways, in order to bust properly I have been trying to stick to supports that don't counteract the mushrooms. And while reading about the foods etc, I realized that turmeric, especially when mixed with natural oil (coconut, olive oil, etc) and black pepper acts as a decent anti inflammatory supplement. Dont get me wrong, it's not magical, and it works very minimally imo but it did help stop some shadows that would usually have been stopped by coffein. Anyways, I have not seen turmeric mentioned in this website before and thought it was worth mentioning it as every little thing that helps is worth taking, especially when not invasive or counter acting other medication. I find personally that D3 along with clean foods, nuts, fruits, greens, fish, etc really help during cycles, and well it's anyways healthy so there's no wrong about it really! Hope everyone is doing as good as they can. <3

Hi there, 10 years ago I discovered this website and made a post here after experiencing pain abortion via psilocybe semilanceata use. Back then this board helped me understand so much better how to manage my CH cycles and attacks than any doctor ever did. So just for that, thank you! As a funny story introduction, I have to tell you how I discovered the use of psychedelics for CH; After being diagnosed by a dental surgeon, I was talking about it to a friend, which told me "CH? like in Dr House episode with the mushrooms?" - this is what originally brought me to this website Now without going into every single detail of what happened to me in the last ten years, I wanted to give a brief update on my journey, as I realize that the knowledge built on this site is for a big part generated by anecdotal information, here's my humble contribution: Ten years ago I ended a cycle successfully for the first time using mushrooms. I was amazed and spent the next months reading everything I could as why this is happening. And while I dont have a real answer, my vulgar understanding is that CH are like a brain that had his road map messed with and mushrooms reset it to factory settings During that period I was trying to abort individual attacks with originally coffee, mushrooms in very small dose under my gums and tongue, and breathing exercises. However I quickly replaced coffee with lemon juice as vitamin C seems to fast track psilocybin. Anyways, after that cycle, I prevented successfully many cycles for many years using psilocybe semilanceata that I religiously pick myself every year. Meanwhile I have tried to get prescription for oxygen for years (in the fear that an attack would eventually show up) but always unsuccessfully. However, about 3 years ago a cycle started again, still not sure as why, I was traveling a lot back then and messed up my sleep cycles regularly, this could be the reason, I was also drinking alcohol more than usual, i'm still not sure what exactly happened but it did. So, I went to the doctor, reluctantly I have to say, because I still have bitter memories of what doctors made me go through prior to me discovering mushrooms for CH. Anyways, the doctor discovered that I had high blood pressure, and while he wasn't really acknowledged about cluster headaches he wanted to treat my blood pressure, which he said would likely reduce the intensity of the CH attacks too. And so he gave me isoptin (calcium blocker) and an alpha blocker, in low dosage. This did indeed greatly reduced the intensity of the attacks and fixed my blood pressure. He also prescribed me an abortive nasal spray, Imigran (sumatriptan), which I never took because I wanted to break the cycle with mushrooms anyways and i'm very sceptical by now about migraines medecines for CH. I then managed to break that cycle by doing the mushrooms protocol, took 0.5g then 5 days, 1g and 5 more days and it stopped. I went on with my life, I became a father even! 2 years went on, dosing according to the calendar and no pain. But as every father with a toddler in kindergarten, I eventually got a terrible flu, that turned into pneumonia, and therefore went to a doctor, who prescribed me steroids, which got me pretty intense.. but when I came off the steroids, omg.. the CH came in raging like I forgot how terrible these could get! 3 to 5 attacks per day and brutal and long ones! my partner couldn't stand seeing me that way and called my doctor and went on to give me the imigran nasal spray; in the midst of an awful attack I took the spray and within 20min it stopped. I was relieved. So after that I was taking a spray if the attack was getting out of control.. well.. little did I know, the attacks were coming in even more regularly and stronger than ever (if it's possible at this point..) One night I had an attack that just wouldn't stop and my partner called an ambulance to beg for oxygen, but I was too far gone and they probably didn't give me the oxygen like I need it, it was a nightmare, I ended up in the hospital hallway strapped on a bed begging to be killed and screaming at them that they better not give me opioids (because i had previous horrible experience with those before and they do nothing good to me). I eventually made it back home, absolutely beat. During a short period pain free I went online and looked up imigran and CH etc, and realized that it was a terrible mistake. So I decided not to take it anymore and rather either raw dog the attacks or bust them with mushrooms. And here we are today, no imigran for a week and two doses of mushrooms in, I had one strong shadow this morning, no attack yesterday, I am not holding my breath but it feels like I might be close to break the cycle! That's my update, hope it is useful to some. Oh btw, I just read recently about using DMT vape as an abortive and it seems insanely efficient! i'm currently looking into getting the mimosas bark to make my own. If any of you have info on this I am very interested! Thank you all for contributing to make our lives better, stay away from sumatriptan, stay away from steroids, I wish you only the very best <3 Edit: I just realize that this could be more appropriate in the busting stories section, so if a mod would move this there it would be probably good. I don't personally care that this is public however.

We have been saving them from the Detroit streets for 17 years. Ten of them!

Hi! I don’t have any real data here but I too noticed my cycles were linked to my hormones. When I first started getting CH back in highschool it was always during my placebo week of my birth control, which was an estrogen pill. When I switched to other kinds I noticed the pattern of headaches would always be around the time of my period. I took myself off birth control maybe 7 years ago now. My last CH cycle was last year. I started getting them yearly or bi-yearly around fall/winter instead of in relation to my cycle. I use vitamin L maintenance routine to keep the headaches away but I do notice shadows right before my period begins. So I do think the two are linked for me! I have also read a few other people who had similar experiences. That being said, I’m not sure what to do with this knowledge, but it is interesting that many women experience that! I just started seeing a functional medicine doctor to get full labs on my hormones, etc. and will share if I fine anything helpful!!!

Well, they were probably just guessing about it being helpfull for autistic children or being a cure for homosexuality

I found this yesterday, and filled out the survey.

During recent research i found this picture. so weird that we are using a so called counter culture drug that was created as a medicine for our disease/disorder and was made illegal in the 60ies. and nowadays everybody seems to be forgotten that it was like that. mind blown!