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Kat, Gender has little to do with the efficacy of oxygen therapy in aborting CH. If used properly with hyperventilation at forced vital capacity tidle volumes either with 100% oxygen at 30 to 40 liters/minute with a non-rebreathing oxygen mask, hyperventilating with an oxygen demand valve, or by hyperventilating with room air for 30 seconds at forced vital capacity tidle volumes then inhale a lungful of 100% oxygen and hold it for 30 seconds then repeat this sequence until the pain is gone. In all three methods, the average abort time should be around 7 minutes with > 95% efficacy and it has nothing to do with gender. What most doctors and neurologists don't understand about effective oxygen therapy as a CH abortive, is oxygen is only half of the abortive. The other half involves blowing off CO2 faster than the body generates it through normal metabolism by intentionally hyperventilating for 6 to 7 minutes pushes the body into respiratory alkalosis. In simple terms blowing off CO2 by hyperventilating shifts blood pH to the alkaline side of neutral making it more alkaline, hence the term respiratory alkalosis. I need to point out that respiratory alkalosis from intentionally hyperventilating is temporary and harmless. It clears normally within a few minutes once returning to normal breathing rates. Respiratory alkalosis does several things that help abort CH. The first effect of respiratory alkalosis with an elevated arterial pH, is to slow the expression of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) and Substance (SP) by neurons in the trigeminal ganglia. CGRP and SP are responsible or the neurogenic inflammation and pain we know as CH. What also happens during respiratory alkalosis is elevating arterial blood pH in the lungs to the alkaline side of neutral, increases blood hemoglobin's affinity for oxygen. This enables blood hemoglobin to carry up to 117% of oxygen where breathing a little faster than normal elevates blood oxygen to only 99%. This super-oxygenated blood flow and low arterial pH does two things. It speeds up the breakdown of CGRP and SP and It also triggers triggers pH homeostasis when chemo receptors in the brain stem and aortic arch sense the low arterial CO2 concentration. These chemoreceptors signal the breathing control neurons in the brain stem to slow the respiratory rate. They also signal the heart to beat more slowly and arteries and capillaries throughout the body including the brain and trigeminovascular complex to constrict. All this happens to slow the flow of blood to the lungs to prevent the loss of CO2 and allow its arterial concentration to rise back to normal levels. While we're intentionally hyperventilating, this triggers the vasoconstriction throughout the trigeminovascular complex and this serves as a significant CH abortive effect. I can hear the wheels turning... WTF are Forced Vital Capacity Tidal Volumes? The answer is simple once you understand the terms. Tidal Volume = The volume of air (or oxygen) inhaled and exhaled. The air comes into the lungs during inhalation and goes out when exhaling, just like the tide comes in and goes out. Vital Capacity = The maximum amount of air a person can expel from the lungs after a maximum inhalation without thinking about it. Forced Vital Capacity = By doing an abdominal crunch, tightening the abdominal and chest muscles as in doing sit-ups at the end of a forceful exhalation, squeezes out an additional half to full liter of exhaled breath highest in CO2 content. If you hold the abdominal crunch and chest squeeze for at least a second, your exhaled breath will make a wheezing sound. Try it now and hold the squeeze until your breath makes a wheezing sound. Accordingly, hyperventilating at forced vital capacity tidal volumes pumps CO2 from the blood stream much faster than "normal respiration." Now for the proof this method of oxygen therapy and breathing techniques makes oxygen therapy very effective with an average abort time of 7 minutes. We conducted a pilot study of this method of oxygen therapy (hyperventilating with 100% oxygen) with seven CHers (6 CCHers and 1 ECHer, six men and one woman) in 2008. Four of the CHers used an oxygen demand valve and the other three used a Flotec 0-60 liter/minute oxygen regulator set a a flow rate of 40 liters/minute with a Cluster O2 Kit mask from CH.com equipped with a 3-liter reservoir bag. Abort times with either method were the same. Each of the seven CHers collected abort time and CH pain level at start of therapy for every CH aborted for a period of 8 weeks. This came to a total of 366 aborts with this method of oxygen therapy. 364 of these aborts were rated as successful with a complete CH abort in 20 minutes or less for a success rate of 99.4%. The results are plotted out in the following graphic. The average abort time for these 364 aborts was 7 minutes. One of the pilot study participants collected abort time and pain level data for a week while waiting for his oxygen demand valve, using a disposable non-rebreathing (NRB) oxygen mask at an oxygen flow rate of 15 liters/minute. As you can see, the demand valve method (hyperventilating with 100% oxygen) results in CH aborts 3 to 4 times faster than using a disposable NRB oxygen mask at a flow rate of 15 liters/minute. We also discovered an interesting phenomenon that the higher the CH pain level, the longer it took to abort to abort the CH. This has never been reported in any of the previous RCTs or studies of oxygen therapy as an abortive for CH or Migraine. For reference, I hold a patent on the oxygen demand valve method of aborting CH. I've also over 15 years training in Aviation Physiology primarily involving oxygen breathing systems and their use in flight. Bottom line, hyperventilating at forced vital capacity tidal volumes with 100% oxygen or hyperventilating with room air at forced vital capacity tidal volumes then inhaling a lungful of 100% oxygen and holding it for 30 second then repeating this sequence 6 more times for an average total of 7 minutes are equally effective in aborting CH. Hope this helps. Take care, V/R, Batch