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Pant-less is fine for critters and Pooh, but not Buzz!!! CHF, I have found that the caffeine pill seems to work better - make me feel that it is working better/faster, if I down something cold to swallow it. Likely all in my head, no pun intended, but it makes me happier and I think that affects my head in a positive way. Just a bit to pass on if/when you want to. The absolute fastest is to dump in the powder sans capsule and chase it with cold liquid. It's bitter, so I am chugging!!

My clusters started at 18 before I started smoking! First started smoking around 21..quit multiple times in between hoping it'll end the CH, but still kept getting cycles. Infact after quitting, I usually pick up smoking again as result of the anxiety and trauma caused due to the attacks. Smoking somehow just helps deal with it (purely psychological i'm guessing, but I guess it acts a crutch to deal with the trauma). But glad it worked for you!!

I must have become desensitized to that through all the years of exposure to scandalously pants-less cartoon characters:

I think there is much truth in some of the points and other points are borderline absurd. It is true that nutrition is a very small part of traditional medical school curriculum. Most medical schools (US at least) have adopted a systems type approach to learning. What this means is after getting core training in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, histology and other basic science subjects the curriculum moves on to an approach based on body system. For instance, in the cardiovascular system module includes the pharmacology, anatomy, pathophysiology and basic treatment of that system. Obviously the depth of knowledge required to actually treat and diagnose a cardiovascular problem exceeds anything a person can learn in a few weeks. Post medical training takes years even to recognize and treat common problems. So its easy to understand how nutritional supplemental information can get lost, dismissed and misunderstood. The other issue becomes how litttle most individuals are willing to be responsible for their own care. Imagine how few health problems the system would have to deal with if people were fit, drank in moderation, avoided harmful drugs, didn’t smoke and modulated sexual behavior. Not trying to make excuses but adding perspective. Very few clinically active physicians have an interest in people not getting well. Little to no personal revenue is generated by physicians from writing a prescription. Sure some collect consulting fees from pharma but generating any substantial earnings from this is negligible and the money’s assigned are less than a day in the office generates. In the last decade or two most physicians do not even see drug representatives and are legally required not to benefit from prescription writing. Indeed physicians are trained to write prescriptions and usually prescribe based on treatment protocols, familiarity or formulary restrictions. There are so many folks who need to see a doctor for a variety of problems thinking they would not act in what is believed to be a patients best interest approaches silly. Do you really think a Neurologist wants a 4-12 month waiting list? Most caregivers want people to get better quickly and easily. Because of the overburdens and limitations of an office practice many primary care providers have to “punt” to a specialist just because they have no time to study a non responding problem or want to streamline a diagnosis and plan. Of course they might also be motivated to move a person with a difficult personality along too. In our situation we have a debilitating, life crushing condition which is uncommon, poorly understood, and multi factorial. It is also non lethal on the surface. Because providers fail to see how this condition kills it gets a lower priority and folks like us suffer. Forums like this are essential because it allows a free exchange of experiences and allows us to work out what works, what is said to work but does not and how to fine tune interventions to gain maximum relief. Cluster headaches have certainly been given a low medical priority, under appreciated suffering and downright criminal treatment especially how long the fight to get O2 recognized and covered. Again forums like this and organizations like Clusterbusters help where the “system” never would. The legal system does create limit some provider hesitancy for novel, new or out of normal recommendation treatments. Also when you are treated outside of normal protocols services attached to those treatments are not covered. This creates conflict between patient and provider because imaging, lab tests and procedures can go uncovered thus generating financial obligations few can meet without insurance (again a mostly US problem). Trust me, if you got a kidney stone after being prescribed high dose vitamin D beyond standard recommendations a motivated patient could find a lawyer to help sue the provider despite the strength of evidence to the contrary. It would likely be settled out of court and you would never hear about it. So we take our Vitamin D, ingest illegal substances and try whatever crazy sounding thing we hear about to relieve this indescribable pain. We own it and don’t need the traditional medical systems approval.