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Well guys, I’d like to start with my weight loss, as some of you may have read in my earlier posts, perhaps about 2 months ago now I believe, I had a significant weight gain from 75 kilos to 88 in the space of 4 months from January, where my cycle started, the cycle was only small, but I had dealt with heavy post cycle shadows for a several months. As a result, I stopped going to th gym and began eating very unhealthy, before I knew it I went from being quite fit and athletic to overweight, I am please to say that I am at the half way point, i now weight 81.3 kilos, only 6 more kilos to go before I reach my original weight, I attribute my motivation to lose the weight to living pain free for the last 2 or so months, the d3 regimen has pretty much made me feel as normal as I was before my first ever cycle, It’s the best thing I could’ve ever asked for, also, was going to save shrooms for desperate times, but I figured I may as well add another layer of protection for my brain and have some fun as well, I’ve been hitting the books hard, and my social life is back to normal as...even met a lovely lady on tinder ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Pretty much, I haven’t been this happy since before my first cycle, and I would say that this forum is the best thing to ever happen to me...I don’t think I’d be where I am right now if it wasn’t for this place, so thank you, now the only painful thing I have to worry about now is having my foreskin cut off PS I’m going to the burning man this year, SUPER EXCITED

FYI I know many have been concerned about Freud. He is currently in the hospital making a swift recovery. He will be back on line soon. Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes. Best regards to a pain free future for all, Freuds mom

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

I'm honored to have the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience during 2 "grow demos" as part of this years conference agenda! I've been working on a PDF file documenting all of the Teks and processes that I'll be presenting for several months now and will be putting the finishing touches on it this next week! I've done it all on my Samsung Note and am too technically challenged to figure out how to transfer it to my laptop in PDF format....but our conference chairwoman has assured me that she'll "git r done" for me when I get to Dallas the day before the conference begins. All that to say this.....if you're planning to attend the conference and want to get the PDF, be sure to bring a thumb drive with you......the doc contains a lot of pics and is extremely large so I feel like that will be the easiest, fastest way to distribute it! See ya'll soon!! Dallas Denny

Hi all I am alive and well. My PTSD ended up getting triggered in Dallas as I thought it might. Sorry for my long absence. Thanks to all that sent their love. I will be back on the boards and this thread w an update. Short version is I am now having 4-6 kip 7-9CH a day. My D peaked at 277 w no bump in Ca or PTH. (I was about 150ish before I was admitted unfairly by my psych thinking I was manic and not triggered and I knew it was going to happen so I loaded w 1.5 mil units before my admission. My D spiked to 277 w that and my CH were gone for a bit. But as it burned off they came back as expected. ). I’m going to get w @Batchtoday and go over numbers to figure out a more aggressive load and burn schedule. I am also dosing w vitamin L... happy trails folks love me

I'm going to go ahead and post this a few days early as I may not have the time this weekend! This board went live on October 27th in 2009! I joined that day so it will also mark 10 years of active membership here for me as well!! We all owe a deep debt of gratitude to DJ for helping with getting the original yabb powered board up and running!! I can honestly say that being a part of clusterbusters this past 10 years has been by far the most rewarding experience of my life!! DD

Hi all, I have some great news to report! I am on my way to being PF and getting my life back thank to so many of you. The vitamin D protocol is doing most of the heavy lifting so to speak. I’m coming off of my best week in over a year but who’s counting. I live in the moment... I will give a full update ASAP. I am still figuring out the best way to utilize the ketamine. However it is helping a ton as well. I personally have a super high tolerance to most anesthetics. Therefore. My starting concentration although a moderate dose will probably be bumped up a bit after discussing my usage and results w my doc. I promise I will make a more detailed post ASAP. I think ketamine should be a weapon in the arsenal to treat uncontrolled CH. I don’t find it intoxicating unless I take a big dose 20+ sprays... 10 sprays at (50mg/ml or 5% solution) and I start to get some help. As it is a dissociative (I have not dissociated yet...aka k hole). At 4-8 pumps I feel mild distraction from the CH. usually enough to take an edge off. However if I have down time and a bad CH I will go to 10-20pumps. This is not what I recommend for everyone! If you do try it. Start low and go slow is my advice. Most people do not enjoy being dissociated from what reading I’ve done on recreational use... but for a kip ten I say bring it on. I have only had one Kip 10 since starting it =-). BBL with more info. looking forward to seeing y’all in Dallas.

I want to send a Thank you to all That helped me get through 8 months of what was thought to be Cluster cycle, after my neck surgery I have been headache free, its crazy that I couldn't tell the difference from a cervical and a Cluster being I have suffered clusters for a few years Again Thanks to everyone I will be checking in and hope all I have learned will someday let me help with solid advice for somebody, Peace and God Bless

Clusters do not cause any known physical damage. Of course each clusterhead has their own personal hell of psychic damage which could range from mild depression to defiance to PTSD-like manifestations. Mental health challenges can cause legitimate physical problems. The other issue becomes imaginary thinking. We spend lots of time trying to figure these things out (triggers, weather, meds, habits, etc. its easy to try and explain every anomaly we experience in the context of clusters but its often unrelated.

Damn it Denny....you mean I have to lug a thumb drive all the way to Dallas??!??! What kinda rookie operation is this?

I am a long time episodic sufferer and normally had the two cycles spring and fall. In the last couple of years I had been using prednisone taper and sumatriptan as needed. In the beginning the prednisone worked quickly stopping the headaches within 48 hrs but now it seems like it takes a week or more for it to stop them . This in turn has increased the amount of Triptans I have been using. I noticed a big change this year as I am now in my 4th cycle and it seems like I only get a month break between cycles. I had a discussion with the researchers at Yale and they said that the prednisone and triptan use could be increasing the amount of cycles that I am experiencing. I had heard of Emgality and got a prescription from my neurologist. I got two injectors and stored them in the fridge and will receive one injector every month after that. Maybe two weeks after receiving emgality I felt the shadow signs of another cycle so I decided to try it. I did the two injections and the next day felt very tired. But for nearly two weeks I didn’t have any shadows. One or two days before I had to refill the prescription I had a mild attack lasting 5 or 10 min, very bearable. I refilled the prescription and took another injection and now for a week or so the mild attacks come in the morning and after I go to bed. I am hoping to ride this one out without steroids or triptans and keep taking the Emgality every month as a preventative. I will update here as this cycle continues on Emgality.

Hi. Name's pronounced 'Rori'. I battled unremittant chronic CH with upwards of a dozen distinct hits per day from mid 2011 through fall of 2017, and can happily say that I have had nothing but light shadows since my old hippy mother found the Busting method here and my somewhat sketchy connection came through for me. At the time of the attacks I had worked to convince myself that what I was experiencing was a mild form of the disease -- only after they faded from my life did I understand what I had simply grown accustomed to. No, wanting to trepan ones self to stop the pain is not a mild symptom. Loss of motor control and blackouts due to pain are not mild. The title says it all. For six years I was functionally disabled (though the medical establishment says otherwise), socially isolated, and completely controlled by the raft of CH triggers I experienced, which seemed to range everywhere from sleep to caffeine to spicy foods and dust and... just... I think that the whole world would be best described as one big trigger. I wasn't able to drive a vehicle or operate power tools safely, couldn't ride a bike or walk quickly, couldn't get around florescent lights or anything that produced a frequency, and my doctors... Propranolol gave me the blood pressure of a corpse. Amitriptyline made me forget my name and address. Imitrex and Topomax made it worse, if at all possible. After I refused to take the Topomax my Neurologist refused to see me. MRIs and CAT scans came back 'perfectly normal'. Then finally the stars aligned . . . I went to a liberal arts college (the CH started right after graduation) and friends had given me magic mushrooms in the past. I had been hoarding my single remaining baggy trying to make microdosing work. Nope. Not effective. And then I met a girl who drank too much, and needed a miracle of her own. Where my personal thoughts to myself were to Gut Up and Deal (see above re: mild case? I'm from a Navy Family...), I found that where I lacked the audacity to reach out to friends for my own sake, when I fell in love with a girl who drowned herself in minimum half a liter of vodka daily and knew she wanted out, I found that strength, at the moment when my network had a solid connection. Its amazing what you can do for others when your own strength is failing (again: Navy family). Several ounces of psychedelic and two years later, I am still cluster free, able to see, drive, hold down a job, and THINK, while the girl who is now my wife hasn't touched liquor in two years. Yeah. Y'all saved my life. Thank you. Keep fighting.

....no mirrors in yur house bro?

Well Brian, I'm not going to go looking for those posts I'm going to ignore them. I refuse to believe it. Aging out is one of the great hopes and I won't allow you to destroy my vanity with the truth!!

Another update: still pain free, attended a birthday party and got absolutely shit faced with no sign of a shadow, life is great

I think Florida (Tampa st pete) would be awesome.. :). Afternoon sail for the first 20 or so. cheers, j

https://hub.jhu.edu/2019/09/04/hopkins-launches-psychedelic-center/ The cluster community has a special role in this type of situation. Most conditions psychedelics are believed to be helpful in treating fall under mental health which is complex and multifaceted. Cluster headaches are more of a medical "condition" and while individual impact and perception differ; somehow a medical diagnosis is more acceptable than a mental health diagnosis. Now anyone suffering from mental health issues knows that is a pile of crap at the end of the day any road that gets these substances rescheduled is a road many will benefit from. So if you get a chance to participate in a cluster headache study using psilocybin or other psychedelic take advantage of the opportunity. The pain you save may be your own and many others....

CH is an odd beast. Any area in that quadrant of your head can be subject to pain as the Trigeminal Nerve serves as the major nerve for that side of your head and face. So, a lot of territory to hit. Just a bit to keep in mind. You can have low level Ch's or major ones. You will swear that a particular tooth is killing you. It gets removed, and the pain remains. You can get an ear ache, sinus pain, jaw pain, and on and on. That is why so many have had teeth pulled and sinuses reamed out surgically. So, the pain can be very different at different times. I had a cycle once where every hair follicle in that quadrant hurt constantly. Shampooing was a real bear for about 5 months. Most experience the worst pain at the back of the eye. Others get it in the temple. For me, it is almost always the temple. It feels like my head is being squeezed in a vice while a railroad spike that is red hot is pushed into my head through my temple. I do think that for many it is constant pain, not pounding or throbbing. Personally I started out Chronic, but with low level pain. Then I got a long reprieve. They returned episodic and blew the top off the Kip scale. A cycle will begin with one hit per night and quickly, a few weeks at most, ramp up to four every night. That takes care of the whole night. They last 2.25 hours untreated and there is a 15 minute break between hits. I sleep from 6am to 8am. After about 6 or 7 months I am not a very nice person. Not mean, just no laughter left. So, I tell off traffic and such. And avoid people when I can. CB is the reason I still can laugh and live. There are ways to manage it so you are a real person again. ATB

In the recent past I successfully trained for an Ironman. Understand completely the post training hit, it robs you of the joy of completing an event. I am strongest in bike and running isnt my thing but the outcomes are likely similar. I found taking salt and magnesium at intervals helped prevent post training hits. Generally most of my hits came at night so sleep disturbances had the greatest impact on training. Busting helped too ( I think). I firmly believe it is best to pursue everything you can and fuck the beast. If you alter your life for the beast the beast wins. Never let a bully win.

That's an affirmative on the pizza and beer Freud! Lmao at "perfect record of resisting honky tonks"......I lived in Cowtown from 68 to 84 and played guitar and sang in bands the majority of that time period.....I imagine I've sang a country song in near about every honkytonk in town!! Sounds like we're gonna have a big crowd with lots of 1st timers this year so really looking forward to meeting all of ya'll...I had the pleasure of meeting Pete in Austin after knowing him online for many years and looking forward to seeing him again......and I've talked to several folks that I've met and known here for a long time ( all from the early days of the board but who are no longer active here) but have never met in person that are coming as well.....AND, I finally get to meet my co-conspirator, err, umm, I mean co-moderator Spiny in person AND, bejeebers is gonna try to make it up from Austin......and, of course, my BFF "hipshot" AKA Hollywood Dan of Nat Geo fame will be there! Shit the bed Loretta! It's gonna get rowdy ya'll......Yeeee Feckin Hawwww! DD

I’m glad ur doing well, but be vigilant, the truth is it is not a cure, just a preventative. Not even shrooms are a cure, clusters can change at any given time for whatever reason and break through whatever treatment you are using...now that you have your clusters under control, definitely would be worth while doing the d3 regimen along with preventiative busting (if busting is something u are prepared to do, probably worth it IMO)

Trucker, This is a good place to get some excellent information and learn you are not on your own. This community gives value by sharing their experiences, The good, bad, ugly. do's and dont's very valuable when negotiating CH. Read the "New Users-Read Here First" the link is at the top of the page (blue bar). There are good and caring people here with a common goal. PF or Pain Free. I am currently busting a cluster cycle, I am episodic and am getting better at being ready to push the beast back into the hole it crawled out of. Take your time here the wealth of information will change your life for the better! Look forward to Pain Free days ahead. Cath

You need to get a solid diagnosis. You provider is just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. Indomethicin is used to support the diagnosis of hemicranium continum as it does not help clusters as a general rule. O2 is very helpful for folks with classic episodic cluster headaches. A provider reluctant to prescribe in the face of a cluster diagnosis has no clue what they are treating or how to manage cluster headaches. Oral triptans are useless to address cluster headaches. Subq or nasal triptans can be very helpful to alleviate acute pain but you run a risk of rebound headaches. Once you have an accurate diagnosis you can develop a treatment strategy.

The important thing is psychedelics are being reintroduced to society in a rational manner. Responsible researchers are conducting studies in a though and thoughtful way. Hopefully their results will contribute to the rescheduling of these substances so folks have an opportunity to explore their benefits without fear of prosecution. Having psilocybin or LSD available as a pharmaceutical type medication will help answer questions about dosing, frequency and efficacy. The effects and benefits are so strong it will be hard to argue psychedelics have no medical value.