Atlas

I've had good results with Indomethacin. If I take it at the first sign of a shadow it will usually tame the shadow and prevent it from getting worse. When I'm in cycle I also take it before bed. It seems to calm the brain and I get a much better night's sleep. Once the pain level goes past a shadow it's usually not much help.

Strong sunlight, especially in the morning, can be a trigger for me. Like Mit12 said, polarized sunglasses have been a huge help. Far better than regular sunglasses. I also have blackout curtains in the bedroom.

Hi Anthony. I just saw your message. What you describe seems similar to my symptoms. I get “classic†cluster headaches, which are exactly what others on this board describe. Fortunately I don’t get them nearly as often as many others do. But I also get this constant headache behind my left eye (the same eye as my clusters). It can last for hours, days, or even multiple weeks. It’s constant. The pain level isn’t nearly as bad as a cluster, but the word “shadow†does exactly describe it. It’s seems worse than what others describe a shadows. And it just goes on and on and on…. It seems like it will never end. Here’s what works for me. First, as someone else already mentioned, I take a drug call indomethacin to abort the constant headaches. That will either stop it cold or diminish the severity. It also lets me sleep better, so often I can wake up headache free. Second, I’ve been taking a supplement called Phenibut on a daily basis. This has dramatically reduced all my headaches. Finally I also use energy drinks, but you’ve already tried that. In the past I took 240mg of Verapamil. I’m not sure if that helped or not. The indomethacin/Phenibut combination has worked so well I had my doctor take me off the Verapamil. Oxygen helps the full blown clusters, but it doesn’t do anything for the constant headaches. I’ve also taken Imitrex. That really works on my migraines, but it never did much for the pain behind the eye. Hope that helps in some way!

Razor, I've been taking D3 for years, long before I ever heard of clusterbusters. I take 10k in the winter and 5k the rest of the year. I know there is a vitamin D3 FAQ type page on the cluster busters site with specifics on how to treat CH. At some point I will check that out.

Razor, I'm using the Don Ramon brand mix of twigs and leaves that I got on ebay (seems like that's what most of us are trying). I mixed it with a little honey, some red wine, and some old Bacardi rum I already had on hand.  Yes, I did use the first batch. Tasted terrible. The next two batches tasted much better (which was expected). The first batch had the same effects as the second and third batches. Besides the taste I didn't notice a difference. In my experience, taking one shot of MJ has 50% chance of shutting down the shadows, but a 50% chance of making them worse. By worse I mean turning a kip 2-3 into a 4-5. Three shots of MJ has always killed the shadows. I know this is counter intuitive. More alcohol should be more of a trigger. It doesn't seem to be that way. My guess is that consuming more of whatever the active ingredient is knocks out the shadows, and then the alcohol is no longer a trigger. Three shots also produces that "body buzz" that's similar to a low dose of MM. Just my experience so far. I will be doing more "experiments". I welcome any feedback, even if your experience contradicts mine.

To me it feels like something in the mamajuana is hitting the some of the same receptors as the MM. It might explain why it's helping the clusters. Just wondering if anyone else had the same sensations (the "body buzz"). I'm getting mixed results. I'm out of cycle, but have been using it to squash some stronger shadows. Sometimes it helps a lot, but sometimes it makes things worse. I think the problem in the alcohol. Alcohol can be a trigger for me, but usually isn't. When the MJ makes things worse it's about what I would expect from drinking the equivalent amount of beer, rum, etc. I don't want to discourage anyone who doesn't have an alcohol trigger. I think the MJ helps, I'm just not sure I can take the alcohol when I'm having shadows.

Is anyone else getting a "body buzz" feeling from mamajuana? After two to three shots of MJ I feel a buzz that's very similar to lower doses of vitamin M. It doesn't happen when taking a single shot.

For those of you in the U.S., there's a petition on whitehouse.gov to end DST: Â Â Â Â http://1.usa.gov/Pti2dj If the petition gets 100,000 signatures the White House will respond with a statement.

Last week I had two crowns put in. I talked to the dentist before we started about the epinephrine. She of course had no idea what a cluster headache was, so I told her that I got a lot of really bad migraines. She sort of sympathized with that. Then she asked if I had high blood pressure. When I said I did (which I do) that’s when she agreed to skip the epinephrine. I don’t think trying to explain how this will affect you (the patient) will be very affective. Instead try to explain how this will impact the dentist. My suggestions: The crowns went in just fine. The anesthetic did start to wear off towards the end, so she had to give me some more. If she had only been working on one tooth I don’t think I would have needed the second dose.

Hi everyone. This is my first post. I’ve been busting since August, which has been helping but causes anxiety problems. But that’s a topic for another post. I saw this and knew I had to give it a try. I’m hoping this works without the anxiety problems. I’ve ordered the mix from the same ebay vendor didgens suggested. Right now I’m brewing up my first batch. I will report back once I try it. I also found a US company that makes a pre-made version of Mamajuana. It’s called Kalembu. You can find more info at kalembu.com. It’s sold mostly in the New York City area, but after some research I found one place in the Chicago area that sells it. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to do too much for me. I’ve taken between one and four shots a night for the past week. It seems like just watered down rum with a little flavor added. I didn’t notice any neurological changes besides what I expected from the alcohol. Even that seemed weak. The bottle says 60 proof, but seemed more like 40 proof to me. So Kalembu brand Mamajuana didn’t work for me. If you can find a bottle locally it might still be worth a try. Maybe it will work for you. I’m still hoping the homemade version will work better.  I will be trying that this weekend. Cheers