didgens

ok sorry ,, you can see videos on the left here http://www.frequency.com/video/classification-of-migraines-enews-dr/54227671/-/5-9598892

good points all first. The neurologist i took my son to would not prescribe oxygen ,, much to my dismay. he offered either the injectible imitrex or the nasal spray ,, being the overly cautious mom i opted for the spray ,, keep in mind my son is 20 so he has a mind (and legal rights) of his own. he tried the nasal for 2 of his headaches ,, he said it just tasted bad and ran down this throat. ok,, so strike that one. he uses red bulls and takes hot showers. he takes advil,etc., etc.,etc., but like you know they dont kick in fast enough to help. i have tried having him take advil and an antihistimine before going to bed .. no good. I am actually growing an RC plant and have the seeds but he is hesitant to try them being a hallucinagenic and all. I told him he would not take enough to trip,, at present now we have an appt to see Dr. Kudrow at the Headache Center in Santa Monica in california. Dr. Kudrow's father was also a neurosurgeron suffered from cluster headaches so will see what he can do before getting a passport and flying half way around the world. I know there are many avenues to try before that long trip and surgery, but i also know thats a great one to have in the arsenal. The pressure point isnt actually on the roof of the mouth it is back behind the molars almost in the jaw,, and actually when i told my son this he told me that he had pushed back there with his tooth brush the last time the headache came on and it seemed to help. On friday as he felt one comming i gave him ice and told him to take a piece of it and push back on that nerve with the ice. he said it cut the pain by 50%. The Licorice I bought i ended up eating :-/ because he stopped having headaches at that time. Dr. Shevel started doing these surgeries in 1992 not 3 years ago. The 4 out of 5 number is just for the published paper. He has preformed this surgery many many times ,, you can find testimonials all over the web. I believe he has preformed over 500. because a technique sounds generalized or overly promising shouldnt cause disbelief. all I am saying is check it out. there is a doctor here in the states that is a plastic surgeron that found when he did plastic surgery on the forehead, migrane sufferers stopped having headaches. Really its worth the research. anyway.. I think all you people here are amazing.. and am so grateful for all the ideas you have helped me and my son with. Instead of it taking years, I knew right away to get the red bulls, to get the triptans etc. I will go pick up some melatonin at the local store today and we'll give that a try too.. and pick up some more licorice and not eat it (im going to skip over the shevel being a quack, he is published and peer reviewed and if you want to see videos of patients click here ,, also i would be happy to corrospond with my emails to/from him for your review, or better yet you can email him he will respond to you. There is a member on clusterheadaches.com named david g or david goldberg that talks about a procedure he underwent from a doctor here in the states you might want to research. http://www.drkudrow.com/about/about.htm

or http://www.drkudrow.com/about/about.htm

Also if you live in California maybe this group can be of assistance. http://www.nbneuro.com/cluster.shtml

OK well ,, they dont slice into your brain and in fact the surgery is quite superficial. I came to this board about 2 years ago because my son had a headache that woke him out of a dead sleep and was excrutiating. That was October of 2 years ago .. he had 3 of these headaches in 3 weeks and many here told me "Oh that cant be a cluster headache, because he only had a few" well ,,, move on to spring .. guess what ,, same thing he had 2 or 3 more of these headaches. Neurologist said .. take this nasal imiterx ,, didnt help him at all.. Ok next October same thing 3 more headaches .. followed by 3 or 4 more in the spring.. I continued doing my research and comming to this board. and reading reading reading. Now guess what .. the lovely equinox rolled around what 10 days ago ?? and he has had 7 yep .. 7 of these in less than 10 days .. not something we can just suffer through anymore .. he was in agony last tuesday. After reading the post someone put up here i started doing my research on Dr. Shevel,, I found mention of a trigger point in the mouth ,, so i tell my son about this .. so 2 days ago he feels what i think you people call an aoura ? or one comming on ?? so i tell him .. put pressure back here in your mouth .. he tells me it cut the pain by 50% ,, all im going to say to you is if you want to keep suffering ok .. but you really should do your research on this procedure (which again i say is minor outpatient surgery that has nothing to do with your brain) before you walk away. Dr. Shevel in South Africa is the only one doing this. http://www.frequency.com/video/classification-of-migraines-enews-dr/54227671/-/5-9598892 I would like to add ,, he has actually been communicating with me via email.

My Son has told me that by putting pressure on that back inside of his mouth he in fact can lessen the pain.

My son started with what i belived were CH's about 2 years ago. He was getting 2 - 4 in about a 6 week period of time in both the Fall and Spring. Now he has had 3 in the last 10 days ,, I am terrified that he is building up to more ? and dont know what to do. for the last week i had him take advil and claritin every night before he goes to sleep ,, did it help ? i dont know ? but he didnt take it last night and woke up this morning with one he said wasnt as bad as the last 2. Something else i am having him try is putting pressure on the inside of his mouth at the back behind his molars (there is a video and post about a doctor who preforms surgery to cut the nerves?arteries? that cause the pain drs. name is shevel you can read online) ,, anyway he said by putting pressure on the area it did in fact lessen the pain some. anyway Im just rambling here, sorry ,, Im so worried about him .. bottom line ? My husband his father has SUNCT syndrom, which was not identified until my son started having cluster headaches, and his grandfater suffered from migraines ..

the fact that yours started after childbirth really wants me to continue down the hormone path

Has anybody here tried a Cox-2 inhibitor ?

also I note that an SSRI (seratonin re-uptake inhibitor) as well as a benzodiazapine (ie. Gaba or gamma amino-butyric acid) are used together to combat menopausal symptoms as just one or the other does not do the trick. Since several neurotransmitters are being affected by loss of both progesterone and the 3 estrogens. Theres no reason to belive that male testerone levels arent doing the same thing since CH's are predominatley diagnosed in males. is anyone out there doing a study to see if there are any hormonal drops going on ? Maybe this is a stupid analogy but we all know what our neighborhood cats sound like in the spring. What if male testerone levels are seasonal and do rise and fall with the solstice/equinox causing inflammation ? Its worth someone getting the testing done isnt it ?

oddly licorice is also recommended for menopause (due to its neurotransmitter like effects). I have been keeping the real stuff at my desk (from Trader Joes imported from australia) and eating some from time to time. it does seem to help. also eating almonds works as well. it calms the stomach which inturn doesnt upset the vagus nerve (which may or may not help the trigimenal nerve). Has anyone here ever gone through having saliva testing done to check hormone and endrocrine levels ?

i would like to see statistics on how many surgeries he has preformed and the outcome http://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/hope-for-cluster-headache-sufferers-1.1523083

well .. the surgeries started in 1995 according to the doctor. and the surgeries according to him are ony on the distended terminal granches of the external carotid artery, specifically the superficial termporal artery and the occipital artery. He did this in conjunction with a medical team in Italy ,, i dont see any postings from that doctor however ??

adding the atery video

there are also videos on YouTube of patients who underwent the procedure. Their faces dont look paralyzed. He has been doing this procedure and perfecting it since 1995. I just emailed his clinic to see if there is anyone in the U.S. doing this.

anybody try the tight band around the head above the ear and eye ? How do we diagnose who will benefit from arterial surgery? [edit]There are a number of methods used to diagnose whether arterial surgery will be of benefit. 1) There are certain scalp arteries that most commonly cause the pain of migraine. These are compressed with the fingertip during an attack. If blocking the artery by pressure relieves the pain temporarily, and the pain returns when the finger pressure is removed, then arterial surgery is indicated.[49] 2) Some migraine sufferers get relief from tying a tight band round the head just above the eyes and ears. This closes off the arteries that are causing the pain. If a tight band provides relief, then the surgery is indicated.[33] 3) Certain medications provide relief from migraine pain by constricting or narrowing the scalp arteries. If these medications give relief, then the arterial surgery is indicated.[43] These medications include the: a) Triptans, namely sumatriptan (Imitrex, Imigran, Cinie, Illument, Migriptan), zolmitriptan (Zomig), eletriptan (Relpax), rizatriptan (Maxalt), frovatriptan (Frova, Migard, Frovamig), naratriptan (Amerge, Naramig), avitriptan (BMS-180,048), and almotriptan (Axert, Almogran). Ergots. Any medications that contain ergotamine or dihydroergotamine. 4) Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. If the migraine is relieved by caffeine, then the surgery is indicated.[34]

seriously .. i would run .. not walk to this guy !

maybe there is someone in the United States that is doing this procedure ?? I found this post on clusterheadaches.com Cluster cured CH.com Newbie Offline I Love CH.com! Posts: 15 Cluster Headache CURE Nov 17th, 2012 at 7:23am Yes there is now a permanent a cure it is simple, painless, and absolutely risk free! My15 year old son was sent to detention at school for sleeping in class, this was because he would wake up with me 3 to 4 times a night and help me load my injection, fill my hot water bottle, microwave my heat pack, crush ice for inside my mouth, pour me a glass of ice water, I'll never forget that frightened panic stricken look on his face as he watched me been attacked.... ThatÂ’s when I knew I had to do something about this headache it was impinge on my loved ones and that was not going to happen anymore. I had tried acupuncture, physiotherapy, homeopathy, anti-epileptic pills that make your fingers tingle, impotent, and walking up a flight of stairs feels you've just run a marathon, I used to inject the maximum daily dose of Imagran, I sucked 25 litres of pure oxygen per minute I used hot water bottles, ice packs I even used to stand in a bucket of ice if nothing else but to distract my mind away from focusing on the pain, crying pacing swearing shouting grunting rubbing running nothing kept this headache at bay. I learnt that breathing slowly and trying to relax as a mind over matter effort helped. I had them on both sides of my face for 7yrs the cause is an dilating artery in your upper jaw that runs alongside the trigeminal nerve (under your gum in your jaw) and when that artery dilates it exerts pressure on the trigeminal nerve. An arterial ligation is all that is needed and I'm now permanently cured thanks to Dr. Shevel, at the headache clinic who performed the arterial ligation. it was safe, painless (much like going to the dentist but without a drill) and risk-free as the ligation is done nowhere near the nerve and it is done outside the scull and away from your brain. (I would never trust deep brain stimulation.) All the ligation does is restrict the blood flow in that artery preventing the artery from expanding out of peroration and irritating the trigeminal nerve. It was quick and simple. Dr shevel has been performing this procedure since 1995 and he has been published in 30 medical journals. FYI: Dr.Shevel can also cure Migraines as well by also conducting an arterial ligation to another artery that is situated in the temple. The relief i feel post the operation is indescribably good, I feel fantastic and i can now live my life again, even drink beer hahaha, i can eat a full slab of chocolate and engulf my popcorn with MSG at the movies without having that demon headache hovering over me, this headache is evil because it comes in the dead of night, and at any time, you never know for how long it will last or how painful the attack will get. The attacks occur when this artery dilate this happens during rapid eye movement or when the brain goes into delta brain wave, and or when we over indulge in sugar, yeast, carbonated drinks, MSG, Preservatives, smoking. even high and low altitude can trigger it. When this artery in our upper jaw dilates a pressure is exerted on the trigeminal nerve, this should not usually be a problem but, eventually the myelin sheath is damaged or irritated so it short circuits the nerve and sends a signal back to the brain telling the brain that your face is been slowly crushed and peeled off. Its at that stage that you'll do/say/try anything at to stop the pain. So put crushed ice in your mouth and cool your upper jaw, I also used the oxygen to cool my upper gum as well, you can try putting your finger in your mouth and applying pressure to the gum at the upper jaw right at the back (above and behind your back teeth) this, if you can locate the artery under your gum may give you relief. this is a lot easier said than done as it is very difficult to keep still long enough to get it right when you been attacked. I also think that the link to smokers plays a big part as nicotine causes inflammation on the gums, inflammation breaks down bone and in turn altering the bone formation under the gums, in combination with the vacuum that is created when pulling the smoke into ones mouth causes the artery to over elongate work and squeeze the trigeminal nerve... Good luck get cured and take your life back Ryan Back to top

Why arent people flocking to this guy ?

this is fantastic !

but nobody here gets relief from NSAIDS right ? Prostaglandins are lipid autacoids derived from arachidonic acid. They both sustain homeostatic functions and mediate pathogenic mechanisms, including the inflammatory response. They are generated from arachidonate by the action of cyclooxygenase isoenzymes, and their biosynthesis is blocked by nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, including those selective for inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2

ok so here is a description of brain freeze . .what if its deferred pain from somewhere else and not the palate ?? what if different temperatures on the palate can help ? or what if stopping prostaglandin generation (if thats even possible ?) can help ?? Question: What Causes Brain Freeze? If you've ever experienced a sudden stabbing pain in your forehead when eating ice cream or enjoying a cool drink then you know what brain freeze is. Do you know what causes brain freeze or how you can stop the pain? Answer: Have you ever experienced a sudden headache when eating or drinking something very cold? This is brain freeze, sometimes called an ice cream headache. The medical term for this type of headache is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, which is a mouthful, so let's just stick with brain freeze, okay? When something cold touches the roof of your mouth (your palate), the sudden temperature change of the tissue stimulates nerves to cause rapid dilation and swelling of blood vessels. This is an attempt to direct blood to the area and warm it back up. The dilation of the blood vessels triggers pain receptors, which release pain-causing prostaglandins, increase sensitivity to further pain, and produce inflammation while sending signals through the trigeminal nerve to alert the brain to the problem. Because the trigeminal nerve also senses facial pain, the brain interprets the pain signal as coming from the forehead. This is called 'referred pain' since the cause of the pain is in a different location from where you feel it. Brain freeze typically hits about 10 seconds after chilling your palate and lasts about half a minute. Only a third of people experience brain freeze from eating something cold, though most people are susceptible to a related headache from sudden exposure to a very cold climate. How to Prevent and Treat Brain Freeze It's sudden chilling or a cycle of chilling and warming that stimulates the nerve and causes pain, so eating ice cream slowly is less likely to cause brain freeze than wolfing it down. If you are eating or drinking something cold, it also helps to keep your mouth cold rather than allow it to warm up. However, one of the quickest ways to alleviate the pain of brain freeze is to warm your palate with your tongue. Just be sure not to follow that remedy with another scoop of ice cream.

so what happens if you hold something hot/warm in your mouth when they hit ? that sounds more like the vagus nerve gets stimulated and in turn trips the trigeminal nerve ?

yeah .. they need to give that test to the rest of the population .. were all nuts

I just want to say as a woman going through menopause who's brain chemistry is totally disrupted by loss of seratonin along with GABA that yes .. brain chemical disfuntion causes me insomnia, night sweats ,,restless leggs, something we call internal tremors, or a feeling like your going to have a seizure but you dont. I wonder has anyone here tried useing an SSRI or anti anxiety (ie. xanex) .. or L-Theanine or GABA ??