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CHfather

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Everything posted by CHfather

  1. Have you considered adding kudzu to the D3 approach? See this thread for info: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1326294637/22#22 Important to do the D3 as close as possible to the "prescribed" method. Latest full description of that approach is here: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1324046404
  2. My pleasure. So very appreciative of all the excellent work you put into this!!!
  3. Hard to resist an opportunity to quote myself . . . . Tucker's pretty much chronic. He's in a 7-month episode right now, and his last one was 11 months. It sounds to me from what he's said that things are at least a bit better for him. For a person with chronic CH, shortly after the second bust, that sounds pretty good to me as evidence that busting is probably working. "Probably" is all we ever have here for evidence. Also, he took enough seeds both times, assuming that they were actually non-floaters (--and assuming he didn't burn them up by using a coffee grinder. KIDDING!!! Grind 'em if you've got 'em, that's my new motto. Body language and vocal tone are friendly here, not hostile.) In my opinion, if he could jump to psilo, I'd also say why not, but I don't see a reason right now to think the seeds aren't working. Your questions, Purp, seem to me like the right ones for digging deeper. If I'm reading Tucker right, part of his concern about the effectiveness of his seeds is related to his not feeling any psychedelic effects. Tucker -- to be clear (and to reiterate what Purp just said), with RC seeds, most people who have treated successfully have had no effects at all, aside from maybe a slight "two-beer buzz" in a couple of cases. As long as you're using the non-floaters and getting a good grind, the numbers you are using are plenty. If you want to step it up more, I guess you could, but unless your seeds are worthless, really, you're almost certainly taking plenty.
  4. Gosh, I wouldn't even imagine you doing that, and I'm sorry that I would have given that impression or allowed anyone to gather that impression. Definitely not you. Sorry.
  5. Purp, in my opinion you're not confusing anyone. 95-plus percent of people are going to go, completely rationally, with the tried-and-tested advice -- because it works, 95-plus percent of the time. You, and some others, are going to examine that advice, for whatever reasons -- to see if it can be made better, or out of intellectual curiosity . . . whatever reasons. People who want to engage with that can do so. Nobody has to. I think it's important to remember that this whole site, and virtually all the knowledge within it, was built by people experimenting and asking questions--"citizen scientists" taking responsibility for their own treatments. If you look at some of the old LSA FAQs (if they're still here somewhere), you'll see how much the knowledge has grown. When I first came here, no so long ago (fall, 2010), standard advice was to start with 10 or maybe 20 RC seeds. 10 would now be completely ridiculously low, and 20 would also be considered too low by most people. The number has crept up as more and more people reported taking larger and larger numbers of seeds without psychedelic effects. I could see it heading closer to 50 as a recommended first dose, as more data come in. I love the way you put your mind to these things, and value it greatly. I guess if enough people PM you with harsh messages telling you to shut up (as has happened with me), you'll have to decide who to listen to. I hope you'll listen to yourself. As for your questions on the Sewell chart, there I agree that you shouldn't worry it too much. It was early (2008!!) research (funded in part by Clusterbusters). I would say, though, partly in agreement with Jeff and partly from the chart itself, that the .8mg/gram statistic is just an average, and the median seems to be closer to 1mg/gram, with the average being pulled down by one or two very bad batches. And who knows how old the seeds were, how they were stored, all that stuff? Again, this was early days. (I remember trying to prepare LSA from HBWR seeds using the method described there and practically going nuts at every step, to the point that I just gave up and ate the doggone seeds, husks and all! (I was doing this to try to figure out how to do it for my daughter.) Thank God for RC, I say--and of course, for Clusterbusters -- at least for a completely inept "chemist" like me.) Similarly, I can't quite figure out the effective/ineffective data, but we know some were ineffective because of not getting LSA, and I don't think we know how these people treated themselves: Did they take multiple doses five days apart, for example? So, like you, I'm inclined to trust the higher success rate here at CB, as people do the right thing in the right way (as we presently understand what the "right thing" and the "right way" are).
  6. As Purp said, there's a danger of adding confusion on confusion here, but somebody who knows can always step in. I can only say regarding this question of yours that I have always heard that since psychedelics work on your brain, body size is not a key dosage issue.
  7. Okay, well, here I go again. I had learned, straight from the horse's mouth, that using a coffee grinder was a bad idea. Alleyoop posted on 8/29/10: >>The blender is out, as is the coffee grinder. Heat is the enemy, and both of these appliances produce a lot of heat.<< I'm happy, as always, to be corrected if this info is now outdated. I understand that it's just a recommendation, not a rule -- and obviously the coffee grinder works for bb and others. But if "better safe than sorry" is in play here also and you want to avoid heat just in case, a mortar and pestle is a good way to go. Makes a nice powder with minimal effort, except to keep the seeds from flying out of the mortar.
  8. my best to mystina. hoping for a quick recovery and a return to her irreplacable, irrepressible form. (irrepressible might seem like a big word, but i just learned it from watching "ozzie and harriet" in my long-ago youth, when ricky (later rick) nelson was always referred to in the show's intro as "the irrepressible ricky."
  9. Jeff, thank you for this post! Jerry
  10. 1 mg is a measure of the total LSA content. Unfortunately, no one knows how many seeds it will take to reach that 1 mg level, because the LSA content of seeds varies so much. I think someone once took a stab at some mg/seeds relationship, but I'd say there are too many variables to try to forecast. However, 54 or 80 fresh, viable seeds are almost certain to get you there. According to Sewell's poster that Jeff mentioned and I provided a link to, at least as I read it, the average LSA content in RC seeds is .8 mg per gram of seeds -- but, as he says there and shows there, the actual ratio varies so greatly that you can't rely on the average to mean anything in a particular case. You could get a lot more or a lot less. Freshness and float-tested viability probably up your odds of being on the "more" side rather than the "less" side. To comment briefly on the 1 mg thing: For people with episodic CH, the effectiveness threshold seemed to be getting at least .5 mg of LSA (from "average" seeds, this would be less than a gram of seeds). As far as I can tell, the seeds of only three people who were chronic were tested, and those whose seeds tested at .5 mg and 1.0 mg were "treatment nonresponders." I agree with Jeff that if you're chronic (which you seem like you might be from what you've said) it seems as though you'll need more LSA, and you probably ought to dose that way, but the data on which that conclusion is based are very skimpy. I can recall only a couple of people who were "treatment nonresponders" here who used 50 or more seeds, and for the most part they were people who also were "non-responders" even as they went up to considerably higher numbers of seeds -- it seems LSA just didn't work for them. As a person who likely has chronic or close-to-chronic CH, you have to expect that it will likely take several doses to lick your CH, but right now, from my perspective, it doesn't seem that seeds are not working for you.
  11. Bob/Alleyoop, Do the same uncertainties or variables that apply to waiting five days between busts also apply to detoxing for five days before a bust -- or is there a different reason for that five-day detox than for the five-day wait?
  12. Thanks for the information about your time between busts, Jeff. Very interesting. I have read every post at this board since I joined (except the ones about growing shrooms), and I don't remember anyone, except maybe defectiv, saying they had consistently busted with success while waiting less than five days, and certainly not with waiting less than four days. I believe this is the poster you're referring to, Jeff: http://www.maps.org/research/sewell_2008_aha_lsa_poster.pdf Note that the data you cite are different from people who are chronic vs. people who are episodic (and the sample sizes are tiny). The person who created this poster, Dr. Sewell, once wrote to me saying that in his studies he had seen a tenfold difference in the LSA content of seeds. And you can see from the poster that some people got a whole lot more than 1 mg; but there's no indication of how much HBWR they took. So I don't think we can have any reliable idea how many RC or HBWR seeds will effectively create the required amount of LSA for a chronic or episodic person, which I think is why Bob Wold has said that while he thinks LSA is probably more effective against CH than psilo, the problem is with getting the right dosage of LSA. All we know is that from experience most people who take 30, 35, or more seeds seem to have busting effects from that dosage, and many people who take less (as few as 10 or 20 in two cases I know of) also have effects. Because we generally have the goal -- or at least keep in mind the goal -- of helping people minimize tripping, we don't recommend that people should start with 90 or 100 RC seeds: A lower dose has consistently done the job for the vast majority of people (or at least starting at a lower dose has started the job; it seems most people go up from their first dose once they realize they're not gonna trip). I think we can typically guess pretty well when a dose has worked, after the fact, by the effects: often a good night's sleep, maybe some short-term decrease in attacks or severity of attacks, and some post-dose hits. (In tucker's case, he took 54 viable (float-tested) seeds and had fairly typical post-dose reactions. That's why I consider that his seeds were okay and he took enough of them. Now that he knows the effects, he may decide to go higher.) But as I'm reading all this (your post, Bob's, and others), I guess I'm wondering why it isn't just as good advice to say "An alternative to waiting five days is to wait three days and take a much bigger dose if you can handle it"? I'm just trying to be a good "citizen scientist" here. I know that some of us (including me) don't particularly like to have our preconceptions and traditional ways of doing things challenged, but that's the only way that science actually advances. "Wait five days" is the safe advice, but maybe it's not the best or only advice? Is that where this discussion is leading us?
  13. Gosh, I really need help understanding this advice, Jeff. At another thread, we just had a discussion about whether waiting four days might be okay, and the consensus was that taking seeds within 4 days might work, but it also might not work, and would then set you back considerably in your busting. I also recently posted advice I received from a top LSA/CH researcher (whose name many people would recognize but I don't feel comfortable giving here), who wrote to me >>Generally five days between successive administrations seems to be necessary.<< Here tucker used 54 viable seeds that, as I understand it, were fresh. He had very good results the first night. It was his first bust, as I understand it, so slapbacks are predictable, and that could be what he had last night (plus, it's just his first bust). Of course, it could be that his seeds were "weak," but 54 viable ones seems to me like enough to compensate for that, unless they were really, really weak. So far, he's managing okay with O2. Your advice is always good, Jeff. You have helped me and others a lot. I'm assuming that you have personally busted successfully waiting only two or three days between doses. If so, this seems like very important information . . . and I'm quite sure I've never read anything like it at this board. To help me (and maybe others) get smarter and give the best possible advice, can you say more about a 2-3 day wait?
  14. ginger tea and energy drinks help a lot of people with the shadows.
  15. welcome! i know you're not boasting here -- someone to advocate for you when you're suffering so much for so long is a great thing! stay in touch. (maybe start a new thread) i suspect that you have read these files, but if not, please do: "detox" and interactions: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290130731 seeds and preparation: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290128974
  16. mrsg, another one here with all fingers and toes crossed hoping that this is the beginning of the end of all you've been through. your O2 prescription ought to permit you to have more than one tank: ask your provider about that.
  17. nice going, tucker. nice gumption. here's hoping for a quick payoff.
  18. Many people use welder's oxygen. As you say, since that regulator doesn't register LPM, you just have to open the flow until your bag fills quickly between inhalations. Others have cautioned you about this, and they're right. Keep in mind also that busting is usually a process that can take a while. Three or four busts, each five days apart, is pretty common.
  19.  Purp, I admire how much you've dug into this and then shared your knowledge with others. As I was trying to figure out how to prepare RC (before I came to this site), I was reading all these scarily complicated extraction methods (using naptha and other chemicals) at the sites populated by recreational users. I pulled on some old college ties and contacted someone at a med school who I was told would know about these things from a research perspective. I told him I was thinking of trying an extraction with red wine, but that seemed so simple compared to those complicated methods that I wasn't sure it would work. He was wonderfully generous with his advice to me, and among what he wrote was the following: >>> A cold-water extraction is fine, since lysergic acids are quite water-soluble. There is a lot of misinformation on the topic of extraction.... Lysergic amides are water-soluble so an alcohol extraction shouldn't be necessary--but wine is close enough to water from a chemical standpoint that it's the same thing. There's endless debate about the number of seeds necessary, but my analysis found a ten-fold difference in LSA content from batch to batch, so it's impossible to predict how much LSA is in a given seed without trying it. Generally five days between successive administrations seems to be necessary.<<<< So that is the source of my "knowledge" about methods of extraction and time between doses. I'm sure he would agree with others here that the "science" of it is still imprecise and evolving. I had forgotten (this exchange took place in 2010) that he also discussed kudzu and LSA, which is a topic that was brought up recently in davidj's thread, but here's what he said (correctly, it seems) on that subject: >>>Kudzu seems to help intensity, frequency and duration of attacks, but doesn't affect period length. I suspect it's the estrogenic effects of kudzu that helps with cluster headache, and I'm unaware of any interaction with LSA (doesn't mean there ISN'T one of course).<<<
  20. i'm no expert. diltiazem, like verapamil, is a calcium channel blocker. (wikipedia says, >>>Its pharmacological activity is somewhat similar to verapamil.<<<) so, i think i would treat it like verap in terms of the D3 regimen. here's what batch has written about that: >>>in order to minimize a possible interaction with calcium that may limit verapamil effectiveness, separate the verapamil and calcium doses by at least 8 hours. Again, discus this regimen with your PCP, neurologist, or cardiologist to work out an optimum dosing schedule.<<< this is from this file: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1314134804 i believe there is some consensus here that busting can be effective, though maybe not completely effective, while taking verapamil. i assume the same would be true for diltiazem. maybe others know more about this.
  21. Mrsg, it sure hurts to see you still going through so much, so courageously. Really hoping for better from your next bust! Here's a link to the licorice root info: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1298659068 To be certain about the D3, you can read the details here if you haven't already: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1314134804 I know that some people have combined the two approaches (D3 and licorice root) with success. Just please be careful about the various warnings associated with them. Sending you intense PF wishes.
  22. Tucker, here are some sources for regulators. Most people, I think, would recommend that you get one that goes up to 25 lpm, but of course 15 might do it for you, as it does for many people. Some of these places will overnight them (in my experience, eBay doesn't). Be sure that you get one that fits your tank: there are two different types of connections! 15 lpm: http://www.tinashomecare.com/oxygen_therapy_oxygen_regulators.htm?gclid=CMP24tOb... 25 lpm regulator (I think you have to call or email them to order): http://www.lifegas.com/gas_devices_and_therapies/regulators%20and%20demand%20valves.asp 25 lpm regulator: http://www.madamedical.com/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MM&Category_Code=MOR Regular and higher-flow regulators: http://www.floteco2.com/htm/Products/Regulator/B-Regulators.htm eBay : http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&_nkw=medical+o... If you're using a tube rather than a mask because you prefer that, then this might not be crucial for you, but a lot of people swear by the O2ptimask, which was designed for people with CH: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/khxc/ Lots of people understand your hesitation about trying something new, having had their hopes raised and then dashed many, many times. But lots of people here have benefitted greatly from RC and would urge you to try it. These files will give you the basic information: Background: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290127865 Using RC: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290128974 "Detox": http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290130731 Here's a report of some LSA users' experience (different kind of seed; same active ingredient): http://www.maps.org/research/sewell_2008_aha_lsa_poster.pdf I think quite a few people here would also urge you to try the anti-inflammatory "vitamin D3" regimen that has helped a lot of folks: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1314134804 Or, if you meet the criteria, the licorice root protocol: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1298659068 As you get closer to taking the seeds, check back in. People wiser than me will help you along that path.
  23. purp, if you change "date" on the search engine at le monde from "depuis 7 jours" to "depuis 1 an," several articles show up, including the one in question.
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