CHfather

Batch has made this recommendation: I buy the bulk powdered vitamin C in 2 lb jar as shown below and stir two level teaspoon measures (8 grams) in 12 oz of water. I drink a gulp of this solution every two hours throughout the day until it is gone by bedtime. This is the least expensive form of vitamin C at 3 to 4 cents/gram. The liposomal vitamin C costs 8 to 9 cents/gram.

Given all the circumstances, it seems very unlikely that this is the issue, but I think it's almost universally true that the anesthetic that dentists typically use, Xylocaine + epinephrine, triggers CH attacks. (It's the epinephrine that does it.) But, among other things, the attacks usually come on more quickly than what you're describing, and of course you've had many previous dental procedures so it seems very likely you would have had the X+e during one of them. I think your next procedure with this oral surgeon won't be for quite a while, but I suppose you could request a different anesthetic just in case.

A small (I hope) hijacking. I've been reading more about Dr. Graham, who first provided the "leonine" characterization. Just thought these quotes about women were worth mentioning. "It's a man's disease," says Dr. Graham, and women who are afflicted with cluster headache tend to "act mannishly." What's new on heads and their aches? (This article recounts a couple of 1977 talks about CH at a conference. On one hand, they're pretty cringeworthy, and on the other they at least show some folks trying to figure out what to do about CH. (CH was considered just a subdivision of migraine until the 1960s -- which, depending on your age, might seem like a long time ago or pretty recent.) (In 1960, 5% of medical students were women.)) This is from 2006. I think it still took a long time after that to really acknowledge that many women have CH (and many doctors still don't seem to know that), but she (the author) was trying, at least. "Cluster headache is a notoriously painful and dramatic disorder. Unlike other pain disorders, which tend to affect women, cluster headache is thought to predominantly affect men. Drawing on ethnography, interviews with headache researchers, and an analysis of the medical literature, this article describes how this epidemiological “fact”—which recent research suggests may be overstated—has become the central clue used by researchers who study cluster headache, fundamentally shaping how they identify and talk about the disorder. Cluster headache presents an extreme case of medicalized masculinity, magnifying the processes of gendering and bringing into relief features of the world whose routine operation we might otherwise overlook." Uncovering the Man in Medicine - Joanna Kempner, 2006

This could be the photo in the dictionary next to "leonine"!!

Well, sticking with the Salamanca traits, I suppose one might imagine that you would see more smoking in a group of people who are more anxious, impulsive, paranoid, and OCDish than others (For example, "Those with higher obsessive compulsive symptoms report greater motivation to smoke for negative reinforcement, sensorimotor behavioral-ritualistic, habit/automaticity, and stimulation reasons." Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Cigarette Smoking: An Initial Cross-Sectional Test of Mechanisms of Co-Occurrence - PMC)

Indeed. I only put up my cat avatar because there was some joking I wasn't getting enough likes, and cats were a theme among the more-highly-liked posters. Never had a cat; never wanted one. But then again, it's very relevant here to note that I don't have CH (my daughter does). So you might want to take my scores (responder #3) off the spreadsheet. In 1969, a fellow wrote about CH patients' "leonine" appearance," and in 1974, the great Dr. Kudrow "confirmed" that observation. PHYSICAL AND PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS IN CLUSTER HEADACHE, Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain | 10.1111/j.1526-4610.1974.hed1304197.x | DeepDyve Kudrow also said there that his male CH patients were on average almost six feet tall, which was about three inches taller than the average American male. Questionable as all that might be, there is this spooky-seeming thing from 2021: "Frontal Bone Height and Facial Width were able to discriminate, one independently from the other, CH patients from Healthy Controls with an overall accuracy of 77.00%." (PDF) Can Craniometry Play a Role in Cluster Headache Diagnosis? A Pilot Exploratory TC-3D Based Study Well, I took the Salamanca test. As you say, it seems to leave a lot to be desired. For one thing, the questions/items on the survey do not seem to be well correlated with the actual traits they are supposed to be measuring. I'm guessing that there are two questions per category (there are 11 categories), and you get one point for "sometimes," two for "frequently," and three for "always." (The actual line between "sometimes" and "frequently" seems much blurrier to me than the line between "frequently" and "always.") My top three traits were schizoid, anancastic, and paranoid, all of which are in the CH top six. I also got the same score for "anxious" (also in their CH top six) as I did for anancastic, but somehow they decided that anancastic was in my top three but anxious wasn't. I have to say that by the "normal" definitions of these terms, I am not an anxious or paranoid person. So my four top answers were all in the six most common ones for people who actually have CH. No idea what that might mean about the validity of the findings/instrument.

It's a fascinating topic, but I am also strongly with you on this, Bosco'. I guess people would have to think about whether they have always had the identified traits. (Once after 18 months of severe back pain, my GP sent me to a pain management guy, who was also a psychiatrist. He administered a personality test (Minnesota Multiphasic) that among other things asked about pain frequency, intensity, and expectation of relief. The doc solemnly told me that I seemed to have a predisposition for hypochondria. I am a calm and polite person, but I lost it at that.)

You don't have to go that far away. We haven't seen the sun in Chicago for months.

FDA Approves Auto-Injector for Migraine, Cluster Headache | MedPage Today It says, "DHE can relieve pain associated with cluster headache attacks, particularly when administered intravenously." Of course, this is not an IV autoinjector.

You know to tell the dentist not to use epinephrine, I hope. It's a big trigger for many people. (As I understand it, it's added to Xylocaine because the epi reduces bleeding, so the actual anesthetic to avoid is Xylocaine+epinephrine.) This is from a post somewhere else: "Anesthetics containing epinephrine (such as Xylocaine) and nitrous oxide have been identified by some people as triggers. Ask your dentist to use something else: Prilocaine seems not to cause bad effects. Another person has mentioned carbocaine as an anesthetic that didn't trigger his CH."

DMT experiences and advice - Theory & Implementation - ClusterBusters

D3 regimen - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters

Welcome, eric'. You might find this post helpful for an overview of things related to CH. Basic non-busting information - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters At the end of the post there is core information about "busting," which is the reason this site was created. Of course, nothing beats interaction and direct answers to your specific questions, but that post might have some useful information in it.

That is a very nice article!!!!!! My only wish, small in the context of how good the article is, is that RC seeds could get a mention in these kinds of stories. A discussion of them being generally legal to purchase and possess, highly effective, and generally tripless, would be very valuable for those folks who think MM would be too much for them, or too risky for them.

People! Your worlds are way too small. Cooking Tarantula with Unique Style and Delicious Eating | Cooking Special Insects

Wait . . . You mean everyone doesn't already do that?

This is unrelated, except that taurine is involved. I post it here only because I just read it tonight, and thought it was fascinating, and taurine gives me the excuse. From What It's Like to be a Bird (great book!): "Chickadees mostly bring caterpillars to their newly hatched nestlings (they can collect over a thousand in a day), but for the first week or so after hatching the adults make special efforts to seek out spiders to feed their young. Spiders provide the nutrient taurine, which is essential for brain development and other functions."

Here's someone talking about a dose of 2000mg taurine to abort attacks. Taurine to stop onset of Cluster Headache - General Board - ClusterBusters It's hard to tell how much taurine is in a 5-Hour Energy shot, but one place lists it as roughly 480mg. An 8-ounce Red Bull is said to have 1000mg of taurine. This is another discussion of taurine: Taurine Supplements - General Board - ClusterBusters If you put taurine into the search bar at the top right of any page, you'll see quite a few entries, of which some might be helpful, although most don't mention specific dosages.

I can't imagine that anyone here will be able to help you find Imigran in Namibia, but maybe I'm wrong. If you do get them, be sure that you/your dad split them so he gets more use from them: Getting partial doses from sumatriptan injectors (Imitrex, Imigran, etc.) - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters The nasal spray, called Zomig, is similarly effective. There is also a sumatriptan nasal spray. This website says you can get that nasal spray "no questions asked." Is that true? Is the stuff reliable? Will they ship to you? I don't know the answers to any of those. Sumatriptan - Nasal Spray Oxygen is very effective at stopping attacks. Can you get that? Could you set up a system using welding oxygen? Notes about welding O2 - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters DMT has been found to be a very effective abortive. Do you have any chance of getting (or making) that? DMT experiences and advice - Theory & Implementation - ClusterBusters

Tommy', glad you got that answer from Jeebs, which is the same as what I would have said -- probably not, but I'm no expert -- and he actually did some work on your behalf, which I didn't. Hope it all goes well!!

I've been to a few new dentists/oral surgeons lately. They give me a big form to fill out asking whether I now have or have ever had any of a whole lot of medical conditions. Of course, CH is not on the list. I have been urging them to add it, or ask about it, since they could save people a lot of misery by not using epinephrine with patients who have CH. Will they do that? Probably not. But unlike virtually all of the conditions that the form does ask about, knowing that a patient has CH could actually matter. Just recommending that maybe you do the same with your existing dentist or any new ones.

lovely. thank you for checking in.

This is what Batch has written about testing: "You will need to see your PCP/GP for lab assays of your serum 25(OH)D3, calcium and PTH. Adjust the vitamin D3 dose to keep the PTH serm concentration between 20 and 14 pg/mL and still keep the calcium serum concentration within its normal reference range to obtain the maximum therapeutic effect. Once at a stable vitamin D3 dose, annual labs are sufficient. It’s important to drink 2.5 liters of water during the 24 hours prior to the blood draw for your labs. Once you’ve established a vitamin D3 maintenance dose that keeps you CH pain-free, an annual set of assays is sufficient." There is more information about why these tests matter at Cluster and Migraine headache treatment protocol - Sept 2023 | VitaminDWiki

Some people find that staying on the O2 for five minutes or more after the attack has been stopped can hold off future attacks. Others don't find that it helps. Worth trying if you aren't already. Just to confirm that you know about this: Getting partial doses from sumatriptan injectors (Imitrex, Imigran, etc.) - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters And this: D3 regimen - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters

@Drew28, you're not actually the first person here to report that some form of sex helps abort attacks. As I wrote in a post a few years ago, "Some people have reported that sex stops their attacks. Other people have been amazed that it’s even possible to consider sex during an attack." As jon' says, oxygen will get you the same results more reliably, if not maybe as enjoyably. With your relatively infrequent and relatively short-lasting cycles, though, I can see that maybe you would just go with what gets you off through them, but on the other hand (so to speak) you did do that vegan thing, so I'd suggest that you look over this document and consider what might be helpful. The D3 seems like a no-brainer for long-term effectiveness, and oxygen maybe for aborts. Basic non-busting information - ClusterBuster Files - ClusterBusters