CHfather

Welcome, M'! This overview post might give you an idea of the kinds of things that are dicussed here, including "busting" (covered at the end of the document): https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/ If you are not familiar with the Vitamin D regimen, be sure to look here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/1308-d3-regimen/. In general, it is recommended that you browse around the ClusterBuster Files section for topics of significance to you. Doctors have a valuable place in treatment, and if you have found a good one that's something to be thankful for. But there is a lot that patients know that most neurologists really don't know (it is shocking, for example, how many don't prescribe oxygen, and how many overprescribe triptans), so I think you'll find good answers to any questions you might have from the great people here.

BoscoPiko Congratulations to Bosco for a much-deserved new mod role!! Moderators

Are these relevant? I can't understand them well enough to know. https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12974-021-02229-5 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8682673/

Seconding Jeebs's observations: 1. You never really know about changing cycles. (But I guess I'd also mention that verapamil is one of those meds that you're supposed to taper down from when you're quitting. It doesn't sound like you did that. I don't think there's anything really known about the effects on CH of stopping abruptly, but if it has effects in other areas, I suppose that could affect CH, too. How much were you taking (and in what form: extended release or immediate release)?) 2. Most people here strongly prefer the D3 regimen over verapamil as a preventive -- more effective; better for you. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/1308-d3-regimen/ 3. If you haven't already, consider the alternative treatments used by many here, which you can read about by clicking on "New Users -- Please Read Here First" in the blue banner near the top of each page.

If you are stuck without an abortive, here are some things (taken from another document) that might help: Caffeine/taurine. For some people, caffeine alone can help to stop an attack or lessen the severity of the attack. Some folks keep strong coffee on hand for that purpose. Some folks use caffeine pills, and some people take taurine pills along with caffeine pills. They take those pills at the first hint of an attack, or a couple of hours before a predictable attack time. Many use energy beverages. Because some ingredient in energy beverages in addition to caffeine is believed to help with attacks (believed to be taurine), many people use those. I recommend energy shots (such as 5-Hour Energy) at first sign of an attack. Shots are quick to drink down and they have more caffeine than energy drinks, such as RedBull, that are much larger. Many people say the shots work best for them when they are as cold as possible. For many people, energy shots/drinks don’t keep them up even if they drink them at night. In addition to all the “standard” energy beverages, some people like “V-8+Energy” drinks. “Brain freeze.” You can drink ice water through a straw aimed at the roof of your mouth, with the objective of creating “brain freeze,” or hold something cold, such as frozen juice concentrate, against the roof of your mouth. Some people find that taking melatonin at bedtime helps (not wise to take both melatonin and Benadryl at night.). Melatonin is depleted in people with CH during their cycles. Some people find that it helps to supplement it. You could start with about 10mg, and go up or down as appropriate. Some people get into the high 20mgs, or even low 30s, before they reach a level that helps. Needless to say, you have to find what works without making you dysfunctionally groggy. Several people have reported that DMT is an excellent abortive for them. You can read more about that here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/7444-dmt-first-time-finding-an-effective-abortive/ Feet in very hot bathtub. There’s a theory that this moves blood from your head to other parts of your body. Some people find that putting their hands in very hot water also has an effect on attacks. People have reported that going from feet in a hot bathtub to a cool room and back to the hot bathtub helps the effect. Some people don’t just stand in a very hot bath but will sit or lay in the hot water. Ice packs help some people. Cold air. One study showed that inhaling cold air was nearly as effective as using oxygen. Air conditioning vents in the home or the car are good for this. If it’s cold outside where you are, you could try that. Vigorous exercise. Some people find that vigorous exercise (running; doing jumping jacks, etc.) will stop or slow down a CH attack. Lime/baking soda. One fellow said that this helped his attacks: the juice of a lime or two along with a teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of filtered (non-tap) water. Sex. 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.

Regarding 2 and 3, it's been my understanding that OUCH-UK is very helpful in all regards. https://ouchuk.org/. It's also my understanding that ClusterBusters board member Ainslie Course is a very helpful person. She is based in Glasgow and organized a European ClusterBusters conference this year and also will be hosting one next year. I see in one post that she can be reached at ainslie@clusterbusters.org.

Everyone in the study receive a dosage (adjusted for the person's weight) that I think amounted roughly to either one gram (one group) or .5 gram (a second group). Or placebo (third group). So it wasn't a matter of greater or lesser doses, just that the level of psychedelic experience that people had with roughly equal doses was not correlated with the amount of relief they got. Another interesting finding was that people with chronic CH did better in the study than people with episodic CH. Which seems weird overall, but even more weird considering the relatively small doses. (As you may know, the study did not show a statistically significant difference in relief between people who got psilo and people who got placebo. The numbers were slightly better for people who got psilo, but not at a level of statistical significance. Dr. Schindler has said that the number of participants in the study was too small to get valid results from it.) (I suppose I might cough up the $12 or something that is costs to read the whole thing, because I have about 200 questions. One of those, probably not explained or explainable, is that the standard was the number of attacks after receiving the dose (psilo or placebo). But if people were getting slapbacks from the psilo, which you have to imagine some were, that would be more attacks than the others would get from a placebo.)

It's possible that trjonas is still lurking here, but you might have better luck sending her a PM. I think you can do that by clicking here (her handle should be in the "To" line): https://clusterbusters.org/forums/profile/27423-trjonas/ If you feel like a neurologist is all you need to keep CH under control (maybe for an oxygen prescription, for example), that's fine. If you're interested in treatment methods you might not know about (or might not be doing quite right), please read around and feel free to ask questions.

You might want to send that question in a PM to Batch (whose handle here is xxx). Click on the envelope icon at the top right of the page and put xxx into the "To" line.

'Count, we can possibly offer advice if we know more about your experience, and we would surely welcome advice from you. If you click on "New Users -- Please Read Here First" in the blue banner at the top of any page, you'll get the essence of one thing, "busting," that is often recommended here, that you might not be familiar with. Also, clicking here will take you to another set of advice, the "vitamin D regimen," that might be new to you and that has helped many hundreds of people with CH: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/1308-d3-regimen/ People here can explore these things much more with you if you want. A more general advice overview is here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/ (The same information as the "New Users" tab material is listed at the end of this file.) It is probably pretty familiar to you, but maybe there's something new. It's all open to questions/discussion/your additional advice.

I guess I feel like it's potentially valuable to mention Dr. Schindler's finding from the Yale study of psilocybin and CH. I only have access to the summary information, and there might be more that I need to know, but the report (https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/head.14420) states: >>>Changes in cluster attack frequency were not correlated with the intensity of acute psychotropic effects during psilocybin administration. The separation of acute psychotropic effects and lasting therapeutic effects underscores the need for further investigation into the mechanism(s) of action of psilocybin in headache disorders.<<< I read this to mean either that any form of tripping is unrelated to treating CH, or that a lesser "trip" or psychedelic experience is just as likely to have therapeutic effects as a stronger experience. I think this has been pretty well understood here for a long time, and that in general trip-level doses are recommended not because they are therapeutic in themselves but principally because they ensure that a person has ingested enough psilocybin. (Whether a trip is necessary for other benefits, such as overall anxiety reduction and better overall sense of well-being, I don't know.) At the same time, I feel like seeds are possibly dismissed sometimes because there is no trip -- because it doesn't seem like a bold enough response to the horror of CH. And sometimes people are encouraged to "trip balls" or "see God" if lower doses aren't working. Neither of these approaches would seem to be consistent with what Schindler reports. (Of course, she could be wrong, and also, since the highest dose in her study was equivalent to about 1.25 grams, maybe the study's results would have been better if people had taken more (and correlatively probably had stronger trips).)

I believe Tom's handle here was actually ClusterHeadSurvivor. I tried to reach his blog, but it doesn't seem to be up anymore. The last post I see at his YouTube channel was nine months ago. talking about the success of his stem cell therapy for CH. It is kind of surprising how few DBSs there have been among people here, considering that articles about DBS sometimes describe it as "widely used," and there are still journal articles being written about it. This isn't really helpful, but I do remember one other person, from way way back, who said he had been "electrocuted" on a job site and eventually had DBS. (I think I remember him because he wrote "electricuted," which seemed like a better way to spell it.) On another side note, I was just looking at a 2017 journal article about DBS, and a letter a doctor wrote saying "Surgical intervention should not be considered for CH unless indomethacin was tried in adequate doses (225-300 mg) for adequate periods of time. [4] Very large doses may be necessary for treating patients with CH who tolerate medications much better than patients without CH. [4, 5] One patient with chronic CH showed complete response to indomethacin 150 mg three times a day." I'm not saying this prescription (Indo before DBS) is correct -- it's just that I think this is the first time I've read about high-dose Indomethacin as a possible treatment for CH.

With help from the moderators, I have revised the "extending imitrex" post in the CB files section to include a link to your post, @Mizagornhttps://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/2446-extending-imitrex/#comment-29960. Thank you!

I'm siding with THMH and Jeebs on this one. Jade333 has made valuable contributions for a few years, so it's not like some spammer who just showed up. The challenge in one post above -- >>if your dad really was a ch sufferer, I am sorry for him and you, if your story is true, but my red flags have raised too much suspicion here<< -- seems likely to be unwarranted, since Jade333 wrote about her father here as long as three years ago. And whatever the differences might be (or might be perceived to be) between Batch's development of the D3 regimen and this "quantum healing," the fact is that there was a time at this site when people who even mentioned D3 were attacked, and there was even a strongly worded admonition to stick only to busting in responding to people. I got some very nasty PMs back in those days for suggesting that people might give the D3 regimen a try. (And of course, the same, but perhaps moreso, regarding the reception that busting got at other sites (and still gets at some Facebook sites).) On the other hand, the heavily invested-in and "scientifically" researched CGRPs seem, at least from what has been posted here at this site, to be not just a disappointment, but maybe even downright contraindicated. I have no problem with the core concepts as described by Jade333 -- that "many ... health concerns have to do with some sort of trauma to the body"; and I'm willing to consider that "those with Cluster and Migraine issues have past life traumas that are not addressed that have carried over to this current life." Of course, not everyone will accept that. Plenty of effective healing modalities based on at least one of those precepts work fine. Maybe it's placebo, maybe it's "real." Keep in mind that one of the top CH researchers, Dr. Goadsby, once asserted that the effects of busting were probably just placebo effects. (I don't know what Goadsby's position is today.) People who don't accept the premises of quantum healing, or who don't like the use of the word "quantum," don't have to do it.

Racer might not have bragged on himself (I'm sure he didn't) to let you know that you got the right guy -- he's the one that ClusterBusters calls on to do the oxygen presentations at every annual conference (in addition to being a great human being). You might have also touched on these topics, but just in case: Have you read about the vitamin D3 regimen? It's a huge help to many hundreds of people. You should probably start it. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/1308-d3-regimen/ And if you haven't clicked on "New Users -- Please Read Here First" at the top of each page in the blue banner, it will help you understand why this site was founded and to see possible additions to your anti-CH arsenal. You will get that here -- and more. As the saying goes here, Sorry you have to be here but glad you found this place. It's too darn bad, though, that you are clearly overqualified to get the Fuster Cluckers gig.

Messaged received and answered. Of course, PMs are fine. But the subject of demand valves is so often discussed here, without a huge amount of clarity, that if this conversation might be public, we might all learn something from it. Again -- Not criticizing anyone. Keeping it as PMs is fine. But if there's info that could be shared, I for one would love to learn from it. On a different note, I will say that I have been watching a lot of Sherlock Holmes episodes on TV lately, and my powers of deduction have increased dramatically. So I am going to take a guess that you might be a musician, SHallMusician. If so, you should be auditioning for the Fuster Cluckers ensemble. @Bejeeber is the place to start, I think.

If you type DHE into the searh bar, you'll see a lot of reports. This one is from "Boston Headache Doc," (from 2014). As you may know, he is a physician who is strongly committed to patients with CH and to the ClusterBusters organization. "DHE 45 is dihydroergotamine, hence it is an ergotamine, but one with poor oral absorption. So it is given in other routes- as a nasal spray, under the skin (subcutaneous injection) or intravenously. There is even an inhalation product in late development. On occasion I admit patients to hospital for DHE intravenously every 8 hours for a few days- works in most people but often the attacks of cluster come back after the therapy. Can give patients a much needed break, emotionally useful, even if the break is only temporary. I also prescribe DHE vials, then come in packs of 10, and patients can inject under the skin- it is not that hard to do. Patients could use this as a once off abortive, or use it twice to three times a day for 48 hours to try and break the cycle. While you are on an ergotamine you should not be taking triptans however, and also not any other ergotamine derived substance (hmm). Those with known cardiac disease or peripheral vascular disease cannot use this treatment." [Back to me] From all I've read, and from what BHD says here, I think DHE is mostly effective as an abortive, but maybe it can give a short-tem break or in some cases break a cycle. I don't know how responsive BHD is to PMs, but I suppose it might be worth trying him to see what his more recent experience has been.

We can all be relieved that you don't prefer Cap'n Crunch.

It's been mentioned here before, from time to time. Glad it's helping you!!! (Though I'm not sure I'd abandon the D3 regimen.) Do you not have oxygen (you don't mention it)? I think if you click here you'll see the "search results" page showing times when peppermint oil has been mentioned. You can tell just from the overview that it has been used in several ways. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/search/?q="peppermint oil"&quick=1

My first thought reading the first paragraphs was hemicrania continua (HC). https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21538-hemicrania-continua It's a characteristic of HC, in contrast to CH, that oxygen doesn't work the way it does with CH (which I would say is true of what you are describing). Also, triptans typically don't work, either. But sometimes they work a little. There are several types of hemicrania. The good news, if you have a hemicrania, is that it is treatable with a medication, indomenthacin. In fact, that is the diagnostic test for hemicrania -- whether indomethacin successfully treats it. If you do have reason/opportunity to test Indo, be sure to look around the web for proper dosage. There are a lot of recommendations about that.

And here I was thinking it was a tribute to the great Flava Flav!

Some people like using just the breathing tube, without the mask. This video shows how to assemble the thing, and then shows him using it with just the tube. https://youtu.be/eX76JrEvNxE

In your first post you mentioned that you have had all-day headaches, with spikes. We kind of ignored that, but as you raise this I think you might want to consider the possibility that you might have a CH "lookalike" condition, some form of hemicrania. Hemicranias typically do not respond well to oxygen or triptans, but I gather that you have not really tried either one yet. You don't really fit into any of the specific hemicrania categories, but you can see the symptoms of one type here: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/hemicrania-continua#:~:text=What is hemicrania continua%3F,both sides of the head. It could be/is most likely that you have CH and you are experiencing what are called "shadows," but what you describe seems like it might be more than shadows. In the document I keep urging you to read -- https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/ -- there is a discussion of shadows and things you might do to alleviate them.

This is a way to make something that will work "like" a mask (in that it will hold O2 for you to breathe in, and then it will refill for the next breath). You might or might not want to try to whole process (hyperventilating with room air, etc.). It is recommended by Batch (whose handle here is xxx), and there are not many people here who know more than Batch does. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/4919-batchs-hyperventilation-red-neck-bag/ If you do it this way, be sure to squeeze the O2 out of the bag after you have stopped the attack.* You don't want a bag of O2 laying around. *Actually, you should keep using O2 for a few minutes after you have aborted the attack. It seems to help prevent subsequent attacks. You can do this last O2 breathing in a more relaxed way than you might have used to abort the attack.

Edited to say that this was posted at the same time as Bosco' was posting, and I hadn't seen responses to you on other threads, such as the one from spiny that Bosco' mentions. Maybe you've heard a lot of this already. Okay . . . Gotta ask this. First, what do you mean by "micro-dose"? Enough to have any kind of "trip" effects? Do you know the weight of the dose? Did you dose during an attack, near an attack, or at a time when you were having no attack and not expecting one? Are you using the triptans? You are getting results. That is definitely what matters. You might be aborting individual attacks (it's just not clear to me). Most people here use psychedelics as a preventive -- to end their CH cycle, not to stop individual attacks. If you read the material at the "New Users -- Please Read Here First" banner at the top of the page, you'll see the method that is used by most people here and strongly recommended -- significant doses (enough for some level of "trip" if you are using psilocybin or LSD) five days apart, with no triptan usage in between. The prevailing wisdom here is that if you take doses every day you will eventually run out of effectiveness because the receptors become blocked, and that if you use triptans, they will block the effects of busting. I underlined prevailing wisdom because, while those beliefs are like "policy" here (because they have proven highly effective over the course of 15 years), there are people who are not so sure. So you can continue what you are doing because it works (unless it's the sleeping outside that works, or your cycle us winding down, or you are early enough in the daily "microdosing" that nothing is blocked), or you can try it the recommended way. In the longer run, you are almost certainly going to want to do it that way. When you get your oxygen set up it will be easier to wait the five days between. Speaking of your oxygen setup . . . You have a regulator? And what kind of oxygen supplier would send a tank with no mask (and maybe no regulator)? It's okay that you bought your mask -- it's actually cheaper in the long run than "renting" it from the O2 supplier -- but unless your doctor wrote a weird prescription, it's practically malpractice for them not to give you a mask (the standard prescription says "with NRB" (for non-rebreather)). (I will also note that in the excellent video that Bosco' linked you to, the demonstrater is using a "demand valve," which is a different thing than a non-rebreather mask. It doesn't have a reservoir bag on it that empties and refills as you breathe. So you might look at this one, where he's also using a mask that is slightly different from what yours will be, but it has a bag so you can see how that part works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtFHRIQN17s Did you get big tanks, about three feet tall or more? I would urge you to read the file I linked you in my previous post. You really want to start the vitamin D regimen. There's a link to it in that file.