Ricardo

   Forgive me if some of this is repetitive, much of this has been posted on our Ketamine thread, but I felt like it deserved a thread of it's own. Ever since I ended up in the ER with a cluster and they gave me I.V. magnesium I have been interested in glutamate toxicity in the brain. I couldn't believe it actually worked. The doc told me it would help by relaxing the muscles in my head, After some research I think it may have actually helped by blocking glutmate toxicity in the brain, in other words by it's NMDA receptor antagonist properties.  I highly encourage people to try out intravenous magnesium instead of triptans or opiates if you end up at the ER, I'm inclined to think (assuming it works for you) that it would be less likely than other options to give you a rebound. Then again, trying to go into the ER and telling them what to give you is not always be easy So I'll start with a good article on glutamate that I came across from the Dana institute. It is mostly about head trauma and strokes, but it has a lot of good info on glutamate toxicity and some ideas on how to treat it. http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=7376  High levels of glutamate in peoples cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) have been found in chronic migraine and fibromyalgia, Chronic Daily Headache, and glutamate toxicity has been implicated in MS. As of yet I have not been able to find any info on glutamate CSF levels in cluster sufferers. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15315529 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12662182   Ketamine is one well known NMDA receptor antagonist, and in a study that the great Dr. Andrew Sewell posted on our Ketamine page just last week it shows that it has promise for migraines, paroxysmal hemicrania, Chronic Daily Headache, and clusters...Here's some of the study he cited...(check out the Ketamine thread for his full post) "IV ketamine resulted in substantial benefits in all patient groups. Among the refractory migraine group, 93% had greater than 50% reduction in pain intensity. All cluster headache patients had complete resolution of their ongoing cluster episodes (average of 6.4 days). Four of 4 paroxysmal hemicrania patients had complete resolution of headaches (average of 7 days). Sixty-eight percent of chronic daily headache patients and 80% of patients with headache and facial pain were reported to have more than 50% improvement in their pain patterns (exact definition of improvement not provided). Side effects of ketamine infusion included a transient sense of calmness and lightheadedness, experienced by 41% of patients. No patients fell asleep, became dysphoric, or experienced hallucinations. Investigators concluded that IV ketamine is safe and effective for the outpatient treatment of several refractory headache disorders."  Interesting enough, here's a link showing that "Glutamate may be implicated in triptan response mechanisms, triptans may work in part by reducing extracellular glutamate levels in the brain." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17578532 And....a whole bunch more sometime when I don't have to work... Anybody else out there have any ideas or thoughts on this? Anybody tried I.V. magnesium for their clusters? -Ricardo

Check out the old post with some salvia stories under "Share your busting stories" I bumped it up so it's a little easier to find

This definitely needed a bump! Good find Psiloscribe!

A pretty cool article by the great Albert Hoffman, get's a little technical at a couple points, but a good read. What I don't know is why this was posted on a "United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime" web site http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1971-01-01_1_page003.html

I have definitely found generic sumatriptan to not be as effective as brand name Imitrex, why I don't know. It seems like as much as people try to say they are essentially the same they are not. When I was having seizures and on Dilantin, I found out that I couldn't just switch from Dilantin to the generic Phenytoin, even Western Medicine admits you will most likely have a seizure because they are not quite the same med.

Here's a question a bet nobody can answer but I'll ask anyways...Does anyone know what Verapamil is doing that is supposed to help? I'm guessing it's not actually related to blood pressure, but more related to it's "calcium channel blocking " properties. What I'm really interested in is, are the calcium channel blocking properties happening in your brain? On another note, I am willing to listen to GOOD stories on verapamil too... -Ricardo

Please do! The more I think about it the more awesome that would be...If we could actually be looking at the molecular structures of drugs and be able to say "That's going to interefere with busting...." It could end up being very helpful for us. Right now I think everybody just guess's based on peoples experiences. Thanks Juster!

I wish! This year has been too crazy for me with work. (luckily in a good way) Next year it is a priority for me. Big Time.

Lots of smart folks here, but I bet you could get a whole lot more answers on Shroomery.org!

I've heard other people saying it makes abortives not as effective. Is this true? My biggest reason for not wanting to be on it is I have no-where near high blood pressure, I'm in the low normal range. I've talked to three docs about it. I was first saying that I was skeptical because I thought it would make me tired. My Doc said "blood pressure medications won't make you tired." I talked to a Neuro who agreed, saying the biggest problem I would probably have is constipation. Then I talked to a cardiologist who said I wouldn't have to worry about constipation because with my blood pressure he wouldn't want to put me on much of a dose--said it would make me too tired  Good thing Ricardo's got a sense of humor!

From everything I've read, There is no real consensus as to what DMT does in your body. If you have different evidence I would love to see it!  Never heard of this....Do you have any links showing this info? A few years back I had a good supply of DMT, I vaporized some close to 5 days a week for just about a year. First off, as I have said before, this is heavy duty medicine. It works, it works damn well, probably the best method for busting I've ever tried. BUT...taking a small dose really only made the pain lesson or subside for a bit, just to come back with a vengeance a couple hours later. To actually get rid of the complete pain and not see it come back that day I had to break through and go all out into the DMT experience. Not for the faint of heart.  The best way to explain it is that it's such a strong experience that just the anticipation of smoking it would get my heart pounding like nothing else I have ever experienced. Many times I would have the pipe ready to go, head pounding, knowing relief was just around the corner, and I STILL couldn't do it. I would have to put the pipe down, do some deep breathing and relaxation until I was able to deal again. Sometimes this took quite a while. At least once I was sure that I had ruined my brain and that I was going to be insane for life, thinking "There is no brain that can handle this!"  Anyone that really knows me and hears these stories gets the seriousness of this, because I have a hard head when it comes to psychedelics and I can usually deal with much higher levels of psychedelic intoxication than most-- not bragging, just the way my brain is. I personally have a good friend who has smoked DMT recreationally, and it has not done great things for him.  He was pretty well versed with LSD and psilocybin. He tried a small dose of DMT and liked it. Tried it a few more times at higher doses, (but still pretty light) and still liked it. He tried a heavy duty dose, about what I would usually use for busting a bad cluster and it did not do good things. He says he ended up hearing an amazing "Chatter" almost like people trying to yell something to you out the window as they drive by at a 70 MPH--He could never really make out real words or sayings. This would have been just a "not so great time" for him, but the real problem is that it took a LONG time to completely go away, At least a year. Not completely sure that it IS 100% gone. It definitely came out anytime he would eat mushrooms after that, and sometimes would just be coming out for no clear reason at all. I feel so glad for my friend that this has subsided for him, it was clearly affecting his life very negatively. Again, powerful medicine. Then, there's a weird thing where a good number of recreational users report getting a ridiculously bad headache the day after their DMT experience. I know a different person who experienced this personally. He said after smoking it every day for a week he experienced one of the worst headaches he has ever had--he says it would only go away if he smoked more. This makes me think about how many people feel that sumatriptan overuse can cause rebounds. Sumatriptan being a sulphonated version of DMT, it makes me wonder if DMT itself may give rebounds. My headaches don't seem to respond to much, so maybe others would have luck with smaller doses. Altogether I think DMT is one of the most amazing substances I have ever encountered. I have seen landscapes and met entities that were beyond my wildest dreams, I have scared myself to a point I didn't know possible, I have gone from a KIP 10 to completely pain free in a less than a minute, I have found magic, I have seen hell hounds, I have had a very friendly being sink a seed deep into the soft flesh under my tongue as a "gift". I would not hesitate to take it again for my clusters, and I would not ever recomend it to someone I did not know very well. Even then, I would say, go slowly, tread lightly, dose lightly, and ask every power in the universe for help, understanding and guidance.

I want em! I'm going to be venturing off to a new neurologist soon, and I KNOW he's gonna try and get me on it. I would love to hear everybody else's reasons (I have plenty of my own...) for not going on Verapamil.

A while back I had an acupuncturist recommend ginger for my headaches. He really felt that the amount of ginger I would need to eat would be way too ridiculous and advised ginger pills, lots. For the milder ones it seems like it works, only problem is I seem to build up tolerance to it. It'll work for a few days, then stop. I can easily tell the tolerance has set in when it stops making me sweat like crazy and I take a week off. Today I've taken 9 Ginger extract pills and 17 dried ginger pills (split into 2 doses, 1 in the morning and 1 at about 4. Seems like it's keeping the worst of it away, when I woke up I was sure I was gonna need some triptans....

Yeah, overheating is probably one of my biggest triggers. The only way I survived the heat wave in NC a month ago was to load up my hat with ice, worked damn well. Been looking for a nice Rasta hat since then, lots of room for ice!

I sent this out as a PM to a member, but on second thought it seems like a pretty common question that comes up on the board...And this is some of the best info I've found. http://forums.mycotopia.net/growing-mushrooms-outdoors-hunting-wild-shrooms/5429-outdoor-shroom-hunting.html Happy Hunting! -Ricardo

Been using the new chapter brand Ginger Force (supercritical CO2 ginger extract) and regular ginger pills lately for shadows with damn good results. (LOTS of them--usually taking 6 or 7 ginger force pills and 8 or 9 regular ginger pills, all at once) Only problem is it seems to work for a few days, then I must get tolerance to it, stops working so well. About 4 days off and it seems to be working again...This and a ridiculous amount of water seem to be my best friends lately...

I feel for you. I know how hard it is to deal with this when you're not getting the relief you need. It seems like you're on the right track, with the D regimen, the oxygen and trying to get off the narcotics. But if anyone knows how much it sucks to be going through all the motions and not get relief it's me, I really sympathize....If I didn't have my shrooms I would probably be a basket case (some people may feel I got there years ago  ) My advice...Forget about the wild shrooms, unless you're taking a trip somewhere warmer. The three species that shroomery mentions for your area are not very potent and hard to identify (although one seems really cool and grows in my area, the Gymnopolis Spectablis or "laughing Jim"--it somehow has kavalatone like chemicals in it besides the psilocybin-------I've been on the hunt for a while  ) So what can you do? Right away, I would take the steps to start growing them. In the meantime get some seeds. I'll send you a PM with my usual sources. Try the seeds soaked in water, if that doesn't help enough, try soaking them in cold Peppermint tea. That will turn the LSA into LSH, and unless it's placebo, it seems to help me more than the LSA. The biggest thing to remember, is that most of us were in really bad places when we joined this site. Even if you don't find your silver bullet for the beast, it seems like just being here and getting support has helped a lot of us. -Ricardo BTW--have you had your testosterone levels tested? It's a simple blood test that's helped some of us.

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Whereabouts do you live? Some places (like the northeast US where I live) just get too cold for the mushy's to live through the winter, but other areas, even in the US, are perfect. My friend who lives in Florida swears he regularly would collect trash bags full (literally!) off of manure in cow pastures...Seems like they would replenish themselves every day. A couple links that might help... http://www.shroomery.org/6235/Mushroom-Hunting-FAQ http://www.shroomery.org/8446/Getting-Started And maybe a little Edutainment...The Hunt for Wild Magic Mushrooms parts 1-4 Happy Hunting!

I was doing some reading about it and came across another strange article.... http://www.headachejournal.org/view/0/HeadacheExtra.html This one mentions this "headache tree" in passing, but then it goes on to talk about how micro-organisms that are being stirred up in the African Desert may be swirling around the globe and giving us migraines...I'll say it again...Friggin Weird....

Found a cool cluster site that I had never heard of...and they talk about a tree that can give you a cluster.  Friggin weird. http://www.clusterattack.com/blog/a-tree-that-causes-cluster-headache/

You just made my day Scott! That song was originally written by Mark Schimick, a member of Larry Keel and Natural Bridge. Hands down my favorite not-grateful dead music to listen to. They're the entire reason I went to NC. (Have to admit, I think I like Ralph Roddenbery's version of Take the Time better though) Here's a really good show of theirs from 2004 http://www.archive.org/details/lke2004-05-01flac16

I've had somewhat of that reaction, but only at really high doses. I would suggest some natural muscle relaxants, like lemon balm and skullcap next time you dose.

And there's always alternatives http://neurokuz.blogspot.com/2010/04/psilocybin-for-depression-are-shrooms.html

I'm usually more of a Deadhead, but when I saw this guy in NC he blew me away, big time. His name is Ralph Roddenbery out of Georgia, and he's a hell of a character and musician.