KJosie

Hi Cheryl, In my experience, the treatment is the same. Although, we are..as the docs call us...A Typical. I, fortunately, was diagnosed by a well informed neurologist when I was 14 years old...and have been dealing with cluster headaches my whole life. Ive been told a number of times that I have migraines, even cluster migraines, by uninformed docs, to which I usually reply that they clearly do not know the difference between cluster headaches and migraines and refer them to my original doctor. The one thing that is different is if you are female and trying to have children. If the vitamin D regimen doesn't work, then there are decisions a woman would have to make versus a man. I was lucky to not have any cluster headaches while pregnant, which I read was actually common. Its not a bad thought, maybe there are other things Im not aware of that other woman have questions about or have had success with. All in all, what Batch has put together here has given me my life back...and has allowed me to have a child that I never thought would be possible since the only other treatment options were rather harsh medications.

Hello fellow clusterheads. Ive recently started getting cluster headache attacks after having them controlled for 5 years of taking Vitamin D. The first 3 years after I started the D regimen I was able to taper down to only 4,ooo IU of Vit D and had control of the headaches. After that I started getting attacks in the fall(which had changed from the episodic attacks I had every spring like clockwork) that I could manage by just increasing the Vitamin D to 10,000 for a few weeks then was able to taper down again to 4,000. A year and a half ago I had an episode that I had to go to the 50,000 loading dose, then taper down and again was able to control them. This year, I am struggling to control the attacks. I had accidentally stopped taking the vitamin D in August for almost 2 weeks when traveling. I started taking it after that but then started getting attacks about a month later(September 2018) that I have not been able to control. Initially I was taking 25,000 IU of Vitamin D and 1500 Fish oil, but the attacks got worse, now Im on the complete regimen, taking 25,000 IU of Vit D, 1500 mg Fish oil, 1000 mg Magnesium, and a multi vitamin for vitamin A and K. I've been on the 25,000 IU of Vitamin D and 1500mg of fish oil for 3 months. I started the magnesium and vit A and K about 3 weeks ago since I wasn't having success managing the attacks. Im still getting the headache attacks, 5 nights a week and about 4 days a week they carry on into the day. They were initially manageable with some aleve and excedrin migraine meds on top of the rest of the Vit D regemin, but that too seems to be loosing its effectiveness in aborting the headaches. Im just wondering do I continue to up the Vit D dose or should I start to consider going back on/trying Verapamil again. Any suggestions? I've had the headaches since I was 14(now 41) and the problem Ive always had was that after 2 years medications would no longer work to control the attacks. As most with these headaches know, its hell, especially when trying to work full time and take care of a 1 year old. Has any one else had the vitamin D lose it's effectiveness?