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Well I went and looked at what 'ol Doc Mercola days about Omega 3 sources and I'm pasting it in here (for me to actually post something on the internet advocating animal source Omega 3's says something about how serious I consider CH to be!): "Why Animal-Based Omega-3? There are both plant and animal sources for omega-3 fats, and there are differences between them. All have different ratios of three important omega-3 fatty acids—ALA, EPA and DHA. DHA is the most important for your brain. EPA is also required by your brain, but in smaller amounts. Plant-based omega-3 sources like flax, hemp and chia seeds are high in ALA, but low in EPA and DHA. Although ALA is an essential nutrient, the key point to remember is that the conversion of ALA to the far more essential EPA and DHA is typically quite inhibited by impaired delta 6 desaturase, an enzyme necessary for you to convert the ALA into the longer chain EPA and DHA. Because of this, it is important to include animal-based sources of omega-3 fats, such as krill oil, in your diet."

Congrats from me too on the end of the cycle! I do go for the flax oil which is known to be loaded with Omega 3s and is good for general health in 1,000.7 ways. There may be some reason that Omegs 3's in fish oil are considered by some to be more bio-available or something than flax. I think the outspoken Dr. Mercola super self promoter and supplement seller guy may claim this to be the case, but his general credibility isn't necessarily entirely intact IMO.

Hi Anthony, I used the IamShaman site, and it was totally satisfactory, and easy. They got to me in 3 days and they did followup and tracking ...(Painless). We got enough pain. I started w/ 35 seeds crushed and soaked in Peppermint Tea for 3 hours, but like Lt.2 said don't smell it and do your best to just throw it all back in one gulp, YEEEUUUCCCKKK. Didn't do any "tripping" or feel anything other than normal, slept pretty good that night w/ only a real early morning small hit @ 5:30ish the next morning. I will post later after a few days with some results. Dave

I just dosed using peppermint tea to soak the seeds. Wow...that helped a lot!

I used 50 seeds last night and soaked them in cooled peppermint tea as CH Father suggested in another thread. MUCH more intense effects ( tripping a little, but was asleep so more like really strange dreams). The taste was much less harsh than when I have soaked them in wine ( red and white). Something to consider if for whatever reason you don't like the water method. Just have to use fewer seeds from what I have read.

The most luck I had with the flavor is Peppermint Tea, which supposedly could increase the effect. It might be... hard to tell. I let it steep in COLD tea (let it cool down for an hour) then stir / inhale / hold breath / chug / add a bit of water to get the remaining sludge / chug / wash mouth out with water (even a piece or two of a seed left where I can taste it bring on the heaves) / exhale. Whole process is about 20 seconds. Typically follow up with a strong citrus drink like OJ or grapefruit juice, again sloshing it around the mouth to get any last bit out.Â

I use lemon juice right now and it doesn't do much for me. I'll try the peppermint extract.

A few drops of peppermint extract works wonders with the taste. Jeff

Yes. I am, in fact, wrapping the container with the water and seeds in aluminium foil to keep light out and keeping it in the fridge to keep it cool. I'm not sure where I read it, but I do remember someone saying the crushed seeds lose some potency if exposed to too much light. On an update-y note: third attempt, 75 seeds this time, soaked in water for several hours and then mixed with peppermint tea. Nothing. Not a hint of an effect either way. I'm going to try again in 5 days' time, this time with 100 seeds. Good thing I ordered enough to last for a few attempts!

So, yeah. Second try, 50 seeds with the peppermint solution, as the message seemed to be that that would enhance the effectivess. Still no luck. Not a lick of difference to the nightly attacks, nothing. I want to exhaust my options with the RC seeds before I try the mushrooms, primarily because I have no idea where to get them. Should I try again with a significantly higher dosage? I kind of suspected this would be the result, what with my chemical resistance to everything ever, but it's still a little disheartening to finally cave and try something I've been skeptical to because of the murky legality and all, only for there not to be a flicker of relief. At this rate, I may end up having to go sniffing around in the nearby forests, hills and such for fungal remedies.

As it happens, I do have some peppermint tea. Or rather, it's green tea with peppermint -- will that do? If not, I'm sure it's possible to get some actual peppermint tea from somewhere nearby. I really want this thing to work, I'm a little wary of trying the 'harder' stuff, like mushrooms. Hallucinations really aren't my cup of tea.

Yes, D3 not B2, that's what trying to read and comprehend with an axe in the head will do for you. At school we have a simulation lab but unfortunately no actual O2, and in any health care setting I would be involved in it is a physician prescribed item so taking a sample at this point in my career could be dangerous. I hear the advice to go that route and I think I may know of an option to obtain an O2 tank. I would like to say one thing about O2, and this may be preaching to the choir, but the use of supplemental O2 is not without risks for certain people. If a person suffers from certain chronic lung diseases they may have a hypoxic drive. Translated, their dependency to breath is driven by O2 levels decreasing. Whereas the normal driver is CO2 levels. Thus, high flow O2 can shut down their breathing mechanism. I have personally witnessed this when O2 was accidentally set at too high a rate in hospital. In the clinical setting someone suffering from COPD will be placed on O2, but only at 2 lpm via nasal cannula. I do hope to be a voice for people suffering CH, and as you say, I may be in the position to someday suggest treatment that can alleviate this pain. One question, is flax seed oil with omega-3 equal to fish oils?

Thank God for CHfather - the peppermint thing is really worth trying IMO, but I had forgotten about it. :-[

As others have said before me, at least until you decide that busting is worth it I can't imagine why you wouldn't try the simple, inexpensive vitamin D3 protocol that has helped many people quickly and also lastingly. Take about 10,000 international units per day of vitamin D3, taken with food; 2 or 3 calcium citrate tablets per day, with or without food (these tablets should also contain magnesium and zinc); and 2,000-4,000 mg per day of Omega 3 fish oil, with food. And two glasses of lemonade or limeade per day with meals. Many people start getting significant relief very quickly. The levels I listed above are the "default" levels--you might wish to adjust according to your own tolerance. These are not "megadoses"--all are within standard recommended daily allowances except the D3, which is high but not inordinately so. To read a great deal more about the D3 regimen, you could wade through the following thread: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291969416/0

Thoro, Here (below) is something Ricardo posted recently at another thread about seeds no longer working. In a later post he said, >>One important thing to remember is to let the peppermint tea cool down to at least room temperature before adding the seeds....Both LSA and LSH are supposed to be sensitive to heat.<< Can't vouch for this myself . . . Professor_Tanaka tried it recently but hasn't posted about the results, except to say >>Peppermint + RC == definitely something different, imo.<< Ricardo posted: >>>The real thing I want to throw out there though, is something I've said over and over and kinda surprised no one else seems to have tried it. Once you seem to be getting tolerance to the seeds, get a new batch, grind em up and soak them in cold peppermint tea for a few hours. The peppermint tea is high in acetaldehyde, and according to our good friend (and my avatar) Albert Hoffman, the combination of LSA and acetaldehyde will make LSH--Which he said at low doses is indistinguishable from LSD. Higher doses tend to give some people anxiety so I would start with a small amount and work you're way up (especially if you are an axious person to start with, I am not, and have taken damn high doses without any anxiety) I can not attest to the chemistry behind all this, but what I can say is that it is a different drug (LSA makes me sleepy and kinda narcoticized, This stuff definitely did not make me sleepy--if anything got a slight stimulant effect from it, and it kept me up for 12 hours) and it seems to help my headaches.<<<

1. Are you: A. Chronic 2. With the understanding that there are many factors affecting CH, do you feel that the D3 regimen: C. Helped with the severity of your headaches but didnÂ’t eliminate them. D. Helped with the frequency of your headaches but didnÂ’t eliminate them. 3. If you experienced positive results, how long were you on the D3 regimen before you experienced them? I have been chronic for 3 years, I tried in Oct / 2010 with d3 fish oil, and calcium, but it had no effect. This time with d3, fish oil, calcium citrate with magnesium and zinc and lemonade it worked. It took a month before I saw any results. I am going on four weeks mostly pf, I still get one weekly hit (1-2 kp) in the evening, but it's dull and a short lived ch, not the ice pick in the eye, and no ch the next day. I know I still have ch and it can hit me any time, I have and will use the knowledge here at CB to help fight it. holding on for change , peace

We are very interested in your experience with the vitamin D3 regimen. If you would take a couple of minutes to answer the questions here, it would be much appreciated, and helpful to others with CH. You can post your answers here (cut and paste questions) or PM them to me or to CHFather. Thank you! To make this survey reliable, we would like to hear from you only if you tested the whole basic D3 regimen: something each day in the ranges of 10,000 International Units of vitamin D3; several calcium citrate tablets; and 3-5 mg. of Omega-3 fish oil. (We’re considering the lemonade/limeade to be optional.) We are just as interested in hearing from you if the D3 didn’t work as we are if it did. 1. Are you: A. Chronic B. Episodic 2. With the understanding that there are many factors affecting CH, do you feel that the D3 regimen: A. Did nothing or nearly nothing for you. B. Eliminated your headaches. C. Helped with the severity of your headaches but didn’t eliminate them. D. Helped with the frequency of your headaches but didn’t eliminate them. E. Seemed to help for a while but then stopped showing anything positive. If this is true for you, how long did this improvement last before stopping? 3. If you experienced positive results, how long were you on the D3 regimen before you experienced them? Thank you very much Bob

Hello everyone. I have been away for a while but was made aware of this post. I have to take Dougs back on this one. I too have noticed newbies getting advice in licorice tincture every time one jumped on the board. Fish this and vitamin that.....FECK ...I thought to myself. I'm glad that when I found this board and the great people here, it wasn't convoluted with everything just short of snake oil in my most humble opinion. I have never mentioned it because I felt it was not my place to do so. That's what moderators do...other than remind me of what kind of soap to use when washing my mouth out. ;D I appreciate the time people take to try to help complete strangers...so who am I to judge. This board should stay true to it's roots and promote the use of hallucinogens and oxygen. That's what saved my life and that's what I try to focus on. ...other than Rons bulges from time to time in order to keep things from being so negative. People like me know that sometimes laughter is indeed the best medicine. Going from suicidal thoughts to cracking a smile is a big swing and my secondary mission I suppose. cHF...you are the best among us and I always look forward to reading your posts. This has nothing to do with you for damn sure. You always promote the use of both of the things that saved me and your daughter. Nothing but love for you man. We know what works. Let's all be cool and promote what is tried and true. I am going on my fourth PF month. From CCH to PF. FekinA Dan

Hey Rob, Since this D3 regimen originated over at the ch.com message board I imagine you'll get maximum replies there, but meantime I'm copying some stuff from over there as I think it may shed some light on the subject: "....regimen consists of the following: 2000-3000mg. Omega 3 fish Oil 10,000 I.U. vitamin D3 500 mg. Calcium (two calcium citrate tablets formulated with 800 mg. vitamin D3, 80 mg. magnesium and 10 mg. zinc. You can take the above all at once in the am or pm and try to wash it down with lemonade or limeade for the first week..... ......Calcium citrate and the citric acid from the lemonade combine in the stomach to form a buffer that should elevate your arterial pH to the upper end of the normal range. This will help stimulate vasoconstriction and that should help make the CH triggering mechanism less effective."

Thanks again for everyone's feedback over the past month. As some of you know I have had a lot of success with the Licorice process. I am off of it now. I have had HA's but there are less and they are not as bad as they used to be. I want to slay the beast so I have started the D3 regime. I am taking 10,600 I.U.s of D3, 3,000mg of Omega 3 fish oil, 500mg of Calcium Citrate (has zinc and magnesium in it). I am washing it down with lemonade. I started on Monday (PF). Last night I had a slight HA and still have it this morning. My question is, do you take all of the supplements at one time? Do you take part of them at different times of the day. How much and when should I be drinking the lemonade? Thanks for the help. Rob

I'm fairly certain D3 and licorice tinct are responsible for breaking my cycle. I was on the downward half of my cycle but still getting 3 attacks per night and no indication of it improving. Then after 2 days on this treatment I suddenly slept through the night with no pain. I still wake up with a very mild feeling (rather than pain) in my eye, which goes on it's own after an hour or two. Here is the routine I tried: I had detoxed from all other meds. Only using O2. D3 liquid from http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=3545&prodid=4014&cid=163&sid=0 DHA from http://www.detoxyourworld.com/acatalog/omega_zen.html Licorice tincture from http://shop.napiers.net/liquorice-root-tincture-100ml-p-472.html?zenid=7a1b25fa75d77d564a5fbb9f5503ac42 Day 1: 2000 IU of D3 and 600 mg DHA taken with evening meal That night was the same as usual, 3 attacks, perhaps pain even a little bit worse Day 2: cup of black coffee with slice of lemon and sugar in the morning, 2 x 2000 IU of D3 with meals, 1800 mg of DHA spread over the day, 3 x 3ml licorice tincture That night slept through, pain free, woke with slight shadow. Day 3: upped D3 to a total daily dose of 6000 IU, the other components were same as yesterday That night slept through, pain free, woke with shadow but even milder than previous day. Also seems that rainy weather doesn't make me feel as yucky as it used to while taking these. I know the beast could have been due to leave on it's own but would not have expected it to suddenly go from 3 attacks down to zero! The licorice tincture is 40% ABV but in 3ml doses it doesn't trigger anything. It tastes pretty good too! :-) Not sure if the DHA helps but don't want to stop it yet just in case. The DHA I take is from a vegan source and so the components of DHA in it per mg are much higher than if you were taking fish oil (not diluted with other fats). So if you are using fish oil you might need more of it.

Makes sense that we don't want to duplicate the same discussions from CH.com. Would it be better to direct questions on Licorich, Fish oil, Vit-D, or ther detox methods etc to a single location, and keep the discussions here 'busting' related? Oxygen is a tuffy as I personally almost deem that a requirement with busting. (Any poor soul out there w/o Oxygen I feel sad for) Jeff

Looks and smells like snake oil. Potter

Hi Rod, I've heard some say that busting can be possible while on verapamil, but I'm not an expert on that, not recommending it, just kinda trying to bring it up as a discussion point here. Of course what I'd really hope (but not go so far as to assume) is that you could get some prevention with the D3, and I'll just add that personally I'm going for 15,000 IU per day, which I think is reasonable. I'm going to quote the eminently quotable CHfather right now, because the D3 protocol sounds like a no brainer (or a no pain brainer? ) for you to try: "I'd urge you to consider beginning right now the simple, inexpensive vitamin D3 protocol that has helped many, many people quickly and also lastingly. Take about 10,000 international units per day of vitamin D3, taken with food; 2 or 3 calcium citrate tablets per day, with or without food (ideally, these tablets should also contain magnesium and zinc); and 3,000-5,000 mg per day of Omega 3 fish oil, with food. You can find these ingredients in a pharmacy or drug store. Many people find that a glass or two of lemonade or limeade per day with meals increases the effectiveness. Many people start getting significant relief within a day or two. The levels I listed above are the "default" levels--you might wish to adjust according to your own tolerance. These are not "megadoses"--all are within standard recommended daily allowances except the D3, which is high but not inordinately so. To read a great deal more about the D3 regimen, you could wade through the following thread:" http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291969416/0

Sorry, snuffy, but it definitely sounds like your doctor isn't wrong. But folks here have learned to manage this thing and make it a whole lot less terrifying. Plus, you picked a good time to get CH (), because a reliable treatment of some sort, whether it's BOL-148 or a chip implant or some other amazing product of modern science, is right on the horizon, and also because people with CH have developed some treatments that work very, very well. Thank goodness, too, that you had a competent doctor who recognized CH right away. As you may have read here, so many people have been misdiagnosed and mistreated for so many years, with so much related, unnecessary suffering. On to some things you can do . . .  Your doctor prescribed oxygen, I hope. It's the essential first-line abortive. If s/he didn't give you such a prescription, that's the very first thing you want to address. More info here: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299901790 You might already have read that quickly drinking a RedBull or Monster or some other energy drink at the onset of a cluster headache can stop them or keep them from getting worse. I strongly recommend that you begin either the simple, inexpensive vitamin D3 protocol that has helped many, many people quickly and also lastingly, or the licorice root treatment that also has proven very beneficial for many. Regarding the D3: You take about 10,000 international units per day of vitamin D3, taken with food; 2 or 3 calcium citrate tablets per day, with or without food (ideally, these tablets should also contain magnesium and zinc); and 3,000-5,000 mg per day of Omega 3 fish oil, with food. That's it, except that many people find that a glass or two of lemonade or limeade per day with meals increases the effectiveness. Many people start getting significant relief within a day or two. The levels I listed above are the "default" levels--you might wish to adjust according to your own tolerance. These are not "megadoses"--all are within standard recommended daily allowances except the D3, which is high but not inordinately so. To read a great deal more about the D3 regimen, you could wade through the following thread: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291969416/0  The discussion board where that thread is posted is a very good source of "non-busting" information. You can read about the licorice root method here: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1298659068 If you can't use the "busting" method, then you can't -- and I think the other things I've listed here will surely keep your CH in check for now, or even permanently. But it's kind of too bad that you can't bust, because with no history of taking the kinds of pharmaceutical drugs that impede busting you'd probably get very good results from it. As is often said here, if the ingredients used for busting weren't unlawful (in varying degrees) it would surely be the first recommended form of treatment (after or along with oxygen) for CH. Excellent outcomes, no side effects. People here have lots of other tips for coping with CH (for example, know what your "triggers" are -- alcohol, chocolate, and heat being some typical ones). Let us know what you're doing and how it's working and you'll get more advice.