hemicranial continua and mushrooms

[I. M. Hurt]

I am self diagnosed HC.  I have been seeing a pain clinic but my treatment there has come to no results.  For a long time, I thought I had migraine, then cluster and now HC.  I have been keeping a pain diary for a couple of months and it stands out that I do have a dull headache most every day all day along with the spikes of 7/8 pain and an occasional 9.

My question is this:  Do mushrooms work for HC?  I am not really into taking script due to side effects I've studied. 

I love this forum = lots of good info here and I am researching mushrooms for perhaps my best option.

Thanks

I. M. Hurt

[FunGuy]

Hi IMH.

Glad you are enjoying the forum.  We don't' have enough experience with HC and mushrooms, so the answer is mabe?

However......

I cringe at self-diagnosis.  There are too many other things that cause headaches of any sort, it behooves you to get a proper evaluation, testing as indicated and a diagnosis. 

See Scott's thread here:

http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1305417199

HC is a strange condition and is usually very responsive to Indomethacin:

http://www.headaches.org/education/NHF_HeadLines_Excerpts/Case_Studies_in_Headache_Archive/CS_157

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hemicrania_continua/hemicrania_continua.htm

IMO, every person with headaches the resemble CH (HC, EPH, CPH, etc) should undergo a trial of indo as it is seldom helpful in CH but very effective in others that look like CH.

Nasty side effects but there are ways to deal with that.

Good luck

FG

[I. M. Hurt]

Thanks for supplying the links.  I will be reading more for sure.  I have been dealing with pain specialists hoping they could stop the headaches without medications.  But I have run out of options with them.  I have an appointment with a neurologist next week and hope to get a diagnosis then.  He will probably start me on indo and maybe verapamil.  But I do not want to stay on those medications over a long period of time.  I've been in cycle now since October with no sign of remission. 

Thanks for your interest and help.  I visit here every day. 

Be Well

IMH

[scottr1966]

IM Hurt,

Welcome to clusterbusters! I'm sorry you had to find us but I am so glad you did. First off, my advise to you would be to only take Indomethacin to begin with. You need to know if you will respond to it alone. Be careful of gastric side effects. This stuff is notorious for it. You may want to consider a prescription strength antacid to go along with it. You may want to titrate up slowly on it. However, you may be able to jump right in at a therapeutic dose which could range from 100 to 350mg, depending on your case. Everyone is different.  If you get relief from it, you may get an official diagnosis of HC. I assume it's a one sided headache? Sounds a lot like mine. I was diagnosed 19 months ago and have not really had a break. I did have a spontaneous remission for about 3 weeks in December but that's about it. I wake with around a 3 then it will dissipate. It will exacerbate throughout the morning and those exacerbations will become more intense late afternoon and more intense in the evening. It's a real bitch and I literally feel your pain.

I have made 3 solid attempts to bust since May 2010. I have not broken the headache but I have not given up hope. I am trying a new busting method. Check out my latest thread here:

http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1310693972/0#3

I am very, very interested in your case so please hang around and keep posting. If it turns out you have HC, you and I appear to be the only ones here.

This is a great site. You will find the warmest and most helpful people here. Please let us know what youe Nuero says.

By the way, have you tried Melatonin? See post.

Hang in there.

Scott