Antibiotics and a decrease in clusters.

[bridge]

Hi All,  been on the website for a longtime and finally decided to become a member.  I have had episodic clusters for 16 years.  My normal cycle up until this year has been every other year during the summer and lasting 6 weeks. 

I had been in a 3 year remission until this summer then the beast returned.  It has been a rough cycle more hits than previous cycles and much longer in weeks.  When my cycle didn't end after 6 weeks I just thought with such a long break maybe I would have a longer cycle. Then in week 7 I started to experience an all over headache that last all day and night.  It was your standard annoying throbbing headache.  I had the headache for 2 days but no clusters so I was irritated but still pleased.  I decided if the overall headache lasted more than 3 days I would make an appointment with my Doc.  Well, on the third day I woke with a periodontal abscess on the opposite of my cluster side.  That day I started taking Augmentin/Clavulanate 2x day for 10 days and my overall headache stopped with the first days dose.  Over the next 10 days I continued to have my daily shadows but the shadows were lighter.  I also experience only 2 clusters and I almost don't want to call them clusters they were so short and so weak I noted them as 0-1 in pain and the duration was barely 10 mins.  I just assumed I was coming out of what has become my longest cycle ever.  Not the case.  The day after my last Antibiotic dose I had 1 cluster, then the next day 2 clusters.  Well, now I'm in week 10 and still having clusters approximately every other day that seem to be ramping up.

Has anyone ever had an infection mess with their cycle? or notice a cluster decrease by taking antibiotics? 

 

 

[xxx]

Hey Bridge,

Interesting observation and great question.  Over the last 9 years providing outreach on the benefits of vitamin D3 at a minimum of 10,000 IU/day plus Omega-3 fish oil and the vitamin D3 cofactors as an effective CH preventative, we've discovered situations similar to yours.  We've found that infections (viral, bacterial and fungal), allergic reactions, trauma and surgery all contribute to an increase in the frequency, severity and duration of CH even when taking vitamin D3 at a dose of 10,000 IU/day.

Digging into the causality, it appears that any medical condition that triggers inflammation and activates the immune system, consumes serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D3 [25(OH)D3] rapidly frequently leaving too little serum 25(OH)D to prevent CH.  The best course of action for bacterial infections is to take an antibiotic.  The big problem in doing this is nearly all antibiotics are indiscriminate, so kill off the friendly colonies of bacteria living in our GI tract called the microbiome.  As the microbiome plays a key roll in our immune system, keeping it healthy is important.  Accordingly, we've found that it's best to start a course of probiotic ASAP after treatment with the antibiotic is complete.  We've also found that increasing the vitamin D3 dose in a range from 15,000 IU/day up to 25,000 IU/day elevates serum 25(OH)D sufficiently to counter most viral infections.  6 to 8 grams a day of vitamin C is also helpful in combating viral, bacterial and fungal infections.

Hope this helps explain your observation.

Take care and please keep us posted

V/R, Batch