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Topic: Magnesium (Read 696 times) |
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General_Cluster
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I hope this helps someone:
I take Magnesium Oxide 400mg one or two tabs a day and 800mg as soon as I know a shadow is materializing into the real deal. I had some success with Verapamil 240 four times daily and Depakote 1000 twice a day but the side effects got to me. I can usually abort with Immitrex subcu inj but its expensive and my insurer limits what you can get for 'migraines' (not FDA approved for clusters). I use 100% O2 with a rebreather mask and that helps if I get on it right away when I know the real deal is coming.
I am one of you and I belong here.
My severity, frequency of HA's and duration of clusters went down bigtime when I started the Magnesium and stuck with it. I am now in the longest cluster free interval I've had in 5 years (6 months and running) and keeping my fingers crossed. If I forget to take my Magnesium on a regular basis (thinking maybe I'm normal again? ha ha) I start to shadow and I run for the Magnesium bottle.
My point is this: I know there's likely nothing that works well for everyone and just when you think you hit on something great (coincidentally most often) you get a nasty dose of reality like a brick in the head and then its back to the drawing board. Don't give up.
If you haven't tried Magnesium and kept taking it for at least 4 weeks then please do yourself a favor and go to your local pharmacy or health supply store and drop a few bucks on it and give it a try. You really have nothing to lose. Just my 2 cents.
GC
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Barry_T_Coles
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Re: Magnesium
« Reply #1 on: Oct 28th, 2006, 1:05am » |
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Hi GC
Welcome and glad your getting some relief.
Magnesium has been used by a few people here with varying results; the one problem with magnesium is that it’s not readily absorbed by the body and needs a promoter to metabolize to the full extent.
I started a trial initially with Taurine after reading of the good results people were getting with Red Bull to abort low level hits; after a couple of weeks on 26 April 06 I added Magnesium to the mix and agree with you that it takes about 4 weeks to get some sort of change, I have been recording my results in a blog that I will attach to the bottom of this post, after 4 months I got my biggest break since going chronic in 2004 39 days straight without a hit but still shadowing to varying degrees, I then had two low level hits in the one day and now I'm currently on 26 days free with no hits so far and hoping to break the last record.
After about 3 months I added Zink @ every three days.
My regime is Taurine 500mg & Magnesium 500mg three times a day at meal time and Zinc 25mg every third day.
My thought at the moment on this is that the regime may not work for episodic’s and may not work for all chronics but is working for me, I wouldn’t discourage episodic’s from giving it a try but I suspect that they would have to start 2 to 4 months prior to knowing that they are going to come into cycle.
I have been doing a lot of online research into Taurine and finding some interesting info about it, when I have a reasonable handle on what I find I will post my thoughts.
Regards
Barry
http://au.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-oT2JJXMzerQyQBygCRv3YiMCJuzW
I just copied this post from Garry's Girl across from the Medications Treatments & Therapies area as an addition.
If you're going to take magnesium, please include calcium supplements as well. They work together - and without the calcium, magnesium often creates diarrhea.
Also there is a warning about taking Taurine with verapamil:
"CAUTION: Taurine should not be taken if you are currently on a prescription for Verapamil or any other calcium channel blocker. Until more is learned, it is wise to assume that Taurine may increase the action of Verapamil, which could slow the heart excessively, causing irregular heart beats and possibly a heart attack. It is also not clear if Taurine would interact with other medicines like Sodium Valproate or Lithium." - http://www.med-owl.com/clusterheadaches/tiki-index.php?page=Taurine
Good luck - and let us know how it goes!
Laurie
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| « Last Edit: Oct 28th, 2006, 1:18am by Barry_T_Coles » |
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General_Cluster
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Re: Magnesium
« Reply #2 on: Oct 28th, 2006, 2:55am » |
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Thanks for the reply.
Haven't tried taurine, but I will if the devil comes back to haunt me. Happy Halloween!
Interesting that you mentioned the Zinc. The magnesium supplement I take is "Spring Valley 'Natural' Magnesium", it contains 400mg of MgOxide and 15mg of 'chelated' Zinc as zinc gluconate. I average one or two pills a day but after 2 months of no CH's I tried going without this summer (which is usually my least likely cluster season). Then I got a 'scary' shadow and took 3 Mg pills and it went away and I got back on track with the daily dosing. Somehow I just know when I need to take 2 instead of one pill a day and sometimes I take 3 (the 'recommeded' daily dose on the bottle). The more I shadow the more compliant I am. I just know if I quit taking it altogether what will happen, I guess you just get a feel for things like that, it's wierd.
I think I was turning into a chronic before I hit on the Magnesium. My cluster phases were getting longer and longer and my cluster free intervals were getting shorter and shorter and I was getting 4-5 humdingers a day and I started getting them at work during the day instead of just at night. I was really getting depressed and totally discouraged with the effects of 4 or 5 verapamil 240's a day - still breaking thru and losing sexual performance. Then I tried depakote and rapidly titrated to 2000 a day to tame the monster but it turned me into a drowsy zombie and I still had CH's.
I hit bottom when I ran out of Immitrex Inj, couldn't pay the rent cuz I had been buying Immitrex retail, still had the tormenting, nasty demon in me and I thought I had run out of tears. I tried to John Wayne it and I found out I still had more tears in me, acid tears. I was thinking maybe I just have to let it happen full force and maybe that would make the cluster phase run its course faster? That didn't work either. I kept up with my life insurance payments all along so my loved ones would be provided for and started making plans...
Then I ran into a physcian assistant by chance circumstances (with a laceration) and decided to ask her if she had any advice for clusters (not expecting anything close to worthwhile advice) and she told me to take Magnesium because she had just been to some headache seminar that recommended daily Mg and High flow O2 rescue. I thought it sounded so stupid I just had to try it so I could say I cluthced the last straw. After 3 weeks I could tell something good was happening and the rest is recent history. Now I'm alive and paying all my bills. I know its not over but the last 6 months have been heaven compared to where I was. I just thought I'd share my experience so maybe even if I just helped one desperate person then maybe what I've been through would make some kind of sense? I'll quit rambling. God Bless.
GC
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AussieBrian
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Re: Magnesium
« Reply #3 on: Oct 28th, 2006, 3:25am » |
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on Oct 28th, 2006, 2:55am, General_Cluster wrote:| I'll quit rambling. God Bless. |
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Ramble on to your heart's content, GC, that's why we're here and why you're now here as well. Especially if it helps keep those other stupid thoughts out of your head.
Sincere thanks also for bringing up the subject of magnesium and it's various usages. This sort of thing is very important to those who either haven't considered it or have previously tried it to no effect. Perhaps it's worth another look.
Good health, long life and beer,
Brian.
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