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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2003 >> Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cycle
        
(Message started by: thomas on Oct 20^th, 2003, 11:34am)

Title: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cycle
Post by thomas on Oct 20^th, 2003, 11:34am

bearable. 20 min hot steamy shower at 8:30 pm. take 3mg of melatonin at 9:00. Asleep by 10:00. Usually sleep till 4-5am. May have a 6 Kipper around that time - about every 3 days. Take another hot shower in the am. Take an ssri with breakfast. Take a magnesium tablet with lunch. Stay away from known triggers during the day. Repeat procedure again. I have only used 3 abortives in the last two weeks. Just passing this along in case it helps anyone else.

Title: Re: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cy
Post by floridian on Oct 20^th, 2003, 12:19pm

Glad you found a way to lessen the pain. You might want to also consider the following, which reduce inflammitory compounds that are elevated in cluster heads:

Turmeric (or curcumin, a turmeric extract)
Tea (green or black, decaf or regular)
Flax oil or fish oil

I was regularly taking magnesium, turmeric, tea, and occasionally taking flax oil, melatonin and 5htp. This summer's episode was a dry cycle (or phantom cluster) - no headaches, but all the other problems like disturbed sleep, palpitations, numbness/tingling, and generally feeling crappy. This indicates to me that either 1) I was lucky, and avoided head pain for some unknown reason, or 2) the treatment did block the final stage of the disease (head pain), while the hypothalamus and other central mechanisms were still messed up. Still, even if not a perfect cure, its better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. I am going try the hot shower idea next time the beast appears. I have been taking up to 400 mg per day choline for the past couple of weeks and had no problems tolerating it (choline is deficient in cluster heads, and is critical to autonomic nerve function). Also, I am taking moderate zinc supplements (25 mg/day) now, and may double that in cycle as zinc also inhibits the glutamate-NMDA pain transmission.

Title: Re: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cy
Post by thomas on Oct 20^th, 2003, 1:00pm

Thanks for the info.

Title: Re: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cy
Post by sandie99 on Oct 21^st, 2003, 6:49am

Hi! :)

I've read a lot about different treatments. There is one called triple therapy, which actually has magnesium in it.

If I recall it right, there's more about it in a book titled What Your Doctor May NOt Tell You About Migraines - The Breakthrough Program That Can Help End Your Pain by Alexander Mouskop and Barry Fox.
The idea in triple therapy is to eat every day tablets, which include magnesium (300-400mg), vitamin riboflavin (vitamin B2, 400mg) and herb feverfew (100mg). In US there's a product called Micra-Lieve that has them all.

I don't know about you, but when I read that some ch patients got instant pain relief - and remission of several months, well, that made me want to know more!

One of the authors of that book has studied magnesium and cluster and in the case of his patients, it works magic. I hope it still works for you!!! :)

Best wishes & PFdays,
sandie99

Title: Re: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cy
Post by thomas on Oct 21^st, 2003, 7:54am

Thanks. I've seen the migralieve, but haven't tried it because I thought it would just work for migrains.

Title: Re: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cy
Post by thomas on Nov 29^th, 2003, 2:16pm

bump

Title: Re: Well this isn't a cure but it has made this cy
Post by HannahFroukje on Nov 30^th, 2003, 7:28am

on 10/20/03 at 12:19:18, floridian wrote:

Jos has been taking a lot of those too, firstly avoiding any triggers (if he has those), secondly magnesium, 3 times a day zink-piccolinate (because it's supposed to regulate the mineral-balance, and added choline in a lecithine-bound form because I read too that this would be deficient in CH-heads.

Haven't noticed any good effects from it though: he still had kip 9-10 if we didn't do anything else.

Seems to have a good effect on you though ... congrats :), and keep looking.