Hello all,

I have no doubt this has been answered before...so my apologies...but my thinking is fuzzy these days, a little confused, and it has been bugging me...(maybe it'll help someone else also).

Serotinin: Do clusterheads have too much, not enough, or unusual fluctuations? Do the meds we take affect serotonin levels... or act in some other way?

Melatonin: My personal experience, and how I thought it worked... was to induce "grogginess" so that when awoken with a hit, you can hit the O2 and fall back asleep rapidly. Lately though, I've seen reports implying that it may eliminate/reduce/lessen the hits themselves. Am I trippin' or what?

Benadryl: Sleep/grogginess inducer...and nothing more?

Thanks in advance...

Best,

Jon

Jon

  I haven't used it in years, but when I did I believe it was touted as being able to eliminate or at least lessen the frequency/intensity of attacks.  I don't think I ever used more than 9 mg, but evidently many use 12mg or more.  I'm sure the pros with active memories will have better information.

    Be Safe.

       Richard

  PS:   Never tried the Benydryl

Hey Jon.
Melatonin is my favourite,and puts me to sleep like a baby.Not this year,i find its not working for me during my cluster bout this year.it seems to maybe bring it on.Every time my triggers are different and then also keep experimenting with new pain relief and especially preventitive meds.Good diet,and somehow controll the sleeping pattern.Yip that demon never skips me.
Take care
SOUTH AFRICA

Jon, if I remember correctly, studies have found some correlation between levels of serotonin during an attack, including the possibility that the precursor to an attack is a serotonin storm. I do not think they know yet if the storm is caused by too much or too little serotonin. I do know when I used 5HTP (a serotonin precursor) it made things worse for me. Not the same but perhaps related. Melatonin works for me (15mg/night) but I can't tell you why. Antihistamines like Benadryl have had some positive effects in early stages of CH cycles. Again, don't know why. They no longer help me but I think some still use it. Hope this helps. God bless. lance

i will have to follow up more on this later, as i only have a few minutes right now, but i have been experimenting with taking melatonin with guarana.  i imagine it would work with any stimulant... anyway, i have been taking 30mg of melatonin and 500mg of guarana.  the result so far seems to be no attacks(while im on it anyway) and the guarana keeps me from falling asleep.  i seem to be able to think more clearly and quickly as well.  my sleep schedule is nonexistant, i never know when i can sleep.  i think taking the melatonin helps just because never can get to sleep at the same time every day.

ok, now that i have a little time...  im not sure what melatonin does to prevent CH.  from what i have read, it is produced during sleep and as we get older, the time melatonin production peaks during sleep becomes earlier and earlier.  in children, it is late during the night, closer to when they wake up.  in adults, it shifts more to the beginning of sleep.  this makes me wonder if age has any effect on the efficacy of melatonin as a prophylaxes.  if i take guarana alone, it seems to work for a day or two at most, but taking melatonin everyday seems to help a lot more...  i just have to take something to keep me awake sometimes.  i am starting to believe that ch is more of a hormone problem than anything else, seeing as everything that helps seems to affect serotonin levels in some way, or some other hormone. 

Serotonin--Don't know about our brain before the drugs, but the tryptamine hallucinogenics (LSD, Psilocybin, DMT) that work so well for clusters flood your brain with serotonin.  I would think that sumatriptan being sulphonated DMT most likely does the same thing.  One of the great things about the hallucinogens is that it will boost your serotonin for almost 6 months from one dose.  (Great unless you suffer from some sort of psychosis, then it can WORSEN your symptoms for almost 6 months)

Melatonin--Here's a good paper on it, one thing it states is that "Brain serotonin levels rise after melatonin administration"

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This link could be the real reason it helps for clusters though, here's a link showing "Melatonin has the ability to scavenge free radicals such as Nitric Oxide..." 

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Excess Nitric Oxide has been associated with clusters and migraines for a while now.  Melatonin is also supposed to lower brain temperature, which I could see helping too, although I don't know exactly how :)

Bennadryl--Only thing I can think of (admittedly I don't know too much about Bennadryl) that could be helping is the anti-histamine effect, seeing as how anytime you're in pain you're histamine levels are going to rise...Although it does have anti emetic properties too, so it could help if you get nauseous.  Never really seemed to help my clusters, but good for you if it does! 

Hope some of that was helpful!

-Ricardo

Ricardo wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2011 at 1:28pm:

Hope some of that was helpful! -Ricardo

YUP!  Thank you...cool stuff.