I have suffered from CH for 20 years.  Every three years they hit and last approx 6 weeks.  1-5 per day.  At the end of my cycle three years ago, I finally tried oxygen and it aborted the last three.  When they returned two weeks ago, I had two attacks and then immediately went to the doc and got my prescription and picked up tanks.  I also bought the mask from CH.com.  After setting up my oxygen space, I have had 19 headaches and every one was aborted.  For me, it has been 100% effective so far.  I also know it is not the cure for everyone.  I am finding that as a result, I no longer experience the huge exhaustion which would trigger attacks during the day.  This has cut down on the number of CHs daily.  So my message is, if you haven't tried oxygen, PLEASE try it. 

It's great to see O2 working so well for you and knowing the difference it makes being able to kill off CHs quickly before they really take hold.

Thanks Mike.  O2 working but getting 5-6 CHs almost every night.  Still beats the alternative by a mile. 

Have you given vitamin d3 a try? It really can work amazingly well for most who try it. Whilst killing off a CH with oxygen is amazing, it's even better if you never got the CH.

I have not looked into it but I certainly will.  Thank you.

Mike...Regarding the D3 vit regimen...I see a lot of info and opinions.  Is there a specific post or article that you could recommend?  What initial dosage would you recommend?  My wife just told me that she takes it everyday, I had no idea.  Thank you. 

Bill

Bill,

Read these links, both from Batch. Come back with questions.

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Peter.

Peter...thank you very much.  I will study this information carefully and most likely give it try.  I almost burned thru an entire M60 tank supply just last night so some relief would be sweet.  Thanks to you and Mike.

Bill

Thank you Peter for responding quicker than I could.

Bill - I hope D3 works as well for you as it does for me and many others. I've gone over 5 years CH pain free using it.

Peter....what is your D3 regimen?  Daily, weekly, etc.  I showed my wife, who has some knowledge, the suggestion of taking 50,000 IU and she was shocked.  What is working for you?  Thank you. 

Bill

Bill,

It's not uncommon for people unfamiliar with the treatment of a vitamin D3 deficiency to be surprised at a vitamin D3 loading schedule that calls for 50,000 IU/day vitamin D3 over a 10 to 12 day period for a total of 600,000 IU of vitamin D3.

There are some vitamin D3 repletion treatments that call for a single oral dose of 600,000 IU of vitamin D3.  See the following link for details of one such study:

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In addition, there are several well structured RCTs that have examined various vitamin D3 repletion schedules at doses this high and none of them have resulted in hypercalcemia... i.e., vitamin D3 intoxication/toxicity.

The rationale for using a vitamin D3 loading schedule should be obvious for CHers once they see the average 25(OH)D response curve for 10,000 IU/day vitamin D3 in the following graphic.

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When the CH beast is jumping ugly several times a day, waiting a month or more at a vitamin D3 dose of 10,000 IU/day to build 25(OH)D serum concentrations to the therapeutic level of 80 ng/mL, the dose that's sufficient to prevent CH reliably, seems like an eternity... particularly so when a vitamin D3 loading schedule of 50,000 IU/day results in a pain free response much faster.

Check your PM inbox for some additional information on the anti-inflammatory regimen treatment protocol to prevent CH.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Thanks Batch,

I was composing a response to Bill, the last line of which was going to be....."send Batch a PM".

Bill,

Listen to the man. He knows what he's talking about. Over 80% of us using this regimen are benefiting greatly.

Best,

Peter.

Thanks a lot Batch.  And you too Peter and Mike.  I really appreciate you taking the time to provide such a detailed note and help.  The CH community is the best, unlike anything else I have ever experienced. 

I really do need to look into all of this.  Still getting 3-7 per night and O2 has knocked each one out.  I hope the constant O2 usage isn't scrambling my brain more than normal but worth it.  It's been interesting, I have had only 3-4 during the day since this started about 4.5 wks ago and none of them have reached the killer level.  I used to get many more during day light hours.  I keep a log and probably up to about 85-90 attacks so far.  I have burned thru 2-M60's and on my fourth M tank.  I also just received my new "backup" mask from CH.com.  If anything happened to my go-to, I would have been screwed.

Thanks again to all.

Bill

O2 Protip:  Some of those nightly attacks might be rebounds after the first O2 abort.  I've found staying on O2 for 8-12 minutes after the last of the pain has subsided decreases the number of rebound attacks.