What thread is it that you're referring to?

Hello. My question is when you go with Kudzu 1000mg 2 per day are you looking for a daily total of 2000mg?? same with the Mag 250mg 2 per for a total of 500mg daily ????Let me know. Coach Bill

Just a quick thought - for those with sensitive GI systems, this is a pretty tough regime.  But including calcium at half the mg of the magnesium will help a little.
Laurie

I'm the supporter, not the one suffering - but was simply relating Gary's experience with the Kudzu.  If he'd gotten more relief from it than he did, I'm sure he'd go with the intense gut pain and constant liquid diarrhea (he's chronic, not episodic).  Perhaps if he'd included the other ingredients of the "Synergy" mix he'd have seen more relief than he did in his cluster activity - but the kudzu was extremely difficult for him.

I was just responding to your idea to impart info in this thread, and the calcium hadn't been mentioned yet.

Laurie  

I don't claim a rigorous scientific process for deriving the ingredients, or the dosages, of this treatment, but here are a few of the factors that influenced it:

For starters, the "high doses" of Kudzu are down right miniscule - many Chinese routinely consume kudzu root about like we eat potatoes.  A serving of a couple or three ounces (84,000 mg) would not be an unusual side dish to a meal.  I can' get too concerned about 1000 mg vs. 150 mg.  The real reason I chose 1000 mg for my formula is that when I first found kudzu in the store, it was 1000 mg capsules that I found.  I says to myself, "Self, that sounds about right..."

The "additional stuff" was not tacked on, it was part of my holistic (using the term loosely) approach to fighting CH.  I did a pretty good bit of research on anecdotal evidence about sucesses that people had reported.  A couple of the ingredients, I already had some experience with - I have learned that my body, for whatever reason, has some difficulty assimilating calcium properly.  There's considerable evidence that a lack of magnesium will interfere with calcium absorption so, when I saw that some folks had reported that magnesium helped prevent or abort CH, I says to myself, "Self, put some magnesium in the formula..."

You might recall a few years ago melatonin hit the news as a sort of miracle dietary supplement.  All kinds of claims were made for it, including that it would prevent cancer and heart disease, lower blood pressure, reverse aging, etc., etc., etc.  It was also touted as a very effective sleep aid.  I tried it back then and sure enough, it really is a very effective sleep aid!  When I saw that there seemed to be a connection between sleep disturbances and CH, I says to myself, "Self, you oughtta put some melatonin in the formula."  Several people had reported sucess with about 10 mg or so at bedtime, so even though that is many times more than I had ever tried before, I figured it was a good number to go with.  That was reinforced by the fact that I found 5 mg tablets in the store, making a 10 mg dose pretty simple!   Some interesting trivia about melatonin - Believe it or not, a tiny dose (say, 1/2 mg or so) will actually help you sleep better than a large dose, like the 10 mg in my formula.  I dunno why - I just know it's so.

As for the other ingredients, the St. John's Wort and the Skullcap - These are both recognized as anti-anxiety or antidepressent herbs.  It became obvious to me while reading up on CH that stress plays a part in CH.  Some report that stress triggers a cycle.  Others report that the removal, or sudden reduction in stress triggers a cycle.  We all know that a CH, a shadow, an impending cycle, or fear of CH can sure contribute to stress.  These two ingredients (according to the prevailing 'wisdom') seem to "level out" the body/mind stress mechanism, and help people deal better with stress.  So, I says to myself, "Self, you oughtta put some of this stuff in there, too."  The dosages I arrived at were based more on what was commercially available in capsules or tablets than anything else.

After I pulled all this info together, and bought all the stuff at the store(s), I took my first dose one night just before bed, a couple of weeks into a cycle, and continued the morning / night doses as Cyndi described.  I had about three more HA's over the next week, then was pf for six months.  The next time I had a CH, I went back on the regimen for a week, and had NO more headaches.

One detail I probably should reiterate - I am a pretty big guy, at about 215 pounds.  Someone of average or smaller size might do just fine with smaller amounts of the ingredients.  Ask me why I don't try smaller dosages, or see if I can eliminate some of the ingredients from the treatment, and I'm just going to say, "WTF - I beat the !#@#% HA's, why should I change anything??? After 16 years, I'm pf and loving it!!!  Don't just take my word for it - ask Cyndi and Lorne

Just as an aside, the "Super Snooze" has three of my ingredients in it - the melatonin, skullcap, and magnesium, although all of these are in considerably smaller doses that I'm using.  A "Super Snooze" along with a little St. John's Wort and some kudzu just might do the trick for some people - who knows?

Anyway, there's a little insight into my thought processes, and how I came up with the formula - FWIW!!!