Hey Ed,

The sphenopalatine block with lidocaine can provide temporary relief from cluster headaches.  However as the term "temporary" implies...  the relief won't last long...  and by long... my experience tells me 4 to 6 hours tops... That said...  it's still worth a try.

As your doctor wants to help, ask him to order up a lab test for your serum concentration of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D...  a.k.a. 25(OH)D.  This is the metabolite of vitamin D3 that used to measure its status.

The normal reference range for the serum concentration of 25(OH)D is 30 to 100 ng/mL.

Over the last two years over 100 CH'ers here at CH.com have gone in for this test and nearly all have come back with 25(OH)D results indicating a vitamin D3 deficiency.  Some CH'ers presenting with active CH have tested as high as 33 to 61 ng/mL.

The really great news is CH'ers who have gone on the anti-inflammatory regimen with 10,000 IU/day or more vitamin D3 and experienced a significant reduction in the frequency and severity of their CH... (most have gone completely pain free...) and then gone in for the 25(OH)D lab test have all had their results come back in a range between 60 and 110 ng/mL.

The complete anti-inflammatory regimen, dosing and dosing strategy can be found at the following link:

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This link also covers possible medication interactions and contraindications so you can discus it with your doctor.

You can also read what other CH'ers are saying about their experience with this regimen at the following link:

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This link will take you to one of the latest posts...  Work your way back in time by going to the previous pages.

This is one of the most read threads at CH.com having been read over 63,000 times with over 1000 comments posted.

There are also several posts in this thread that discuss the safety of this regimen even at doses as high as 40,000 IU/day vitamin D3.

I've recently had a few CH'ers tell me the anti-inflammatory regimen kicked in even faster with a higher 25(OH)D response when they washed down the supplements in this regimen with a half glass of water containing a half teaspoon of Arm & Hammer baking soda.

The sodium bicarbonate helps elevate arterial pH and for some reason, this helps to reduce the frequency and severity of CH even at night while sleeping.  Talk with your doctor about alkalizing with baking soda...  The dosing instructions are on the box...

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch