Posted by Craig on July 28, 1998 at 10:25:15:
Thank God for this site!
I am 28 years old and I have suffered from CH since the
age of 16. Typically two bouts 6 months apart lasting 1
month, up to 8 headaches a day, 30-60 mins but have
been longer recently.
The GPs and neurologist I have seen haven't been much
help. The best thing I've been prescribed is propanolol
with amitriptylene.
My last cluster was over Christmas, ending in January and
the next one is starting :(
Last time it was so bad I really thought I was going to
burst a vessel. The GP put this down to excessive use
of analgesics (prescribed by her colleague). I can
believe that... moral don't use analgesics!
In October I'm going to do something horrible in an
effort to prevent CH recurring for a while. I'm going
to take a very low dose of LSD type substance obtained
from liberty cap mushrooms.
My GP went ballistic when I told him about this plan
during last cluster. Let me explain.
I'm not a recreational drug user, but I used to be. These
days I run a successful IT business, employing 12 people.
From 1989-1994 I experimented with soft drugs for fun,
among them cannabis and LSD. Cannabis tended to bring
on a headache during a cluster. I didn't take LSD
during a cluster. By 1995 I had out grown recreational
drugs, in fact I'd become a little scared of them!
I had clusters in 1986,87,88,89,90,91,92,95,98. Spot
the gaps! After 2 cluster free years I had a cluster in
1995, that's when I started to look at what was different
in 1993 & 1994. The only thing I could think of was that
I had taken LSD a couple of time those years. By this
time I had a good contract job and knew that a cluster
would jeopardize that. I searched the web for LSD +
migraine. The first article I found was on the discovery
of LSD by a Swiss chemist researching a cure for migraine.
This research was initially focussed on the liberty cap
mushroom. This mushroom had reportedly been use in the
treatment of migraine for many years. Lewis Carrol may
have been among those who tried it. This tenuous link
wasn't much but worth investigating (I wasn't doing
anything that I hadn't already done).
I am scared of LSD. It can be an extremely unpleasant
drug. I was also worried about taking it since I had a
good job etc. and didn't want to go back to recreational
drug taking... however if a cluster started I could
kiss the job bye bye. I decided to use liberty cap
mushrooms opposed to blotter acid, since the mushrooms
are legal.
At this point I didn't know how much LSD each mushroom
contained, but I wanted to start with the equivalant of
a street dose. To cut a long story short this is approx
50 mushrooms. Through trial and error I learned that
the mushrooms could be preserved in honey for at least a
year. I also learned to prepare them by boiling in water
for 5 minutes then digarding the mushrooms and drinking the
water. Subsequent testing has reduced the required quantity
of mushrooms down to a more acceptable 10 - this almost
eliminates the undesirable effects of the drug.
As I've stated I was due a bout in November 1995, so I took
the first dose immediately. I took them again in May
1996 and finally in January 1997. During this period I
remained headache free. I stopped the mushrooms to see
if the headaches would return. They did, but not until
January 1998.
I can't do much about the cluster starting now, but I
intend to pick more mushrooms in October and see if I
can prevent any future clusters. If this is successful
then I will continue to take mushrooms for the foreseeable
future.
I think proper clinical research should be done on the
affects of LSD on our condition. Perhaps they could
combine the drug in a pill that also contains a sedative!
Hang in there!