Posted by Todd on November 12, 2001 at 21:35:33:
In Reply to: ill make one more try - i really think this will help some of you !!! posted by guy on November 12, 2001 at 21:12:19:
We all appreciate your effort to share a possible treatment. We can use all the input we can get.
While I don't mean to be a wet blanket, there are a couple of reasons why your first post didn't receive any reply.
You said "Everyone knows to avoid the big triggers -alchohol , chocolate , msg , and caffeine". While chocolate, msg and caffeine are considered classic migraine triggers, they cannot be considered absolutes for CH. There are people for whom msg is a trigger, and we've seen posts about chocolate, but caffeine is often used as an abortive. Furthermore, Dr. Goadsby cites only alcohol and nitroglycerin as known triggers.
You also said that after a couple of weeks of your dietary detox the CH became more bearable. I believe you said that the pain dropped 50% or so. How can you be certain this is due to the diet? Most episodics experience a waxing and waning of cycles, where they start somewhat slow, get worse over time and then start to fade...either in intensity or frequency or both.
2 of 2 is still a sample size of 2, and it appears from your post that this approach may have worked for one cycle. Much more data would be needed to begin to draw conclusions. Take the mushroom treatment, for example. Flash used shrooms for 5 or 6 cycles (best I recall) before he even began to formulate the theory. He then tried it again once or twice, then posted, got flamed, kept posting and finally got a convert or two. We know have perhaps 30 to 50 who've tried shrooms and the evidence appears to indicate a 90% effectiveness, give or take. Many of us are still skeptical, but shrooms certainly have our attention.
Keep thinking, keep studying and keep trying. You may be on to something, but you have a long way to go before you'll get much reaction from this group of "been there, done that" folks.
P.S. When I was first diagnosed, I was given the standard migraine list of foods to avoid. Gave up everything and ate like an impoverished monk. No effect on the CH.
KTSSU,
T