Posted by Jack (24.189.157.40) on January 08, 2002 at 09:26:46:
In Reply to: question for the expert posted by Kevin on January 08, 2002 at 09:01:44:
First of all - don't take anyone's word for anything - including mine :-)
Trust your own judgment.
I am opinionated ;-)
This is what I think.
Clusters are real powerful and hence that is why the drugs we have to take are real powerful, i.e., steroids ( prednisone ) , psychotropic ( lithium ) etc.
You and I and everybody else knows that many times a drug will lose its effectiveness. Ask any chronic and they will tell you they have a never ending battle of management - a drug stops working and they try something else.
So - what is my point?
It is this - if you are episodic I think you will do yourself a favor by keeping the verapamil in reserve for when you need it during a cycle.
There are some who have pointed out that they take verapamil all the time even when they are not in a cycle and it has lost its effectiveness.
For the life of me I can't think of any reason to take verapamil between cycles. I would never ever do it.
The small tradeoff is this - when a cycle starts I will get hit with some attacks before the verapamil starts to take effect ( in my case only a few short days )but I know it will work.
This is my opinion.
My cycles are very predictable.
If you are episodic and not chronic I would suggest that your cycles may be more predictable than you might think.
Why take a chance? Don't fight the shadows - fight the clusters.
I love verapamil.
Best wishes.