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Topic: Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters (Read 2024 times) |
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wetdog2
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #25 on: Dec 16th, 2003, 1:28pm » |
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I'm pretty happy, people. I'm going on 40 pain-free hours and my first night of uninterrupted sleep and even the 40 previous hours had only very mild headaches. I've had a couple shadows but thankfully, nothing's blown into a full-on attack.
Who knows whether it's because of the mushrooms and their seratonin level effects, the pepper spray and its trigeminal nerve-desensitizing effect, or just a placebo effect. Whatever it is, while it doesn't feel like this cluster is over, I definitely don't feel all beat up in the head for once. I'm functional - knock on wood.
I think the pepper spray may be the agent helping with the pain. Sunday evening I went to a play and felt a shadow come on. I felt no pain, but my eye started gushing just as if I were having a full on headache.
I know my wacky treatment isn't going to work for everyone, but it's cheaper than injections and the side effects are minimal.
One more thing: I store my homemade pepper spray in the fridge since there aren't preservatives in it.
Marty
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Paigelle
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #26 on: Dec 16th, 2003, 4:16pm » |
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Wetdog, I am going to make some damn pepper spray. If it doesn't work for my headaches, I can spray muggers with it. But I am going to give it a try! Thanks for the little recipe!
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vig
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #27 on: Dec 20th, 2003, 2:12pm » |
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Alright, here's my $.02.
Capsaicin is an analgesic.
I got pure pepper oil in my eye during a particularly wet CH attack and I could feel the oil covering my eye and hitting the sore trigeminal nerve and quickly calming it. The sensation moved back down the eye and within about 10 minutes, there was a warm sensation and no pain.
I've now done this three times with the same limited results.
It did nothing to stop the headache, but made it feel better. The affected nerve is the one in your eye, not the one in your nose. So I think all nasal approaches are misguided. Maybe a VERY dilute eye drop would be a better delivery system.
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wetdog2
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #28 on: Dec 20th, 2003, 2:49pm » |
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Actually, the trigeminal nerve (the nerve that spasms during a CH) passes through the sinuses. As all of the studies I've on capsaicin and CHs deliver the pepper spray nasally and as I have had dramatically reduced pain levels from the nasal spray, I would recommend this treatment before putting it in your eye. In fact, I wouldn't recommend putting it in your eye at all.
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BlueMeanie
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #29 on: Dec 20th, 2003, 3:24pm » |
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on Dec 20th, 2003, 2:12pm, vig wrote:| I got pure pepper oil in my eye during a particularly wet CH attack and I could feel the oil covering my eye and hitting the sore trigeminal nerve and quickly calming it. The sensation moved back down the eye and within about 10 minutes, there was a warm sensation and no pain. Maybe a VERY dilute eye drop would be a better delivery system. |
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How about the pepper spray cops use to fight off the bad guys ?
Just Kidding. LOL
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hdbngr
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #30 on: Dec 29th, 2003, 5:19pm » |
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You can buy a tube of capascin (pepper) cream in a tube at almost any drugstore, but they usually keep it behind the counter, so you have to ask for it by name.
You can dab it in the ol' nose or buy some saline nose spray (Afrin makes it) and mix it into that then spray it up there.
Pro - clears the sinuses
Con - YEEOWW!
You can rub this stuff on your neck and the back of your head if you have accompanying pain in those regions. It doesn't seem to stop a CH attack but the sensation of having lava up your nose does distract from the regular pain a bit....
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wetdog2
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #31 on: Dec 29th, 2003, 7:10pm » |
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My experience during this cluster:
A few days into this cluster, I made my own pepper spray. See previous entry on recipe. After four days of treatment (a couple sprays in each nostril, once a day), the intensity of my CHs subsided to barely noticable.
During these past three weeks, I haven't touched my Imitrex nor have I used my oxygen, though I am still technically in my cluster. There are times when I can feel a headache coming on, but there is no pain - at most I've had a "3" headache one time. I've also been able to sleep without interruption.
To be fair, I've also tried the shroom treatment for the first time, so that may be contributing to my painlessness, too. Is painlessness a word?
Three notes about pepper spray: 1) the effects take days of treatment to kick in. Stick with it for a week before passing judgment on it. 2) you really have to spray so it gets in your sinuses where the trigeminal nerve is and then rub your nose a bit. You don't want to spray so much that it's running all over the place, but you have to feel it hitting back there. You will sneeze, snot and cry. It sucks but it does get more bearable. 3) After three weeks of treatment, I'm stopping. When I did the treatment study before, we only sprayed for two weeks. I think that long term usage can be rough on your nose and after stopping the pain didn't increase again.
Many of you will say that my pain-free experience was due to the mushrooms, which may be true. But I also know from past experience that the pepper spray has helped me. I just know that in the future, I will be using this combined therapy since it is inexpensive, super-effective and the side effects are minimal. I'd be interested in other people's experience.
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thomas
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Re: Hot Pepper Extract Stopped My Clusters
« Reply #32 on: Dec 30th, 2003, 2:49pm » |
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Glad to hear that you are pain free. AWESOME!
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