It's been 9 months since I've tried this treatment, and I'm still pain-free.  I posted last year about drinking sea salt dissolved in water and having it end my typical 6-week episodic cluster cycle right in the middle of the cycle.  Normally I would have had another cycle in July and another around Thanksgiving, but so far so good.

The only thing I'm doing differently is consistently and daily consuming 1 gallon of water with 1 teaspoon of sea salt dissolved in it.  Important:  Table salt will not work!

I know some of you are wondering if this is just a prolonged remission period, and I'll have to say I'm wondering right along with you.  After dealing with this condition for over 23 years, it's not something I take lightly.  I also don't want to give anyone false hope.  But this is working for me, and I'm sticking with it until it doesn't!  It's cheap and easy to do.

I'm convinced the root cause is either chronic dehydration or some sort of mineral deficiency that is now being met by using sea salt.  Either way it doesn't matter.

An interesting side note:  I thought it would be wise to watch my blood pressure to see whether the increase in salt consumption made it rise.  Strangely, my "normal" blood pressure of 130/90 went down to a better 120/80 after about 2 weeks and stayed there.

Enjoy the PF time. sea salt, diet pepsi,chai tea, whatever, enjoy the PF time. I think therefore I am. ;)
all the best Kman
the bb

I remember when you began modifying the "water X3" treatment by adding some sea salt.

I tried the "water X3" treatment about six years ago after reading about it here, but, according to my H/A log, it didn't seem to do anything for me.  I couldn't keep it up, either--takes a lot of focus and a bladder of steel to drink that much water.   ;)

I'm glad that it seems to be working for you.

Best,

George

Hey K-Man,

Good post.  Looks like you've done your homework.  Good BP for a gent of 49 and I don't think a teaspoon of sea salt a day is excessive as long as you don't over-salt your meals.  Pushing fluids never hurts and I agree that mineral deficiencies are a problem that many cluster headache sufferers don't even know they have.

It's hard to argue with your success, but as a chronic, I've had similar results from taking calcium with vitamin D, magnesium, and zinc tablets two to three times a day.  I also take Centrum Silver multi-vitamins as they contain a number of other mineral supplements like boron that helps calcium absorption.

Calcium and magnesium in these quantities act as buffers to elevate a low arterial pH back to a normal balance.  It turns out a low pH (too much acid) causes calcium to be lost more rapidly.  A low pH also acts on the body and in particular, the brain, as a vasodilator so this condition tends to make the cluster headache triggering mechanism more effective and that results in more frequent and more painful attacks.

I tracked my pH at home with pH test strips for a couple weeks taking three pH measurements of my saliva a day, morning, noon, and night then plotted out the reults in excel.  My average daily pH readings were below the normal saliva range of 7.0 to 7.5 so I started taking the mineral supplements and vitamins.  That cut the number of attacks a week in half and the few I did have were mostly Kip-4 to Kip-5.

I also measured the pH of my saliva at the start of my attacks then a second time five minutes after aborting them with oxygen therapy at a flow rate that supports hyperventilation.  The average abort time was 4 minutes and the average increase in pH following oxygen therapy was 0.4 so it's clear that respiratory alkalosis plays an important role in aborting cluster headache attacks.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Batch,

I hear you loud and clear, but...... I'm not totally convinced that it's vaso dilation/constriction that is clearly the issue.

I completely agree that ph is a strong connection, and that respiratory alkalosis works - but I suspect that there is more to it. I do understand the constriction/dilation cause and effect.  The same comment has been made regarding Triptans - it may not be constriction that makes it work for us. Researchers (including Goadsby last I checked) are saying that CH's are probably more neurological in nature - not vascular, so I'm keeping my opinion open for now.

Remember that during a bad hit, our nitrogen oxide levels go very high even in the early stages before the real pain sets in. (Consuming alcohol also causes an increase in nitrogen oxide in the blood)

As you have so eloquently stated, O2 rapidly shifts our blood ph toward alkaline.  I suspect that this is more closely related to the key than the vascular constriction connection.

Just an opinion............

For now, I’m not going to over think it – and I’ll just keep sucking O2 and reap the rewards.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, Sir.

Marc

I tried before but gave up after 2 days of drinking a gallon a day. how can you handle the gallon of water everyday? im glad your pain free though. Coach Bill

coach_bill wrote on Dec 25^th, 2008 at 6:53pm:

I tried before but gave up after 2 days of drinking a gallon a day. how can you handle the gallon of water everyday? im glad your pain free though. Coach Bill

I can handle more than a gallon of water a day. Then again, I'm on diuretics. You space it out over time. Every few hours I drink about 16oz of water.

My family seriously used to worry about me becoming water intoxicated. :XD Mind you, I do not touch soda's often, I drink energy drinks when needed...

I tried this before I found this board...  Found it in a book called the water cure or your body's many cries for water or something like that. It said that many people are in a chronic state of dehydration that aggrevates medical conditions that might otherwise be asymptomatic.. Anyway, as I have previously been hospitalized for dehydration and noticed before CH diagnosis that I get acne when dehydrated, I figured I would try it. It made no difference to me, although come to think of it the sea salt wasn't dissolved, it was put on the tongue when almost done drinking the required amount of water.