Before asking this I perused looking for answer and didn't find one.  Was wondering if anyone has tried/knows anything if acupuncture assists in alleviating CH pain?

Mother always told me the only dumb question is the one never asked.

Hi Skott,
Go to the top of the main board, google, type in Acupuncture
and you will find the answers to your  :question.

Hoppy.

I live in China and I went to the best TCM doctor in the country for 20 acupuncture sessions......didn't do a thing to my CH.

It's been discussed numerous times on the board. It seems useful for some in dealing with the secondary issues caused by all of the tensing and fighting a CH, but useless in preventing CH.

Joe

Hey Skott,

Good question...  This is anecdotal as I'm speaking from my own experience...  The short answer is acupuncture didn't work for me as a CCH'er.

I had  a team of neurologists at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD do a complete workup on me as I had just completed a 12 month stretch of onerous and daily high Kip cluster headaches... with no breaks... 

It was obvious to me I was chronic, but the neurologists had to do their thing and proclaim it so...

They were up on the latest standards of care recommended preventatives and abortives and gave me everything I asked for including a high flow oxygen regulator, NRB mask, an M-size oxygen cylider for use at home and 5 of the smaller E-size oxygen cylinders for work and local travel.  They were delivered to my home that same day... 

They called the following day and asked if I wanted to try acupuncture...  I said "why not" and they scheduled me for a session the following day...

The first one hour session was very pleasant...  The acupuncturist was a very sharp Naturopath of obvious Chinese linage, born in Seattle, more degrees than I could count and 8 years acupuncture training in China under a Zen Master... 

It took less than 5 minutes for her to peal the 25 needles out of their sterile packets and tap them in on my head, neck, wrists and lower legs...  Most of my hits were at night at that time so I fell asleep as soon as she turned the lights down.

I woke up from a very pleasant nap as she was removing the last few needles, got up and drove back to the office in Tysons Corner, VA...  I got hit just as soon as I got to the office.  No change in the CH pattern that night, except I had oxygen...

The next session two days later was a carbon copy of the first... Very pleasant, great nap, but I still got whacked less than an hour later.

When I arrived for the third session, she asked If she could try electric stimulation with the acupuncture needles...  I said "yes" and she hooked up a battery powered charger the size of a pack of smokes with two long leads terminated with alligator clips which she attached to a pin in my ear and one on the opposite ankle.

She turned on the charger and asked how it felt...  "Nothing." So she cranked up the dial another notch... Still nothing...  Then she twisted the knob all the way...  I started twitching like my ear had touched a low power electric fence... so she started turning the charger down and told me to say "OK" when it felt comfortable...

Again another nice nap, but no joy...  I still got hit an hour later and there was still no change in my CH pattern...  The lead neurologist on my treatment team called a few days later and after a short discussion, we concluded that acupuncture wasn't effective for me...

If you want a very natural preventative with 80% effectiveness, give the anti-inflammatory regimen with 10,000 IU/day vitamin D3 a try.  The data I've collected over the last three years from hundreds of CH'ers here at CH.com suggests a causal relationship between a vitamin D3 deficiency and cluster headache.

The following link provides the details you'll need for over-the-counter supplements and doses used this regimen.

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Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Thanks for that info...I don't think Ill be giving it a go.(accupuncture)  I have, however been on the daily supplements (split) D3, Fish Oil and Calcium Citrate for several days now along with my Lithium and Verapamil, and night time Melatonin (10mg), lots of Ice...Ice....ice
Have noticed a 50% decrease in amount of hits.  Only get 2 now instead of 4+. 
I know it is going to take a while to get everything "dialed in", AND still waiting until Monday when Neurologist said he would script me my O2.
The only problem is the persistant pressure that will not go away.  Its like its saying I know your trying to get rid of me, let me just sit in the corner and stab you every now and again to let you know Im still here.
Wondering if the Oxygen will help eliminate that.  And I cannot sleep in bed.  Laying down seems to be a trigger.  I get comfy, false sense of security and almost to the minute within 1 hour burning in neck, face and blammo.  Guess whos paying a visit.   So I doze in the recliner...exhausted.
I do have hope...im not a quitter, just sucks to be in this situation....sigh.
Thanks for letting me bend an ear.
Skott

Hi Skott,
I noticed you did'nt mention taking magnesium citrate 500mg
plus a centrum silver 1/day, in the vitamin D3 regime. You
need to take the whole regime with your main meal of the
day, seven hours after your last dose of verapamil.

Hoppy.

Getting a 50% reduction so quick is great news and promises a good chance of even more improvement soon too. Once you've got your O2 sorted out too you'll also get the benefit of rapidly killing them off. So the double combination of less CHs and much shorter duration CHs will soon make a big difference to your quality of life.

Then it's a case of making further improvements as you learn how to make the best of the tools you have available.

The constant pressure is what we call shadows. Treat it as a low level CH, so throw things at it like energy drinks, caffeine and even oxygen. Work out what works well for you.

For sleeping I've seen quite a few people resort to sleeping in a recliner chair or similar as this seems to get them some sleep and it can, for some, avoid the CHs. Just have your abortives on hand for if you get awoken with a CH.

Hoppy wrote on Dec 7^th, 2013 at 7:10pm:

Hi Skott, I noticed you did'nt mention taking magnesium citrate 500mg plus a centrum silver 1/day, in the vitamin D3 regime. You need to take the whole regime with your main meal of the day, seven hours after your last dose of verapamil. Hoppy.

Went this morning and bought the Magnesium and Centrum.  I suppose in my angst to eliminate this when I originally read the post, I just glanced at the picture of the supplements.  My bad, no excuses. 

Thanks for noticing that error on my part   ;)
Skott

Accupuncture is bullshit. Don't waste your money