Is there something wrong with my search function?  There were several threads on Rhodiola Rosea on the new message board, and the search function isn't finding them.

Are they gone?  Or do they still exist?

I was looking for any further updates from those experimenting, and I was seeking dosage suggestions.

Thanks!

Laurie

Hi Laurie,

I don't think the search function here works on the archived threads on the old board.  I used the advanced search function on google, limiting it to "rhodiola" in ch.com only, and came up with one hit.

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Best,

George

Laurie,
if you guys are planning to give it a go, let the rest of us know how it goes! :)

All the best,
Sanna

George, I could have sworn that thread was on the new message board!  I must be starting to have "senior moments"  ::)

OK.  For those of you who remember, Gary is chronic since March 2006.  He gets 6 - 10 attacks a day, range k5 - k8 (usually), they usually last 40 minutes to 3 hours.  Some K9s and 10s in there.  His baseline is a K2/K3.  He's tried all the standard drugs, but not the lithium/verapamil combo.  I think the last neuro we saw didn't take him up high enough on the verap to begin with.  The pred taper provided no pain relief at all.

He tried the DHE drip last June.  It made him VIOLENTLY ill.  He's had problems with IBS and a "bad stomach," but he lost about 35 pounds in six weeks.  He was vomiting 20 - 40 times a day.  It was so bad his teeth started eroding.

He used to use caffeine and O2, but both stopped working.  He tried Kudzu - that seemed to help diminish the number of attacks and intensity of attacks, but it was really hard on his digestive system (as was the caffeine).  

In the fall of 2006, he tried busting with shrooms and RC seeds.  It seemed to work at first.  He actually had a pain free week.  He continued to try busting through February 2007, but it helped less and less after the first trip.

Out of desperation, he turned to narcotics in August 2007.  They bought him some much needed relief.

But (obviously) they're not really working any more and now he's just addicted, and he wants off.  But the rebound attacks are so bad, we decided to get something rolling before he detoxes.

Now that everything's arrived, here's the plan (and it includes stuff to deal with his gastro/IBS problem):

Align Probiotic by P&G

300mg Rhodiola 3x per day - morning, afternoon, evening.  I got TerraCeutics Rhodiola - it is chocolate brown.

TerraCeutics' "MegaMune" - three capsules all at night.  This amount contains:

500mg graviola extract
300mg Humic & Fulvic acid
300mg Rhodiola Rosea
250mg Agaricus extract
250mg Corolus Versicolor extract
100mg ginseng extract (80% ginenosides)
100mg Beta Glucan

Ginger Root - 1.1mg in two capsules, one taken with lunch, one taken with dinner

Solgar's Magnesium-Calcium 2:1, 1 tablets with each meal (3 tablets has 300mg calcium and 600mg magnesium)

A "stress forumula" multi-vitamin, heavy in the Bs, required 2x per day, so once at breakfast and the other with the SleepMedic.

TerraCeutics' SleepMedic, 2 capsules 1 hour before bedtime, which has:

250mg magnesium
150mg Gaba
100mg valerian root
100mg inositol
25mg Passion Flower
25mg Hops
100mg Lemon Balm
100mg L-Theanine
50mg B6
25mg 5HTP
1mg Melatonin

And 2 5mg Melatonin tablets.

We're also both taking 2 oz. of Acai juice with Blueberry and Raspberry in the morning and afternoon.

He's agreed to give it 7 months.

*****************************************

So his total Rhodiola Rosea will be 1.2g
His total Melatonin will be 11mg
His total Magnesium will be 850mg

We've run this by our GP, who's OK with it all.  However, he did refer us to a nutritionist that is an MD, and we're seeing him next week.  

Gary started this regimen 2 days ago.

He's also going to see a therapist for stress management - and hopefully get his PTSD treated as well.

Laurie

I miss Annette.   :'(

Laurie

Laurie,
keep us posted how the treatment works for Gary.

Hugs & PF days to Gary,
Sanna

Yes rebound headaches BITE and I have gone thru a 60 day period where my doctor took away all my abortives except oxygen to see what exactly we are dealing with here. I was allowed mild sedatives (Phenergran 3 tablets a day) and a 5mg Valium if I was so bad I wanted to commit suicide. I am still here obviously. The first 10 days to 2 weeks are the hardest. The withdrawl symptoms are really bad. But it cleans out your receptors in your brain so the narcotics work again. I am going to have to do it again because the codiene and morphene I have been taking when I get to a Kip 8 and above is almost daily now. This bout has lasted me about 3 months. I am hoping it stops soon. I wish you all luck with the detox program. It is going to really suck but it will be worth it.
Big bear hugs from Sophia
I gotta laugh... it hurts too much to cry. 8-)

Why not try the lithium? I was in the same boat and ready to end it all when I finally tried the lithium. I started out on 900 mg and weaned down to 450 mg per day.

Lithium is recognized as a treatment for CH now. It’s not just for Bipolar disorder anymore.

There is no silver bullet for CH, so one must find the best tunicate to stop the bleeding.

I still get hit every day at 5-8 PM but I don’t have bouts of every 2 hours for day’s straight anymore. The only bad thing is the 10 pounds I gained this last year.

I went from 4 M tanks and alternating between DHE & Imitrex shots to 1 M tank with no shots in a 1 week period.

Prayers and good vibes for Gary!

Roland.

I'd love it if he were willing to try the verap/lithium combo.  But as Jackie pointed out to me in the supporter's forum, all I can do is stock the aresenal, it's up to him to choose the weapons.

So far, don't see any change one way or another.

....and Gary's far beyond codeine and morphine. :(  He's on dilaudid and the fentanyl patch.  They really provided much needed relief the first few months.  

I'm convinced that when he's really ready to start dealing with this beast again rather than trying to run from it - though he needed the break - he'll start seeing some progress with whatever weapon he choses to fight.

In the meantime, we're alkalizing his body, so when he's ready to try the "standard" meds again they may have a chance to work.

Laurie

SPEAKING of rhodiola, an "adaptogen" that I heard about here and still carry around in my bag: it did shorten my last onset to a week --the first one (2006) lasted over a month and I tried medical solutions, the second (2007) under a month with alternative doctoring-- but I AM still looking to Mother Nature. An old guy (Marcus Greaves) in Gemmotherapy suggested Rosa Canina (yeah, yeah, those are young shoots of briar rose; don't shoot me) so I take a few drops of that most every day.
BUT I still put currency into my initial intuition that this whole thing has a psychological basis. Don't these multitudes of solutions suggest that each alternative hits upon an individual's spiritual need? I needed to slow down/calm down, get less combative and critical. When one breathes oxygen thru the mouth, doesn't one go into a more meditative state, less tense and demanding? I AM getting more regular sleep, NOT using caffeine and using a ginseng-like substance that is supposed to go after stressful reactions in the body, probably using the hypothalamus......................PEACE and flower power, DANiEL

--sorry-- If nobody else wants to continue here I will...for one thing I don't own a computer and just got back to a library...
  First, speaking about triggers, what seemed to make me worse was when the doctors tried to give me fancy forms of acetaminophen (Tylenol) the initial year I got CH. I, being into health foods, had never taken Tylenol in 62 years. But the last time I got a CH bang,  I pulled the rhodiola out of my bag and popped it... actually I took it out of the capsule and chewed it.... and no more CH. I did make an effort to stay calm and DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. The thing I did learn about rhodiola in my researches is that it serves as a stimulant so I didn't take it at bedtime.
  I also did my weird program of talking to my head. Yes, I admitted this before --and straight MD John Sarno recommends this--I actually talk to my head saying, "I love you unconditionally; please love me unconditionally!" I also try to eat something: I was a notorious breakfast skipper in the past. AND I pray. (And I pray that I don't sound to egotistical in all this.)

danielpeterson wrote on Aug 4^th, 2008 at 11:30am:

BUT I still put currency into my initial intuition that this whole thing has a psychological basis. Don't these multitudes of solutions suggest that each alternative hits upon an individual's spiritual need?

Not necessarily.  The fact that there are multiple ways of treating CH suggest to me that it is a complex chemical disturbance.  

I won't rule out some psychology - mood affects cortisol, adrenaline, and other neurotransmitters.  But for me, it is the other way around.  When certain times of the year roll around, my body changes regardless of what psychological or spiritual attitudes I adopt.  I believe that the body to mind effect in CH is generally much stronger than any possible mind to body effect.

RHODIOLA to the rescue (for me, at least) again. I had 6 or 8 hits last week and every time I pulled out (even at a seminar around a table) a capsule and chewed it down. And took plenty of clean (fluoride-free) water. Fluoride is supposed to be an old medical suppressant of the thyroid. THAT was a sight better than the hundreds and hundreds of headaches I had in 2006.
I ALSO have been looking into breathing. A woman good at visualizing told me to simply "breathe out the bad and breathe in the good." I even went to a "breath work" class but during a hyper-breathing part the CHs started coming on big time... and I spent all night propped up in bed begging for MERCY...
CONNECTING up to a tank of O2 would seem to be a subtle way of calming down to meditate, too. One of my disturbing fears has been to become a useless, disabled old codger --deadwood-- because of these mysterious CHs. Perhaps I was my own worst enemy, not wanting people to judge me as a mere fl(OH?)accinaucininehilipilification.

danielpeterson wrote on Oct 9^th, 2008 at 3:58pm:

Perhaps I was my own worst enemy, not wanting people to judge me as a mere flaccinaucininehilipilification.

Flaccinaucininehilipilification?

That must be a floccinaucininehilipilification with ED (?)  ;D

That's what I get for using a "fifty cent word!" What next: I couldn't even spell a simple, little word like that. The big book in the sky defines this as an act by a judgemental person deeming something as worthless and trivial and valueless.

Garys_Girl wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2008 at 11:06pm:

....and Gary's far beyond codeine and morphine. :(  He's on dilaudid and the fentanyl patch.  They really provided much needed relief the first few months.

Huh?......That dude is high off the scales....Holy shit! :o :o :o

Oh....that he is Jonny.  That he is.  



Quote:

The withdrawl symptoms are really bad. But it cleans out your receptors in your brain so the narcotics work again. I am going to have to do it again because the codiene and morphene I have been taking when I get to a Kip 8 and above is almost daily now.

Sophia...I know you posted this on Aug. 2nd, but I am just now seeing this.   Good God woman...stop.  Narcotics don't work.  They cause rebound HA's from hell not to mention addiction.

There are better ways...believe me.  

wrote on Oct 12^th, 2008 at 7:16pm:

Garys_Girl wrote on Aug 3rd, 2008 at 11:06pm: ....and Gary's far beyond codeine and morphine. :(  He's on dilaudid and the fentanyl patch.  They really provided much needed relief the first few months.   Huh?......That dude is high off the scales....Holy shit! :o :o :o

    Not to mention the supplements.

                      Potter