I was just wondering if anyone has any luck getting rid of shadows with o2. Is it a waste of time, or can it work? I'm referring to the kind of shadows that last all day long, just lingering in there.

I don't waste my oxygen on shadows only.  I save that wonderful stuff for the real thing.

I'll chug a Red Bull, or another energy drink with caffeine and taurine.  Or, even an extra strength Excedrin will help to knock it back.

Sandy

A shadow I tend to not do anything apart from distract myself by going for a walk for example. Or the 'leave me alone' and I clam up into a ball and not do anything...depends what my brain feels like!

I have used Oxygen for a badish shadow before and it did help.

thanks for the replies. I am out visiting w/ my parents for the week, and I'm in remission now, but dad is cronic, and we were just wondering. He tried the o2, and it knocked it back about 75%.

A shadow is a cluster headache and any pain in the head no matter how low level, is not normal.  The best course of action is to abort any and all cluster headaches no matter how minor with oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation.

The lower the pain level the faster this method of oxygen inhalation therapy will work to make the pain go away...

There's a very good reason for doing this and it's based on a condition called vascular toning... 

In other words, strengthening the muscles that line the arteries and capillaries in and around the trigeminal nerve.

It's kind of like doing curls with a dumb bell weight to strengthen the biceps.  Do reps for 5 minutes 4 to 5 times a day and your biceps will grow in size, strength and muscle tone.

The same thing happens to the muscles lining our arteries every time we hyperventilate long enough with oxygen therapy to push our circulatory and respiratory systems into respiratory alkalosis as the artery and capillary muscles contract to produce vasoconstriction...

The net result of using this method of oxygen therapy on every attack no matter how minor is vascular toning...  When our arteries are toned up, they become more resistant to the cluster headache triggering mechanism so we tend to have fewer cluster headaches and the few we do have are at the low end of the pain scale so they abort very rapidly... on the order of 2 to 3 minutes...

Now here's the kicker...  the reverse may be true as well...  By sitting around doing nothing about a low level headache for long periods of time, the arteries and capillaries in and around our trigeminal nerve are also basically sitting around in a state of complete dilation the entire time...   They lose muscle tone, grow flaccid and flabby... This makes them more susceptible to the cluster headache triggering mechanism.  We collected data on 366 aborts with this method of oxygen therapy that from seven cluster headache sufferers that clearly show that all seven experienced a marked reduction in the frequency and intensity of their attacks with continued use... 

Hope this helps.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

I use o2 on my shadows and it works, but within 10-15min of stopping the o2, the shadows are back again...
>:(

LH,

It sounds like you may be having re-attacks.  See my post in the thread titled "Medical Oxygen "very expensive"?" at the link below:

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Take care,

V/R, Batch

As Batch says. I knock out every shadow with O2, generally works within a few minutes.

Thanks, Batch, I wasn't really aware of the toning.  This is good info to learn.

I guess I wasn't specific enough in my post, but "shadows" to me (ME only), are just an annoying headache that I can easily take care of with a Red Bull, or even a cup of strong coffee and an Excedrin.  They go away.  If the level gets to a K3 or K4, I no longer consider it as a "shadow" and that's when the O2 is used and I can abort in just a couple of minutes.

Does that make sense?

Sandy

I too will abort a lingering shadow with 02 whenever possible, however when I cannot get to it I always have a bottle of water mixed with powdered ginger with me. It ONLY works for shadows and very low level hits and the taste is not great. I try to stay away from OTC's but again if absolutely no other choice I have found powdered aspirin with caffeine (BC Powder, Goody Powder, and Bayer makes one) to help with shadows.

My two cents

David

I use the O2 to kill shadows too. As advised by Batch, stay on the O2 a while after the pain stops to help with the return of pain. Works for me.

Energy drinks or caffeine also help me.

Don

I'll just jump in and say I too use O2 at every sign of an attack, including "shadows." Mostly because Batch advised us to do that. And just d**n Batch, is there no end to your depth of wisdom? Thanks for hanging around and helping with this stuff. Blessings! lance

I did this for the first time yesterday and was amazed at how effective it was. I kept waiting for the pain to come back, but the O2 seemed to have warded it off for the day.

Batch, I have never heard that theory about resp alkalosis and arterial muscle toning. Interesting stuff. What do you think about using O2 prophylactically on a daily basis to potentially prevent attacks?

As most have said, I hit the O2 on any shadow in case it's a dandy.  Just listen to everything Batch has to say.
He is my Jedi Master when it comes to O2 training.

Kika,

There's no question in my mind that repeated use of oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation and induce respiratory alkalosis can cause vasoconstriction to the point it will tone up arteries in and around the trigeminal nerve.  The only downside is this takes time.  Data from our study indicates vascular toning starts becoming effective around week 3 to 4 and reaches maximum effectiveness around week 8 of repeated daily use.

Having said that, I'm of the opinion that a regimen of calcium citrate tablets containing vitamin D, magnesium and zinc washed down with lemonade or limeade works much faster at lowering the frequency and intensity of my cluster headaches. 

Although the exact mechanism for this is not clear, it appears this regimen elevates arterial pH and that results in vasoconstriction with the same net effect of repeated use of oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation. 

I've recently shifted from fresh homemade lemonade to Jose Cuervo margarita mix and found it to be very effective due to the extra citric acid.  The only downside to the Jose Cuervo margarita mix is the 250 calories a glass.  Last week I switched over to Baja Bob's sugar free margarita mix and found it to be even more effective with the added benefit that the Sumo recruiters are no longer chasing me down the street.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

I beacame a "disciple" of Batchs'  PH theory this last cycle when for the first time oxygen began to fail me and I was riding 90 minute hits again. Batch suggested this lame sounding theory about arterial PH balances and reductions in CH.

30 hours after starting his regimen 02 was slapping the beast back down, and the cycle was backing down a bit. By no means a double blind scientific study, but no doubt in my mind it worked for me.

Joe

My all day shadows were diagnosed as migraines.

Nothing helped, not even O2 until the time I had such a severe allergic reaction to whole grain wheat that I finally stopped eating all wheat altogether and went completely gluten free.

I'd previously thought wheat was not a trigger for me as I'd gone on wheat free diets before to lose prednisone weight.  I didn't realize how pervasive wheat is--it's in almost everything with modified food starch or caramel coloring!  Even beef jerky and some nut mixes include wheat. Pepsi's caramel coloring is derived from wheat.  They say it's gluten free because it's processed at such high temperatures most proteins are destroyed but it is derived from wheat. 

Since my allergies got worse the slightest trace of wheat is a CH trigger for me.  But the gluten free diet's cleared up my migraines by 90%.

So- you may want to also learn about migraines and their triggers and try a true elimination diet (without cheating with diet pepsi the way I did).  Those migraines are extremely minimal compared to CH but the constant pain is psychologically exhausting.

Good luck!

I guess I too am a Batch follower - cling to every word. Thanks for all your help. Very helpful... I start my 02 tomorrow without any help with abortives.. I feel like I'm going into a gun fight with a knife, but I'm not giving in on this one. Sick of the imetrex washout. (I just wonder if my hangovers today are credits I can use when I can drink again. Like a "get out of jail free card?  :)

Awesome question. I have also been wondering the same thing. My shadow almost never goes away and drives me batty from the varying degrees of pressure and pain. Thank you.