Hi everyone,

I have tried vitamin D on my last cycle back in 2013 with not great success.

I had mentioned the regimen to my neuro back then....but he had no clue about it...

I just started a new cycle, and met with my neuro a few days ago.....this time, he told me he had read about the regimen. :)

He's a great doctor and is open minded on alternative ways of fighting the beast.

But, he told me that adding calcium to the regimen would not be good since I already take verapamil......too much calcium could lead to kidney problems...

Your thoughts?

Thanks!

Hey Yan,

Good question and good idea starting the anti-inflammatory regimen.  The calcium component of the anti-inflammatory regimen can be optional while taking verapamil. 

There are several articles on the impact of calcium supplements on heart patients taking verapamil and it appears reports on the extent of impact on verapamil effectiveness caused by calcium supplements are mixed. 

There were a few cardiologists treating heart patients who required calcium supplements and they basically split the calcium and verapamil doses, calcium in the morning and verapamil 6 to 12 hours later.

We've had CH'ers report not taking calcium while taking verapamil and some that did.  Among the CH'ers taking both verapamil and the anti-inflammatory regimen with calcium, there didn't appear to be any loss of effectiveness in verapamil's preventative effect...  What usually happened is this regimen started working and the CH'er experienced a pain free response.

Some of them continued taking verapamil after the PF response and some stopped the verapamil.

Bottom line...  Based on the results of the online survey of 127 CH'ers taking the anit-inflammatory regimen, 83% of the CH'ers starting this regimen experienced a significant reduction in the frequency, severity, and duration of their CH attacks.  60% experienced a lasting pain free response. 

Putting numbers on the term "significant" reduction, the survey data indicates an average frequency of 3 CH/day before stating this regimen, and 3 CH/week after a favorable response to this regimen.

The latest version of this regimen that I take uses the Kirkland brand Mature Multi in stead of the calcium citrate.  See the following link for details including a photo of the supplements I take.

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The Mature Multi is formulated with 220 mg of calcium, all seven B vitamins, and all the rest of the essential vitamin D3 cofactors...  Just not enough magnesium or vitamin K2 so I add extra magnesium and vitamin K2 as illustrated in the photo. 

The Mature Multi should provide a low enough dose of calcium so that if taken in the A.M. and verapamil through out the rest of the day, shouldn't cause any lasting loss of verapamil's preventative effect.  See your neurologist to come up with a workable dosing strategy to take both.  The alternative is to take all the other vitamin D3 cofactors in separate formulations that do not contain calcium.

If your neurologist still has questions or concerns, please shoot me a PM so we can work them out.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Many thanks Batch! :)

Hopefully most of this is on topic:

I've just dropped down (2nd day) to maintenance dose levels of the D3 (10K) after taking 600K D3 over three weeks. I didn't take any calcium at all during that time until about 1 week ago I added a half dose of Mega Mens 50+ which give me about 100mg per day of calcium (similar to Batch's multi I think).

I'm 10 PFDAN's in a row (but with continued shadows) and have dropped my Verap dosage over the last week to 1/3 of peak levels starting today. I also happened to add another 100K calcium citrate tablet today thinking I had been low since the start and with my Verap levels down it should be ok.

About a half hour ago I started feeling a bit more than shadows. Not sure if my definition of shadows is technically correct. I consider shadows as pressure that is just noticeable enough to remind you its not normal but not painful in any way. I can drink, sleep & work with constant "shadows".

What just passed was more annoying than painful. Just a reminder that crap, maybe this isn't gone. It's already passed as I've been typing this. I've been able to drink beer, wine, etc for 4 or 5 days already. 

Unique to today was the lighter dose of Verap and a bit more calcium.

Tomorrow I'll get my blood tested to see where my D3 levels are (also calcium,magnesium). If I'm not at least 60 and preferably up toward 80 on my D3 level, I assume the advice would be to increase above the maintenance dose levels as needed?  Question for Batch if your reading this.

I'll stay off the additional calcium and at least keep this level of Verap going until I can get these shadows+ to go away.

Hey Littlee.

You're spot on topic... and thanks for the update.  I love to see posts like yours where a CH'er is thinking his or her way through the CH symptoms and deciding what to do next.  It's good to hear you're pain free...  Your plan sounds good to me.

The rationale for taking calcium as part of the anti-inflammatory regimen is essentially based on the increased calcium kinetics or better said, the flow of calcium into and out of the bones, made possible by taking vitamin D3 doses we take to prevent CH.

This process happens all the time so it's no big deal... unless calcium gozinta the bones slower than the calcium gozouta the bones.  As we all want to maintain bone mineral density, when the above condition happens, usually due to insufficient calcium from dietary sources and no supplemental calcium, osteomalaica and osteoporosis are the result. 

Sooo... taking at least 220 mg/day supplemental calcium is a prudent insurance policy to prevent soft or brittle bones...

Again, glad to hear you've got the CH beast on the run.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Thanks Batch,

FWIW, I just noticed that the website of the lab I use here in Bulgaria had a notice that for the D3 test, 10 days should pass since the last dose. I'm assuming this means the test tells you your D3 level 10 days prior.

Since I've been on maintenance dose for about 4 days now (but with a lot of D3 super dosing the week before that), I'm going to wait a week and make sure all that D3 is "recognizable" in my system.

Not sure how accurate this "10 day" info is (or maybe it's widely known) but just in case it's true I wanted to pass it along to make sure everyone is aware who might be monitoring their levels closely.

Regards

I have used the D3 regimen in this past cycle, and must admit that it was the ''lightest'' and shortest in over 20 years.....

While I didn't took everything in the regimen, I managed to abort every attacks with Zomig sprays.....didn't had more than two attacks in a day.....and the cycle lasted a bit more than 4 weeks instead of the regular 5-6 weeks.....wow!

I will keep taking the D3 and the magnesium for now....and will add the rest after I'm off my other meds that I take....

Hopefully, I could keep the beast away for the years to come...

Thanks Batch!