Hey Craig,

Welcome to the anti-inflammatory regimen...  Great questions...

For starters, the klingon shadows and K-3 to K-4 burn through attacks will likely go away after a week or so...  You can make them vamose a lot faster by starting the acclerated vitamin D3 loading schedule.   

This loading schedule calls for 20,000 IU/day for two weeks followed by another two weeks at 15,000 IU/day.  In addition, during the first two weeks, take a 50,000 IU vitamin D3 loading dose, once a week for the first two weeks on top of the 20,000 IU daily dose.

If you run the numbers, this comes to a total of 600,000 IU of vitamin D3 over the four-week period or an average of 21,000 IU/day vitamin D3. 

The average 25(OH)D response to this 600,000 IU vitamin D3 intake is an increase of 60 ng/mL on top of the starting 25(OH)D serum concentration. 

Regarding the Centrum for men 50 plus, it should have at least 220 mg calcium and eating an orange will be a good source of citric acid. Hope this helps.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Hey Martin,

Welcome to the anti-inflammatory regimen and thanks for the initial feedback.  Have you seen your PCP or neurologist for the lab test for 25(OH)D? 

Knowing your serum concentration of this vitamin D3 metabolite can be very helpful in determining how long it will take for a favorable response to this regimen... and how much vitamin D3 to take.

Are you taking the rest of the anti-inflammatory regimen?  Magnesium is very important.  It supports the enzymatic processes that metabolize vitamin D3 to 25(OH)D and on to 1,25(OH)2D3, the active hormonal metabolite we think is responsible for the CH preventative effect.

You may need to increase your vitamin D3 intake, but without the results of a 25(OH)D lab test, it's difficult to say how much or for how long...

If you're taking the liquid softgel capsules or liquid form of vitamin D3, pop 15,000 to 20,000 IU of these capsules between your back teeth and hold the contents between your cheek and gums for 15 to 20 minutes without swallowing or drinking any fluids.  If you're using the liquid vitamin D3 drops, put them under your tongue,  Do this as soon as you feel your next CH approaching.

Taking vitamin D3 this way bypasses the GI tract and gets the vitamin D3 directly into the blood stream very rapidly.  You should find taking vitamin D3 this way will help abort the CH.

Regarding oxygen therapy not working...  This happens... but there are usually several reasons why...  If you wait until the CH pain has ramped up to levels 6 to 8, the aborts with oxygen therapy will take much longer than if you started at the first sign of an approaching CH.

If you wait until pain reaches level 9 on the 10-point headache pain scale, an abort with oxygen will be limited and it will take a long time (>20 minutes)... If the pain has reach pain level 10, an abort with oxygen therapy will be nearly impossible and you're just along for the painful ride...

The second problem that prevents aborts with oxygen therapy is the breathing technique.  Most of us start out breathing oxygen like we breath room air...  with slow shallow breaths... 

Breathing this way fails to ventilate the lungs completely.  That's why many of us who have become proficient at aborting our CH with oxygen therapy use oxygen flow rates of 25 to 40 liters/minute...  Simply put, keeping up with these flow rates forces us into hyperventilating at higher lung tidal volumes and that ventilates the lungs more completely.

Start your next oxygen therapy by standing and breathing through your mouth with jaw dropped like saying the word, "Haw."  Standing gives your diaphragm full range of motion and this helps ventilate the lungs more completely.  If you get dizzy... and you will...  lean against a wall...  If you feel too dizzy, sit erect in a chair.

Start this session by hyperventilating with room air.  You do this by exhaling forcibly and when it feels like your lungs are empty...  they're not... do an abdominal crunch like doing situps and hold the squeeze until your exhaled breath makes a wheezing sound for a couple seconds.  This will squeeze out an additional half to full liter of exhaled breath.

Then without delay, inhale rapidly from the diaphragm with head and shoulders back and chest out... As soon as the lungs are full, repeat the forced exhalation technique above.  If you're doing this correctly, you should be completing 10 complete respiration cycles in 30 seconds.

With 10 seconds to go in your first 30 seconds hyperventilating with this breathing technique, turn on your oxygen supply valve with the flow rate selector at the highest setting to let the reservoir bag fill... Cup the face mask against your tummy or knee to keep oxygen from escaping.

At the end of 30 seconds hyperventilating with room air with this breathing technique, take a deep lungful of oxygen and hold it for 30 seconds.

If you've done this procedure properly you start experiencing the symptoms of paresthesia... a very slight tingling or prickling of the face, lips, back of the neck and fingertips shortly after inhaling an holding the lungful of oxygen. 

You'll feel these symptoms start to build as soon as you've filled your lungs with oxygen and started holding it... They will continue to build for about 15 seconds then you'll start feeling them subside...  They'll be almost gone after holding the lung full of oxygen for 30 seconds.

Keep repeating this sequence until the CH pain is completely gone.

The entire procedure is called hyperventilating at forced tidal volume capacities...  The net effect of this procedure is casting off CO2 faster than your body generates it through normal metabolism.

I can hear the wheels turning... What has CO2 got to do with aborting a CH?  The answer is... a lot.  CO2 dissolves in water and blood serum to make carbonic acid.  A high blood CO2 content and low pH triggers vasodilation...  For cluster headache sufferers, vasodilation means pain...

By reducing the amount of CO2 dissolved in the blood stream through hyperventilation, we elevate arterial pH making the blood less acid and more alkaline.

Blood hemoglobin is very sensitive to pH.  At a low arterial pH, (more acid), hemoglobin releases oxygen and uploads CO2.  This is what happens in muscles and tissues in the body all the time. 

When the return venous blood flow reaches the lungs where the pH is higher, (more alkaline), hemoglobin offloads CO2 in the exhaled breath and uploads oxygen with the next inhaled breath. This is the normal oxygen and CO2 transport mechanism that keeps us living.

By intentionally hyperventilating with room air long enough to elevate arterial pH, we're pushing our body into respiratory alkalosis. 

The net effect of breathing 100% oxygen at this point is the blood hemoglobin is now carrying up to 12% more oxygen than normal.  The combination of an elevated arterial pH and super oxygenated blood flow triggers a rapid and pronounced vasoconstriction... When this happens in and around the trigeminal nerve... it aborts the CH pain...  very effectively and very rapidly. 

The important thing to remember about using this breathing procedure during oxygen therapy is it is just an abortive...  and not a preventative.  Your CH will likely return in a couple hours...  unless you're also taking the anti-inflammatory regimen.

You're also wondering if this breathing technique and oxygen therapy procedure is safe...  It's very safe.  The symptoms of respiratory alkalosis will clear in 30 seconds to a minute breathing normally.  This lets the blood's CO2 content build back to normal levels.

I've hyperventilated with oxygen since 2005 to abort my CH and have yet to pass out... even when I wanted to in the worse way... 

All of us will pass out due to a lack of oxygen.  That is called hypoxia...  insufficient oxygen at less than normal levels...

When we use the method of oxygen therapy described above, we induce just the opposite condition... hyperoxia... excess oxygen or higher than normal partial pressure of oxygen. 

Hyperventilation also induces hypocapnea...  lower than normal partial pressure of CO2.  Hyperoxia and hypocapnea trigger the sensations of dizziness... that's why you lean against a wall or sit erect in a chair.

Practice this breathing technique and procedure before your next CH...

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch