Thanks Batch.

I also take 1000 mg of vitamin C 4 times/day throughout the year.

Interesting stuff. Don't we also get VD from the sun?

Just seen this neurosciencenews.com/chronic-headache-vitamin-d-5859/ you'll have to add the usual web site prefix, I can't post web links yet

Just wanted to know if anyone has tried those capsaicin nasal sprays to abort an attack?

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Batch and Everyone else,
Thanks so much for your valuable information. I am a newbie to your site. Started having episodic CH every 4 years since 2008 and am currently in a period now. My wife has vit D deficiency due to hashimoto's thyroiditis. Whenever she took high doses of vit D, after a few days or a week, her kidneys would hurt. We were concerned about kidney damage. So I got her a Vitamin D lamp from Sperti. It will not tan you with UVA rays, only gives out UVB which produces the vit D. Her levels quickly went up from 4.5 ng  to 26.9 ng within a couple of weeks, while still taking a tolerable amount of Vit D drops daily. The Vit D lamp maintenance dosage is just 3 sessions per week, 5 min per session.  This was a safe way for her to quickly get her vit D levels up. So I tried it for the last two days and, within 48 hours went from 4 attacks per day (1 around 5pm and 3 during the night) to just one in the entire day. I guess my point is it that, due to gut issues (she takes daily probiotics now) some people may not be able to absorb the high oral vit D regimen, or perhaps not do so due to kddney issues. How do you guys avoid the calcium in the kidneys problem? 
Also, I am currently taking hydrochlorathiazide (HCTZ) 25mg for high blood pressure. Isn't this a vasodilator? and would be contraproductive to CH?
I believe some of you guys were saying Benadryl helped (vasoconstictor,antihistamine gen 1), as well as caffeine (vasoconstrictor,stimulant). Thanks.

Hey Batch, greetings from cold and wintery Finland!

I'm a new user here, but I have been taking your regimen religiously for the past four years to a great success. My chronic CH pain disappeared soon after starting it, and I'd like to thank you for making my life so much better. In my opinion, you are a true hero.

I've been having some difficulties with the beast over the last couple of weeks, and I wanted to ask if taking too much vitamin D could have a negative effect over a period of time?

I had a prolonged flu over the Christmas holidays, but the first shadows started just after I felt like I had recovered from the disease. I've been taking 50,000iu a day for two weeks now and the headaches are just getting worse every day. I can't afford to go check the levels at a doctor right now either. I've been taking 24mg of Benadryl for four days to no effect now, and vitamin C or probiotics haven't helped either. I'm going to go get curcumin and melatonin tomorrow to see if they help at all. I have prednisone too but would like to avoid taking it for as long as I can.

My question basically is whether it's wise to continue taking 50,000iu per day or try to lower it back to 10,000iu? I tried it just for a day a week ago and felt the pain got worse so decided to continue with a larger dosage.

What else is there to try if curcumin or melatonin won't help either?

Thank you for your reply Batch! Haven't been to a sauna in a while, but I'll make sure to do that asap 

I started taking prednisone 50 mg/day as you told me to and it immediately worked. The headaches have subsided into very minor shadows. Should this mean that I'm suffering from an inflammation which is hogging all the D3 I'm consuming?

I started eating anti-inflammatory foods only, hoping the symptoms would disappear soon. I've been getting plenty of vitamin B from my multivitamin, but otherwise I've adjusted my intake to follow the points you mentioned above.

If it is indeed inflammation that's bringing back the headaches, should I continue taking 50,000iu/day of D3 or even higher? I'm going to stay on prednisone for a few more days and see if lower amounts could keep the beast away while fighting the inflammation.

Hi Batch and fellow CH'ers,

I've been following this specific forum/board for a while now and I wanted to tell everyone my experiences with cluster headaches.

I am 34 years old, and I had suffered from cluster headaches since high school. I would typically have headaches that lasted around 90 minutes. These usually occurred once every 1-2 days for a period of roughly 3-4 weeks. They would then disappear and then come back sometime later, anywhere between 6-12 months.

During my last attack, I was once again desperate to find a solution and started looking up information online. Eventually I had come across this specific forum/board. After reading the initial post here, I had tried the anti-inflammatory regimen for about a month. Unfortunately, since my cluster period would typically last for 3-4 weeks, it was difficult to tell if the regimen worked or not. I stopped the regimen shortly after the attacks stopped.

However, a few months later after the attack, I came across a book that my SO introduced to me called "The Blood Sugar Solution" by Mark Hyman. We had taken our health very seriously a couple years prior, and realized that food was a big contributor to how crappy we felt on a lot of days. Her finding this book is a direct result of our realization.

I COULD NOT stop myself from reading this book. It would take too long to explain, but in general, it talked about just how bad sugar is for your body. It was absolutely terrifying. Eventually there was one key word that kept popping up in the book: INFLAMMATION.

Again I am making a general statement, but the book talked about how high levels of inflammation can cause all sorts of problems to the body. Once I realized how serious this was, I immediately thought back to this cluster headache forum/board. I thought, what if this is it? What if this was causing my cluster headaches that I have been suffering through for many years? I thought about some of the foods I had regularly eaten at the time: Sweets for breakfast, tons of carbs throughout the day (especially processed flours and wheat), and sweets after dinner.

Thinking about the possibility of sugar and high sugar levels causing high levels of inflammation and being the cause of my cluster headaches set off the trigger in me to completely overhaul my diet. I was desperate to try anything to get rid of these headaches. I followed the 10-day detox regimen that the books used, and afterwards I made changes to my meals. Breakfast now consists of some combination of eggs, meat and veggies. Lunch is typically salads, or a portable fish/veggie dish I come up with. Dinners are also some meat/veggie combination, and oftentimes a Mexican dish that is low on carbs. I have sweets MAYBE once a week, if that. I made sure that what I ate did not have added sugars to them, and I cut back on processed flours significantly.

I can tell you without a doubt that within the first few weeks of this overhaul, I have felt much better overall. I don't feel tired anymore, and my head has not been heavy. I have been able to get consistent sleep. My depression is pretty much gone (it comes back once in a while, but not serious). I now actually have the motivation to get things done in my life (it was a struggle before).

My name is Ethan, and I am a victim of cluster headaches. My last attack ended in early January of 2015. It has officially been over 2 years since my last attack. I have never had a remission period for this long, and I am really hoping that my overhaul in my diet will keep the headaches from ever coming back.

I want to thank Batch for creating the initial post here about inflammation, because if I had not seen this before reading the book, I may not have taken my diet as seriously. I cannot state that an overhaul in diet is the solution to stopping cluster headaches, but I do want to say that what you eat can significantly play a role in our health. Please consider reading the book I mentioned earlier ("The Blood Sugar Solution" by Mark Hyman). It may give people a wake up call on how bad sugar (and some processed flours) can be.

Thanks.