Hey Radar,
while being on the regimen for the last 4 years, i would get slight shadows around spring and autumn time as that would be the time i would usually go into a full violent cycle for 3 to 4 months.
Batch then advised that i take a good probiotic on top of the regimen. I have started doing that daily over just a year ago. Since then, even the shadows have disappeared.

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I also take,from Batch's advice, a spoon of turmeric in warm milk nightly before bed.

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It is an Indian herb, totally natural anti-inflammatory.

Living a Happy Pain Free life now 

Hi Thierry
Thank you very much for the extra.  The one thing I dont take is the probiotic, will add that in.  Getting shadows but no pain.  Last week I started the curcumin which seems to have a positive effect as well.

Ian (Radar)

D3 didn't show the great results others had here so I did plenty of research and remain on my conclusion that some of us might have other conditions present who prevent the full potential. I still believe d3 is powerful in many ways but it might not be enough for everyone.

I did change my diet mid cycle and have drastic positive results. Might be a coincidence but I don't think so. I have had Candida overgrowth under suspicion (hello Western world sugar and carb heavy diet) for a while now (even before this year's cycle due to many other health issues present that may be tracked back to your gut)- or even the next stage called leaky gut syndrome. Google both if you haven't yet. Besides many other things this can affect both your liver and more importantly your kidneys. And yes, here we go - the kidneys play a major role in d3 activation...further, chronic kidney disease has many stages before it actually causes clear symptoms.

I got all checked up and will receive results next week and report back.

A lot of cross reading brought me to this diet set up below. There are multiple reportings around the web of people finding relief with similar approaches. I know others said it didn't help but you have to consider it's very hard to plow through with no cheating and stick with it for awhile to see actual results.

I don't think this neither cause nor cure for CH but it might be an additional  powerful band aid.

It takes time to rebalance your digestive system which is seen as the host for ones immune system and since recent years scientifically researched as actual trigger for many nasty things, many of them mostly thought of being a brain issue whilst it actually might originate from an imbalanced gut system (depression for example...).

There is a direct signalling path between your gut and the Hippothalamus !!

If you cheat or don't allow enough time, you might not be able to actually evaluate it. (The extreme case of leaky gut syndrome can take a year plus to heal !)

I also don't advocate to try this at home before you are as sure as possible that you don't have anything else going on. (Diabetes or whatever)

Buy urine test strips in your pharmacy and check your PH, protein, ketone levels 3 times a day. I am for example constantly at the bottom PH level throughout the day which means my body is way too acidic. You can up your PH level with looking into this:

Remove completely :

- sugar (and no sugar means no sugar - no energy drinks or soda!)
- meat of all kinds
- gluten
- cow diary
- seafood
- alcohol (goes without saying)
- careful with some fruits like bananas or pineapple
- go easy with coffee or remove it. Coffee is very acidic
- no external prepared food as you don't know what's actually in it
- low proteins, as too much can be bad for your kidneys if my theory is on the right track

Basically Google purine high / low foods

There is plenty left you can eat, and thanks to the current general Western world "healthy life style trend" pretty easy to obtain the ingredients.

You can have a well balanced diet with enough of calorie intake with choices of the below. All prepared at home only !

- vegtabels (mostly all green leafed ones, no tomatoes)
- goat and sheep cheese
- carbs from spelt, self baked spelt bread (technically not gluten free but spelt is a very old heritage grain that seem to be tolerated well)
-cold pressed oils like coconut, hemp etc (omega 3 rich)
- salt water fish, frozen (like Pacific salmon)
- cooked eggs are potentially not low in purine but I think I can tolerate them
- berries mostly blueberry, raspberry and blackberry, buy frozen
- Butter is fine as well, doesn't count as cow diary product
- chia seeds
- etc etc

I make sure to have lots of oil and butter and spelt carbs with my food. I believe I have a way higher calorie intake then before but lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. (This is not that great losing so fast !!! But it shows me something wasn't right before)

Caution - Potatoes for example are a classic, nutrition rich ingredient for a low purine diet, however I felt I had more attacks again when I had a dinner with potatoes so after research I found that there are potentiel cross allergies present with pollen allergies... (I don't tolerate Arlen pollen which is high in early spring. Potatoes and carrots share the same allergen )

I do that since around 3 weeks and have zero attacks for many days to 1 attack coming from hourly 8 attacks per night. The 1 remaining attack is extremely mild and takes 5 minutes with o2. I am not on the strict d3 regimen anymore, jist did it one week and I just try to keep my levels in a normal range by supplementing once a week 20k but this both might play well along of course.

Sugar and (wheat carb) witdrawel is a very though one. I still recommend consider it, even if it doesn't help CH you allow your body to detox for a while.

Again, be sure you don't have anything else going on that might be affected from such drastic change. Maybe ask a doctor for advice first.

Exercise can good or bad, again here depends on potential side conditions one might have. If I am going to heavy on my neck for example, I can pretty much count on having an (mild, but still) attack the next day. (Nitro stress can up nitro oxide levels )

I might draw wrong conclusions here and am happy for any additional discussion.

Batch wrote on Apr 17^th, 2017 at 3:17pm:



BOY HOWDY! on the spring Chinook Batch.....the two best meals I've EVER had in my life were
Columbia River Spring Kings (one smoked white, the other bbq'd red)...the memory brings bliss.....including of the oil dripping down the chin....OH MY................Alas quite rare now....bet the Pelican brand pretty darn good.....the Silvers are good for giving away IMHO...different flavor
I don't care for........................

I also recall one particularly crusty fisherman's boat in AK...in the head he had a sign: Women only....men piss over the rail!". SO...be sure to check the windsock...you should be purty good
at that.

Good fishin"

Best

Jon

Hi and welcome Dave

This thread is an epic read and you'll have seen how the "recipe" has improved over the years as Batch has tweaked it so that it is successful for more and more people. What will make good reading for you with all the latest info in one place is at the following link:

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It is great that you got to experience just how good an imitrex injection is. However I'm confused by your PCP then giving you a prescription for the tablet form. Whilst this can kill off a CH, it can take 20 minutes or so to take effect, which is a long time for a CH, which is why people normally use either the injection or the nasal spray.

Oxygen also works great and you can normally use it by itself without needing the imitrex. Are you getting your own O2 set up so you can use it whenever you get a CH? O2 has the benefit that you can use it multiple times a day, whilst with imitrex you are normally limited to just 2 per day.

You can read up more about oxygen at - Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or .

From your question around the allergy treatment and it impacting CH, it is hard to be certain, but I'd think it be more likely that the allergy treatment is just controlling the symptoms of the allergy, but there is still a lower level allergic reaction happening which is likely to be a strong CH trigger.

Batch has often posted how high pollen levels impact his CH with him taking additional measures to keep himself CH pain free at that time of the year.

O2 cylinders come in a wide range of sizes from the large, heavy ones that are great for at home to smaller ones which are more portable. Some people have smaller ones in their car for when out and about. I've even used one which will fit in a backpack. The other alternative for when mobile is to use imitrex injections / nasal spray as you can't take oxygen everyone, like if you fly somewhere.

So it is all about having options for how you kill CH so you're always prepared with at least one option whilst in cycle.

Shadows as low level CHs which can often hang around for a while but you can kill them off just like you can a full blown CH. But other things can help with options including energy drinks (must have taurine and caffeine) or hot / cold air / showers and more.

The visual thing around your peripheral vision is possible an aura which whilst more common with migraine is something that some people get with CH too. With aura, if you close your eyes, you can still see it.

The stuffy nose / eye impacts are due to the trigemenal nerve during a CH, with this having branches around the eyes, nose and jaw, with it triggering symptoms where it goes to.

Are you working with a headache specialist? Whilst you have a PCP who clearly is doing what they can, CH is best treated by someone with skills and experience beyond what most PCPs, even most neurologists have.

I hope this helps, but ask all the questions you have.

Hi Batch,

When the VDRs in the Hypothalamus 'see' an influx of D3 metabolites, is the time of day D3 is taken relevant to Circadian rhythm?
Does our Hypothalamus or even our whole body think the sun is still up if we take 10,000IU of D3 in evening darkness?

Any insight appreciated.

Hi Batch,

As we don't get enough D3 from sources other than sunlight, I was simply wondering if the act of D3 supplementation and the timing of the dosing schedule had any impact on circadian rhythm. To that end, at least in CH, I've answered my own question. On the regimen without nocturnal attacks quality of sleep and life is much better.
No real 'between the lines' here Batch!
Researching Seasonal Affective Disorders (SAD) and other light affected sleep/wake, or circadian disorders was something of interest me.
Your posts are thought provoking and this thought had been on my mind for some time, so I just wanted to ask.

I've seen the Photobucket problems too, Batch.
This is not good for your work, those images are priceless in explaining things to us.
That manoeuvre killed a bunch of other Fora in which I participated. Killed them stone dead, very few posts in the past year.
We had an image host called PostImage hooked to a forum which enabled users to directly upload images on the forum and for forum admin to collect these images into a database. For many years this worked well. PostImage had a problem when they got the bill from their new cloud storage provider. I also don't know who runs them and have had no luck in deleting pictures once posted.
Good luck with the image hosting Batch and thanks very much for the reply.

Edit: Added link: Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or
Maybe this can be hooked to the forum?
If it still works, it was a fantastic tool for forum users.

Thanks for the tip Batch.
I'm glad your image host is working and I shall suggest imgur to a few people in need.

I have a second question re: the D3 regimen and concomitant use of plant phytosterols to lower cholesterol.

Do you know if plant sterols/stanols impede the absorption of any of the regimen's fish oils & olive oils, or affect the uptake of the regimen or co-factors?

The labelling on the sterols/stanols says to take one 20 minutes before food and I'd like to know what you think about leaving time for the regimen to be absorbed before using a sterol/stanol. My understanding is they sterols/stanols attempt to block lipid absorption in the gut, but I could be way off the mark.

Thanks again for your replies.

Thanks again Batch.

In the 12+ months I've been taking sterols/stanols my own anecdotal observations match yours with regard to efficacy of the D3 regimen.
It still works fine.
However, when a shadow breaks through, the fear of the beast 'jumping ugly' as you often put it here, does make me think very hard about what I may be doing wrong.
CH breakthrough for me seems almost always attributable to infection, injury, allergy or dietary lapse.
For me, it's nothing a Tablespoon of cement, a D3 loading dose and some vigilance won't fix.

I laughed at the Prednisone side effects Batch, as they were the same here. Dexamethasone once (Nasty stuff) and many courses of Pred over the years took their toll.
Apart from thinned skin and bone problems, any food stuff that was not bolted down was duly eaten.
It astounds me the ravenous hunger that can come with Pred, I felt like Sylvester the cat eyeing off Tweety as he turns into a roast chicken in those old Merrie Melodies cartoons. Everything around me looked to be edible.

A tip to me from a very wise elder on clinical trial participation: "The Guinea Pig can't say no, but you can".
Equipped with that newfound understanding, I've been able to both participate in trials and also know when to pull the pin and leave them too. A lot of us feel obliged to comply, both for the trial and for our CH relief. It helps greatly knowing when to walk and that you can.

Indeed, you've answered my question and then some, Batch.
Thanks again and PF days to all here.