Ryder,

Crap happens and so do cluster headaches.  Yes, I had that happen to me when I came down with my first cold since starting this regimen nearly 3 years ago.

I went through two days of 2 to 3 hits at 6s & 7s (all aborted rapidly with oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation), then I got smart and bumped my vitamin D3 to 25,000 IU/day and added a 50,000 IU loading dose on top of the daily dose.  I also bumped my magnesium up to 500 mg/day and the Omega-3 Fish Oil to 2000 mg/day.  The CH cleared by the end of the third day, but I stayed on this dosing schedule until the cold symptoms cleared completely...  including the nagging cough.  That took two weeks...

After that I dropped back to 15,000 IU/day vitamin D3.

I suspect your falling out of remission is due to a sub-clinical viral infection or allergic reaction that's competing for available 25(OH)D.  It's something like that or your arterial pH has tanked for some reason...  Change in diet? 

A low arterial pH triggers vasodilation and that will play havoc with any cluster headache medication.

I had a couple other CH'ers who switched brands of vitamin D3 report some surprising results... One fell out of remission and the other found his stable serum concentration of 25(OH)D jumped from 80 ng/mL up to 150 ng/mL...  Both went back to their original brand...

Hope this helps.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Ryder,

Experiencing an increase in the frequency of CH following initiation of oxygen therapy is not uncommon.  In a study we did in 2008 with 8 participants using oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation over an 8-week period logging abort times and pain levels of every abort, all experienced an increase in the frequency of their CH for a few weeks...  They also experienced a decrease in the frequency of their CH as they continued to use this method of oxygen therapy.  The turning point was around 4 weeks...

The following chart from that study illustrates both the increase and decrease in CH frequency over an eight week period. All eight CH'ers experienced the same increase and decrease in the frequency of thier CH.

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There are two things to remember about this method of oxygen therapy...  The first is it's not a preventative...  The second and most important point is the speed of aborts...  A 7 minute average abort time over pain levels 3 through 9 with a 99% success rate in achieving an abort of their CH is not bad by any measure of effectiveness...

You'll also note the average maximum pain level during each abort and abort times continued to drop over the eight week period.

What appears to be happening with continued use of this method of oxygen therapy is a toning process whereby the smooth muscles lining the arteries and capillaries improve their muscle tone (strength) making the CH triggering mechanism less effective and the abort times shorter.

If you sum up the total time in pain by week... you'll see you're well ahead of the problem using oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation.  Tossing in a 25 mg tablet of imitrex following the first abort of the evening buys you at least 4 if not 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep...  and that cuts the frequency even further.

I hope this helps explain what you're experiencing...

Take care,

V/R, Batch