Hey Genever,

Hope your trip to the ER went well...  They never did for me...

Regarding Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), my initial thinking was to keep it as an adjunct to the anti-inflammatory regimen so it isn't listed in the table of supplements or shown in the photo of supplements I take.  I did include it in the treatment protocol along with Turmeric (Curcumin) with a recommendation to take at least 2000 mg/day as vitamin C helps prevent cardiovascular disease and both can help with inflammation from any source..

The following link to the video of Dr. Linus Pauling giving a lecture that does a good job explaining the basic physiological requirements for Vitamin C.  It will also give you a smile when he talks about the minimum Vitamin C dose needed to keep us alive saying...  "That's the RDA."  His comments about taking 30 times the RDA for Vitamin C, 18 grams a day and 25 times the RDA for Vitamin D3 (10,000 IU/day)  ended with "...but when I get older... I'll increase it to 50 times the RDA."  He was 92 when he made this video and a vocal critic of the Food and Nutrition Board's proposed RDAs for the A, B, C, and D vitamins as being far too low...

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The role of Vitamin C with respect to the anti-inflammatory regimen is indirect.  In other words, it isn't part of the mechanism of action where the genetically active vitamin D3 metabolite, 1,25(OH)2D3, enables genetic expression of the autocrine and paracrine signaling agents that down-regulate or suppress the expression of CGRP and SP in the trigeminal ganglia and in doing so, helps prevent CH. 

Instead, Vitamin C helps suppress infections (viral, bacterial and fungal) that would otherwise result in additional inflammatory burdens that would compete for available serum vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D and presumably, make it less available to the VDR in neurons within the trigeminal ganglia where we need them most as CHers.

If your CH beast starts jumping ugly out of nowhere from a long period of pain free bliss and Benadryl (Diphehydramine HCL) isn't woking... an infection could be the culprit responsible for the outbreak.  In this case, taking a 1000 mg tablet of vitamin C every 3 to 4 hours during the day with plenty of water might just do the trick in chasing the CH beast away.  As Dr. Pauling said, vitamin C is not toxic, so your cardiovascular system will love you for doing this.

Vitamin C is also an potent antioxident and it plays a role in several enzymatic functions.  I hope this answers your question.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch