Word is starting to get out... cluster headaches

[Cthulhu's Tentacle]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/...shrooms16.html

Pain sufferer turns to 'shrooms'



August 16, 2006
BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter <!-- Empty line is needed --> <noscript> </noscript>

<!--publication CST --> <!--pub_section NWS page 4 last modified 8/15/06 10:38 PM-->
Every New Year's Eve and July 4th, Bob Wold brews a tea containing a psychedelic drug from "magic mushrooms."
Wold takes a small dose of the drug psilocybin -- just enough to make sounds more distinct and colors a bit brighter. "I get a couple giggles out of it," he said. "It's like having two or three beers."
But Wold doesn't take "shrooms" for the four-hour high. Rather, he has found that psilocybin is the only drug that prevents one of the most painful conditions known to man, cluster headaches.

Bob Wold, shown by the pond of his Lombard home, suffers from cluster headaches. (RICH HEIN/ SUN-TIMES)



CLUSTER HEADACHES


More common in men.
Begin suddenly, with severe pain around one eye. Usually last 45 to 90 minutes.
Typically hit at the same time each day for several weeks until the cluster period is over. Periods usually last 4 to 8 weeks and may occur every few months.
Stress and alcohol can bring on attacks.
Preventive medicines can reduce the number of headaches during cluster periods. Other drugs can shorten headaches and reduce severity. SOURCE: American Academy of Family Physicians


Hundreds of cluster headache sufferers have begun to self-medicate with psilocybin and LSD. And now Harvard Medical School researchers plan to do a carefully controlled study of the drugs.
<!--startsubhead-->Vivid hallucinations


Wold, a 53-year-old construction contractor, began suffering cluster headaches about 25 years ago. He would get four to six headaches a day, each lasting 45 to 60 minutes. Each cluster period would last three or four months. "The pain is similar to if you hit your thumb with a hammer," he said.
Five or six years ago, Wold read an Internet posting from a man who said his cluster headaches went away after he took LSD for recreational purposes. Word spread, and other patients began taking LSD or psilocybin.
LSD can cause vivid hallucinations and distortions of color, sound, touch, etc. It also can impair judgment, leading to injury. Afterwards, users can suffer acute anxiety or depression. Psilocybin can cause vivid distortions of sights and sounds and emotional disturbances, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Wold had tried about 75 legal drugs, but none worked very long. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he tried psilocybin, and found that two doses a year worked wonders. He orders spores over the Internet and grows mushrooms at his Lombard home.
"For the past five years, I've been pretty much pain-free and headache-free," he said.
Wold has formed a support group, ClusterBusters, to promote research on psychedelics. The group has heard from about 400 patients who have used psilocybin or LSD.
In a preliminary study, researchers from Harvard's McLean Hospital surveyed patients who had used psilocybin or LSD. Twenty-five of 48 psilocybin users and seven of eight LSD users reported the drugs prevented the entire cluster period when headaches normally occurred.
<!--startsubhead-->Studying psychedelics


"No other medication, to our knowledge, has been reported to terminate a cluster period," researchers wrote in the June 27 issue of the journal Neurology.
No one knows why psychedelics might work. But Harvard researcher Dr. John Halpern noted that the drugs share a similar structure to medications that have been approved for cluster headaches.
However, researchers acknowledged several limitations to their study, including the possibility that people with good outcomes were more likely to participate than those with poor outcomes.
Halpern and colleagues are planning a follow-up study in which a psychedelic drug would be compared to an inactive placebo.
Psilocybin and LSD are Schedule 1 drugs, meaning they are illegal unless used in research approved by the DEA and Food and Drug Administration.
Halpern warns that psilocybin and LSD "are drugs of abuse and are potentially quite dangerous. . . . My advice then is to not self-medicate but to respect our laws and to help us properly and safely conduct the research needed to find out if these substances work for real."

[suckerfree]

my aunt medicates with mushies and bud.... she has bad cluster headaches, a half gram pill takes care of it....
(headaches so bad she sits in a dark closet and thinks about killing herself)
she is doing a little bit of bud lately because her husband has incredible pain in the knee from a motorcycle wreck, and the pills he's on are addictive, the mj helps..... but the mushies are best.

good medicines.

[apokalypse]

Hope it works out for her suckerfree.

[kyo]

Sorry to hear bout that suckerfree. Hope everyting's getting better...

Bout damn time with the news, though. I've been hearing about mushies as remedies for those cluster-headaches for a while now...

[beardedlady]

New Years Eve and Fourth of July? Both holidays with fireworks! That dude drinks mushroom tea to watch the colourful battle in the sky...

[jbmac]

Originally Posted by beardedlady

New Years Eve and Fourth of July? Both holidays with fireworks! That dude drinks mushroom tea to watch the colourful battle in the sky...

Another use for hallucinagens are their anti-depressive effects. While
SWIM hates high doses of LSAs from Woodrose, SWIM finds 1/2 a
Woodrose seed makes him feel much better, or 5-10 rivea seeds,
is so much better and anti-depressant than anything the
drug companies put out, and so much cheaper. The key is taking
a very small dose - less than it takes to "get high" - at least that's
what SWIM says.

[BuckarooBanzai]

As someone who has wrestled with cluster patterns and full on migraines most of his adult life, I can tell you, this news should be screamed from the rooftops. LOTS of folks end their lives every year over headaches...the pain is just unimaginable and the depressive effects of knowing you are going to be in pain for 6, 8, 12 hours...it just SUCKS ASS.

Amanitas, also in the very low dose range, have similar effects, though they seem better for depression than headaches.

But, yeah, when a cluster does break out, .2-.4 g of dried psillys are like a freakin' magic bullet. WAY more effective than Imitrex and my mouth doesn't taste like somebody shit in it for two days afterwards.

[iamsmiley]

the local cannabis club asked me if i'd sell mushies to them for this and for use as a sleep aid???? i said i wasn't intrested.

[Underground_Shaman]

As a serious scientist, it still amazes me that there is very little evidence as to the biological mechanisms at play here. The info at clusterbusters was purely speculative (but good, imo). No published research is available.

I want to know why they work.

Right now all we know is that they work!

We should make a thread regarding mushroom therapies. There have been many topiates, and many more lurkers, who have sought us out for medical reasons.

We are talking about quality of life here. Fundamental stuff. This work with vascular headache is the catalyst for broader tolerance of medical psychedelics.

[~Hippie3]

no published research because the DEA doesn't hand out many permits.
i remember about 5 years ago when he came here and asked me about growing shrooms
and if it'd be ok to send other cluster sufferers here,
of course i said sure, anything we can do to help, we will.
and the word spread, and since then we've had several members here
who are cluster heads who've been helped.
nice to see this finally paying off and going mainstream,
all 'topiates have a right to be proud
as 'topia was involved from day 1.

[arezap]

OMG! Is this why my headaches have been so bad for so long? I've been having major headaches for what 10 or 12 years now without any relief or explanation for them. I used to have access to hallucinigens up untill those 10-12 years ago. Not heavy use but recreational and headache free nonetheless. I never connected the 2. They make me wanna stop a 12Lb. sledgehammer in mid swing with my head. There's been mushies available to me for about a year now but I have not had the right set or setting available for injesting any. I respect the mushies.I just get foaf to get me prints to trade folks for the print library but I've been craving a visit from Uncle Cid really bad lately. But after searching the state and visiting festivals nobody had seen Uncle Cidney in some time so I relayed his invitation through some friends who are still looking for my long lost uncle. I have to test this!

[dial8]

It blows my mind that we can extract medicines form plants deep within the rainforests but the gov will not allow legitimate research to be done with shrooms. It is all about the money people.

The gov relies on big drug companies. They do not rely on a bunch of free spirited, free thinkers. We are the new era! Shamans from the year 2006!

I can see through the hypocrisy. Can you?

[tbonus]

I hope all the research proves to be beneficial,sorry to hear theres so many suffering.PEACE

[BuckarooBanzai]

Arezap - don't forget you don't have to do a full on trip to get the good effects.

For me, .1-.3 grams dry (a dose I can just barely feel) do the trick.

[Eldeeder]

Originally Posted by suckerfree

she has bad cluster headaches, a half gram pill takes care of it....
(headaches so bad she sits in a dark closet and thinks about killing herself)

It F**king infuriates and enrages me that people in America, the supposed "land of the free" suffer like this, when there is a solution out there that is cheap, safe, and could be abundent.
But no, these people need to get raped by some health insurance plan just so they can barley afford to pay for the Shit drugs the pharmacutical companies say you should have. These drugs just happen to be addictive, dangerous, and have all sorts of negitive side affects...

What the hell is it going to take to stop this non-sense?!?!? Its a god damn plant! It grows in the ground! If you have it on you, you go to jail for a long time... America... Freedom my ass... Paper or plastic... Thats about the only freedom we have here...

[Synesence]

we are free..............to do what they tell us.

[BuckarooBanzai]

First of all, it isn't a plant. Not even close, in fact.

Second - how about you take your America bashing and stuff it someplace uncomfortable.

Name your country, brother. I guarantee that you have problems, too.

[kyo]

I actually got the impression that he was from America, himself... Little harsh, but I don't necessarily agree with prohibition laws myself, and I don't think most people are all that fond of some of the laws encompassing those things labeled 'psychadelics'.

[Lazlo]

I don't think Eldeeder was bashing America. Just speaking a truth somewhat, minus the plant thing of course.

Anyways. I think it's a shame that there's not more higher support for these types of studies. Once again a MAJOR university conducts a study with proven data, concerning an illegal drug having fantastic healing effects for health issues and it gets set to the side.

Hopefully the ain't headin' to Bob's house. lol

[BuckarooBanzai]

It just pisses me off when people slam something without giving any credence to it's good points. And I don't care if he is an American or not. America bashing pisses me off. I take that shit personally.

Yeah, the drug laws in America are stupid. Yeah, most of America's politicians are more part of the problem than part of the solution.

By the same token, America's freedom of speech laws make this site not only legal, but in many ways, unimpeachable. As long as this site follows a few basic rules of conduct, it can continue to spread this knowledge without any concern of having censors kick in the door and shut it down.

Sure, the "rules" in America say 'shrooms are illegal. At the same time, those same "rules" make this site (and so many other sites where we can easily and cheaply order supplies) perfectly legal - or at least safely "grey area."

Those same rules make it possible to spread information about a treatment the "establishment" isn't aware of. The medicine (and awareness of how to produce it at home) still proliferate - all this supported by the same rules that make it "illegal."

If you want to throw out one rule (illegal shrooms) then you throw out all the other rules that let you learn this "illicit information" in the first place.

Bash my country and you bash me. Make generalizations about America and you make generalizations about me. I take that shit personally.

My apologies if I was overtly harsh in stating that, Eldeeder.

[psilomed]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

i remember about 5 years ago when he came here and asked me about growing shrooms
and if it'd be ok to send other cluster sufferers here,
of course i said sure, anything we can do to help, we will.

as a cluster headache sufferer myself,
i would like to thank hip3 for allowing
us into your "house" to gain knowledge
in order to attain this
"medication" that's so effective
in treating cluster headaches.

and also thanks to all forum
members for sharing your
knowledge.

peace

[~Hippie3]

pleasure to serve.


on the america-bash theme-
my objection is singling out one nation
'when all nations are guilty of the same.
of course people generally talk about
their own country, but not always.
even american members should understand
that not everyone feels the same way
and when you denounce an entire nation
you denounce the people too,
that mean our families and friends
and some of us
'take that personal'.
so plz try to be more international in view,
and show some respect for others' feelings.

[smacked12]

Originally Posted by Underground_Shaman

Right now all we know is that they work!

as a 14yr ch sufferer this is enough for me. after countless cat scans, hours upon hours wasted in an mri booth and thousands of wasted dollars to find anything that provided relief was a blessing.

[psilomed]

Originally Posted by Underground_Shaman

I want to know why they work.

you're right, we need to know why they work. efforts are under
way to present proposals to government agencies to approve
research. first is to scientifically prove efficacy. if we can get
to this step then the why can be researched. approval for research on
schedule 1's in this class very difficult. will be small steps at a time.
it's a start, hopefully approval for the first step will come. so all
we have now are anecdotal reports and uncontrolled case studies.
this alternate medication works for most ch sufferers that properly
detox from other certain medications that don't block these
particular indole amines, i know it works for me.

peace

[The Rogue Angel]

although much of my experiments(on myself) with mushrooms are about a spiritual quest I also use low doses to alleviate cluster headaches... Thanks Hippie for a place we can all learn more about botanical pharmacopia

[Underground_Shaman]

the original thread:

http://mycotopia.net/discus/messages/5/1727.html

[~Hippie3]

from that link-

The subject of using 5-HT analog drugs to treat vascular headache was introduced to us by a CH sufferer back at the old site.

the 'old' site was 'topia
back when we hosted on yage.net
and i believe that CH sufferer might
be the man mentioned above.

[viraljimmy]

It's really cool they can help like that.

As far as the legalities go, how much trouble
could someone get in for growing a few
mushrooms as treatment for a nasty painful
condition? You don't even need to get high
for it to work.

Maybe I am naive, but I can't see a prosecuter
or judge really trying to nail someone like that.

[Soliver1]

Originally Posted by BuckarooBanzai

It just pisses me off when people slam something without giving any credence to it's good points. And I don't care if he is an American or not. America bashing pisses me off. I take that shit personally.
Yeah, the drug laws in America are stupid. Yeah, most of America's politicians are more part of the problem than part of the solution.
By the same token, America's freedom of speech laws make this site not only legal, but in many ways, unimpeachable. As long as this site follows a few basic rules of conduct, it can continue to spread this knowledge without any concern of having censors kick in the door and shut it down.
Sure, the "rules" in America say 'shrooms are illegal. At the same time, those same "rules" make this site (and so many other sites where we can easily and cheaply order supplies) perfectly legal - or at least safely "grey area."
Those same rules make it possible to spread information about a treatment the "establishment" isn't aware of. The medicine (and awareness of how to produce it at home) still proliferate - all this supported by the same rules that make it "illegal."
If you want to throw out one rule (illegal shrooms) then you throw out all the other rules that let you learn this "illicit information" in the first place.
Bash my country and you bash me. Make generalizations about America and you make generalizations about me. I take that shit personally.
My apologies if I was overtly harsh in stating that, Eldeeder.

Eldeeder's bash is what makes this country great. By suppressing opinions, especially those that you don't agree with or find offensive, you are taking a moral stance against the country you claim to love so much.

I don't agree with his opinion, but I'll fight for his right to let it fly.



soliver

[~Hippie3]

there's a time and a place for expressing political opinions
those who vent any time any where are being selfish
and need regulation.

[Shroom Bafoon]

i suffer with severe low back pain. i am taking OC 40mg 3xday. My Neuro has operated once, and i get pain injections quarterlyto treat the 3 completley ruptured disks. Nothing, i mean NOTHING helps exept OC. even then i still hurt, just not like i've been runover by a truck. when i take a mall dose of Psilocybin; 75-80% decrease PAIN,and mild to no trip. and most of the time, if i dont over do my self while i dont hurt as bad, there is no significant back pain when i "come down".does anybody know a shroom for pain?

[psilomed]

if i may add.....not only has psilocybin and LSD
shown effective in treating cluster headaches,
but another indoleamine LSA, preferrably hydrolized from Hawaiian
Baby Woodrose (HBWR) and Rivea Corymbosa seeds
are providing relief for ch sufferers, again based on
anecdotal reports. I have personal experience with
use of LSA for treatment, and it or in combination with
psilocybin ended my last ch cycle. i'm not sure if it was
LSA by itself that terminated the cycle since i used it one day after
light dosing with psilocybin. other folks have been finding
success with LSA by itself and/or in combination. use of these seeds
seem to be more acceptable to some since self pharming is not
involved, rather just legal purchase of the seeds.
peace

[phantom]

I suppose this is the perfect place for my first post. I've been suffering from cluster headaches for about 6 years now. If anyone that doesn't have them wants to know how they feel for me do this: get a milkshake and a big straw then drink as fast as you can. As the brain freeze starts to settle in don't stop drinking. Keep it up for about a minute or two. That's about the intensity of the pain, it just lasts a lot longer with the CH.
I've tried about 20 or more medictions and none have helped. My personal physician is out of options at this point and the neurologist thinks that I am addicted to narcotics. It really didn't seem to him that it mattered that I don't take any narcotics, I have a really bad reaction to them.
Even though I do use MJ for recreational uses, I never tried it for a CH. One night I was in pain and decided what the hell and tried it. Not only did it work but the CH was gone in about 5 seconds. The only problem is that it is temporary.
Now I am going to try 'shrooms to see if they will be a more permenant solution. I am abot a month into my first grow but things are not going very good yet. I have some good mycellium growth in some of my jars using the PF tec, but I think I messed up my mixture from the start. I may have accidentally use a 1:1:1 mixture instead of a 2:1:1 mix. The growth seems to have stopped and I had to throw out my first jar today. Sorry to get off topic.
Anyway, i'm glad I found a forum with so many people willing to help. One day maybe the government will get it together an help people with conditions that can be helped with substances they don't want to understan instead of persecuting us.

[leomanxvii]

How is harvard conducting psychedelic studies in the these recent years? I thought that was illegal. Didn't leary get fired for that...?

[~Hippie3]

not illegal IF one has the proper permits from the DEA

[leomanxvii]

Hmm oh ok

[Set]

Originally Posted by Synesence

we are free..............to do what they tell us.

Hey, when your government wants your opinion they'll tell you what that opinion IS!

[Set]

Originally Posted by Shroom Bafoon

does anybody know a shroom for pain?

I've heard of people taking shrooms for some pain, other than clusters, and having that work.

PS, I've also heard from someone who experimented that a low dose does not do well at ALL for anxiety attacks. Sure, some of you might think that would be common sense, but low doses give some people a mild euphoria and a lessening of depressions, I could see a justification for trying it out on an anxiety attack. Still, apparently that one was not good.

[Lazlo]

Set, they've conducted similar studies with LSD and had great results treating depression as well.

[~Hippie3]

and a few suicides as well
so this isn't advised.

[hyphaenation]

The thread title is about cluster headaches and the doses of psilocybe are tiny compared with that which would cause a trip. I've seen doses as smaller than a 1/4 gram used in these preperations.

LSD should not be mentioned in this context because its not used for cluster headaches to my knowledge. I am curious as to wether larger doses of Psilocybe have any less propencity for suicides as an equal dose of LSD, but that may be for another thread...

cheers

H