alywest
Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2017
- Messages
- 1,028
Thanks for the reply! I'm confident we can figure this out. I find it helpful to read through your experiences to get ideas.
Good to know. I've been taking Zolmitriptan ("Zomig"). It definitely works but it gives me a mini flare up (I have Celiac), wide spread flesh pain like bruises all over, so I don't like to take it too often. I read there's a nasal spray so for that one too so I'll try that next and hopefully avoid the side effects. Are you taking anything or doing anything to prevent the migraines entirely or just taking the ondansetron and rizatriptan when the migraines starts? I think I read on another post you take acetazolamide; do you still take it? I get a lot of brain stem area stiffness/soreness with the migraine which makes me wonder if that's part of the cause. It's a similar feeling to the onset of influenza or other virus (like herpes zoster) so I'm also taking lysine and BCAA's that contain lysine and no arginine. Also doing some neck stretches throughout the day. And, like you, never ever let blood sugar drop. Also I have B12 and folic acid and other B vit deficiences, so much so that my eye lid keeps twitching so guess I got to bit the bullet and take B supp's. I do take inositol and some other things to support methylation but I guess it's not enough. One more question for you... do you find it necessary to take T3 throughout the day or do you take it twice a day (it's typically prescribed 2x per day I think). Currently I take 5MCG of Cytomel morning and another 5MCG at night. In the morning I also take Levothyronine 50MCG, so this is near to the ratio Doc RP suggests but I'm wondering if I should split the Cytomel up even further. I'm not liking the idea of taking serotonin antagonists due to the constipation effects but I think there's something to the BCAA supplementation...
A new method for rapidly and simultaneously decreasing serotonin and catecholamine synthesis in humans
I have some of the Impower Pro Amino BCAA's which do not contain tryptophan or tyrosine but it does have phenylalanine. I think the last time I took these, I took about 20 capsules per day, amounting to about a gram each of the important AA's in the supp., and did not experience migraines at the time. I had to quit because I had esophagus related problems (due to Celiac probably) and could not swallow the capsules. I might try emptying out the capsules in OJ or something and start that up again..
I did take acetazolamide and it really helped. Weirdly it ended up giving me really bad joint pain after a few weeks of taking it (at least I think that was what caused it) so I stopped taking it but the migraines still have gotten better over the long run since I took it. I didn't have any while I was taking it. I don't find it absolutely necessary to take the T3 all day long because I have really lowered the amount I take. I think if you're taking T4 as well you should be ok with once or twice a day. I try to take a little more at night but I don't always remember to. Right now my migraines really only happen right around my period or ovulation. I am currently taking 400mg progesterone during the second half of my cycle and it seems to be reducing the inflammation I tend to experience during PMS that results in a migraine. My migraines are really rooted in my gut, I really feel how much my gut gets affected by them when I have them. Ondansetron helps, so does famotidine. And I know this will bother some people but I take an antidepressant called Trintellix and it has various 5HT receptor agonist and antagonist properties, as well as being an SSRI. I find it is helping to even me out. I think that serotonin processing is possibly the real issue for a lot of folks with migraines. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it's bad, but we all have serotonin and until I started the Trintellix I was having dizzy spells which actually got worse when I would take cyproheptadine or lisuride. If you look at studies discussing endotoxin and ssri's, they actually help to minimize the damage done by endotoxin when it is injected into rats and such. There's a plethora of research about it. In fact, there's a really interesting paper about how depression and sickness behavior are one and the same and it cites various studies showing the connection between endotoxin and depression:
In the tail suspension test (TST), LPS increased the immobility time without affecting spontaneous locomotor activity, suggesting that LPS induced depressive-like behavior in mice. Treatment with fluoxetine (30 mg/kg) or paroxetine (10 mg/kg) significantly shortened LPS-induced increases of immobility time. These results suggested that antidepressants exert anti-inflammatory effects in vivo, and that the serotonergic system may partially mediate these effects. In addition, the anti-inflammatory effects of antidepressants may help alleviate the symptoms of LPS-induced depression in mice.
These same inflammatory markers are seen in cases of flu and other illnesses that result in "sickness behavior" which is a model that is very similar to depression. Don't get me wrong, I think Ray Peat is a genius, but even he knows that SSRI's are doing something to help people, but it's clearly not the increase in extracellular serotonin that's doing it. If that were the case then taking 5HTP would be the perfect remedy for depression, migraines, etc. So that's just my 2c.