Cluster Headache New Zealand
A New Zealand sufferers journey to managing cluster headache.
What is a Cluster Headache?
If you’ve found this page, chances are you’re living with cluster headache, or love someone who is. I’m sorry. As someone who has navigated this disease since 2013, I know how truly difficult it is and how helpless you can feel when nothing seems to work.
I want to share my story with you, not because I have all the answers, but because finding others who understood my pain was one of the things that kept me going during my darkest moments. And because I eventually found something that gave me my life back.
There is Hope
In this article I explain my journey with cluster headache and how I was able to get pain free following a natural treatment protocol referred to as the Vitamin D3 Anti-Infammatory Regimen for Cluster Headache.
Photo credit. Artecluster.
Listen to my Story
Continue reading my story below or watch it in the video.
41 minutes 57 seconds
My Journey with Cluster Headache and Vitamin D3
Listen to my story from battling with cluster headache to finding the Vitamin D3 regimen and getting pain free 8 days later. Excuse the tears and bad language, it is an emotional story.
The First Attack
It was November 7th, 2013, when I was struck by my first cluster headache. The pain hit so suddenly and violently that I elbowed my wife awake, convinced I was having an aneurysm. The only way I can describe it is like a brain freeze from ice cream but instead of lasting seconds, it stayed for minutes or even hours, repeating multiple times a day.
We rushed to Middlemore Hospital, but by the time I was seen, the attack had passed. I was sent home with painkillers, thinking it was a one-off. When the pain returned the next night, my doctor blamed stress from my mother’s recent death.
What followed was pure torment. I’d pace the garage through the night, gripping my head, trying not to wake my wife. The attacks came like clockwork – 11pm, 1am, 3am. By dawn I was drinking whiskey just to sleep, not knowing alcohol was making it worse.
When the attacks returned in November 2014, I broke down completely. I told my wife I wasn't strong enough to face it again. I cried daily and started to believe she'd be better off without me. I didn't know what was happening to me - only that I was trapped in a living hell.
Getting a Diagnosis
It wasn’t until early 2015, when I paid to see a neurologist in Auckland, that I finally received a diagnosis: episodic cluster headache. They referred me back to my GP whom prescribed sumatriptan and prednisone, which helped somewhat. It was at that appointment the neurologist had made a brief mention that Vitamin D3 might be effective for cluster headaches, stopping short of discussing dosages. I made a mental note although I was skeptical.
Rock Bottom
By November 2015, I was desperate. Sumatriptan was causing rebound headaches. Prednisone could only be used short-term. My cycles lasted from November to March, and nothing was stopping them. My mental health collapsed completely. I started planning to end my life. I even withdrew money to buy a firearm.
Then I found a doctor in South Africa claiming to cure cluster headaches through surgery. It looked legitimate. I planned to mortgage my house. But after joining online support groups, I learned he was known as “the butcher”- a scam artist who had hurt many desperate sufferers. I was devastated, but grateful I hadn’t gone through with it.
Finding the Vitamin D3 Regimen
Around the same time, I kept seeing people in online groups talking about the Vitamin D3 Anti-Inflammatory Regimen. It was the second time I’d heard about Vitamin D3. I was skeptical – angry, even. How could a vitamin possibly help with something so horrific when nothing the doctors were giving were effective?
But something made me try it. I downloaded the information, read it repeatedly, and took it to my doctor. He was dismissive, prescribing just one 50,000 IU capsule per month – far less than the regimen suggested. So I ordered the supplements myself from iHerb and started the full protocol.
It worked!
On day eight of the loading phase, the attacks stopped. I woke up having slept through the night, elbowed my wife awake, and cried tears of relief. December, January, February, March of 2015 came and went without a single cluster headache. I couldn't believe it!
Years of Freedom
When the clusters returned in November 2016, I followed the exact same protocol. By day nine, the pain was gone. Once could be luck but twice was proof enough, for me at least, that something real was happening.
From that point on I stayed on the regimen year-round, keeping my Vitamin D3 level between 80-100 ng/mL (200-250nmol/L). November 2017 came and went without an attack. The same happened in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Five years cluster-free.
When They Came Back
In 2022, my clusters returned despite good D3 levels. I called Pete Batcheller, the retired Navy fighter pilot who created the regimen. I told him my level was 99.3 ng/mL but the attacks were back. His response surprised me: “Take one million IU of Vitamin D3.”
I trusted him. I loaded 100,000 IU per day for a total loading dose of 600,000iu, and by day four, the attacks were gone again. I haven’t had another one since. Don’t let anyone tell you that Vitamin D3 is dangerous, most people don’t understand squat about the molecule.
There is hope.
After years of darkness, finding something that worked felt like seeing the sun again.
Why I Share This
Since sharing my story, I’ve received messages from sufferers around the world. One man from Belgium who had lived with cluster headaches for 25 years told me his neurologist finally said he might as well try the regimen. Two weeks later, he was sleeping through the night. His email subject line was “Enchanted Craig.”
Stories like his are everywhere in the support groups. People are getting their lives back. The regimen is safe, accessible, and for many of us, remarkably effective. Neither Pete nor I sell anything or make money from this – we just want others to find the same relief.
Learn More About the Vitamin D3 Regimen
If you've read this far you'll be wanting more information. Click the link below and visit the main page to learn about the Vitamin D3 Regimen and find out if it may be a good option for you to explore. (My advice, definitely check it out).
Get in Touch
Have a question? Want to share your experience? I’m only a message away.