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I felt the real headache hit saturday afternoon. Spouse wanted to go see the new suicide squad movie and sure, why not? Feeling bold. I felt it ramping up but the potassium really took the edge off, so I was confident I could tolerate a movie without hating myself after. I was taking the potassium more frequently, maybe once an hour. I put a couple extra potassium in my pocket and we went, and then we made a quick grocery stop after. It was able to keep the pain down to a 2 or 3, tops, the whole time, which is so AMAZING I could cry. But, some of my other "normal" headache manifestations were not reduced. I felt the nasty "high blood pressure" feeling (I had a blood pressure cuff but it broke, so I can't get an actual reading), like my heart is working too hard or I'm at a high altitude, general frayed weakness and a tough time keeping my thoughts together. Normally when I am at this stage of a headache, the pain keeps me from trying to do much. Like, I'm not walking around carrying groceries, I am being still, trying to rest. So I was pushing it and feeling the other effects without the pain. It's not nice.
(And you'd think, hey, you should go to a doctor for heart stuff, but frankly I doubt a physician would care. When I was in jr high we were learning the high jump in PE. I was the shortest in the class and thus, not having a fun time. I managed to hook my arms under the pole and came down on the matt with the pole trapped under my back. My heart started beating really weird and super fast and it was very scary. Scary enough I complained to the PE teacher, and she didn't care and told me to sit on the grass. My heart kept beating funny for about a minute before it jolted back to normal. I told my mom when I got home, reluctantly, thinking it would surely mean a trip to a doctor because it seemed like a major problem to me, and she said I was probably just low on potassium and to eat a banana. So once in a while I'd get these disrupted heart rhythms - coming out of a hot shower, most commonly - and I'd have to lay down and breathe deep until my heart hiccupped back to normal. Like, it just is. Nobody cares. And pre covid I had some mild heart issues that I just figured were near panic attacks due to the stress and anxiety I had to tolerate. I could feel the stress hit my bloodstream every time I had to walk in the shop door, but I did it anyway. So unless I am having stabbing heart pain when I exert myself, I doubt it's serious enough for anyone to care.)
I'd been doing a little reading on different forms of potassium. I have these electrolyte pills in a packet that I've taken sometimes when I'm especially desperate (medi-lyte) and it include 40mg of potassium chloride. But I have never noticed measurable relief from taking them. If I had a dollar for every time some smartypants told me that "ackshually, most headaches are caused by dehydration" I could have bought a fancy novelty mallet to bonk everyone who told me to drink more water. Yes, I know about fucking water and electrolytes. They do nothing.
So I wonder if the dose wasn't high enough, or maybe I misattributed any relief to the painkillers or magnesium that I took at the same time and missed the link? But I also noticed that the potassium supplements I started taking are a different form: potassium gluconate. Perhaps the form matters? So I was reading a bit more on that and it seems like (once you get past all the "dOn'T tAKe POtaSSiUm UnLeSS yOuR dOCtOr SaYS sO" warnings, which are probably there in case of very nasty interactions with heart meds (I am not on any prescription meds, so middle finger to that)) potassium chloride and potassium citrate are considered "better" sources and are cheaper, but potassium gluconate seems to break down differently and is considered the alkaline form ("alkaline" makes my ears prick up). Lite salt has potassium chloride. So maybe it's the gluconate form specifically that helps me. If I had more money I'd buy all the forms and test it out on myself to see for sure.
As I was reading I found a little bit about the link between deficient thiamine (vitamin B1) and deficient potassium. Supposedly it's important to supplement them both at the same or it could be bad for the heart. Low thiamine is also linked to low magnesium.
Signs of low potassium:
- weakness and fatigue (check)
- muscle spasms and cramps (mild check)
- digestive problems (check - TMI, sorry, constipation)
- heart palpitations (check)
- muscle aches and stiffness (mild check, but I'm also getting older so)
- tingling and numbness (mild check)
- breathing difficulties (slight?)
- mental fatigue/mood changes (check)
Signs of low magnesium:
- muscle twitches and cramps (mild check)
- mental health disorders (check)
- osteoporosis (no data)
- fatigue and muscle weakness (check)
- high blood pressure (shut up)
- asthma (no)
- irregular heartbeat (sometimes)
Signs of low thiamine:
- loss of appetite (sadly no)
- fatigue (yes)
- irritability (maybe, shut up)
- reduced reflexes (no data)
- tingling sensation (yes)
- muscle weakness (no data, slight?)
- blurry vision (slight, right eye, pupil doesn't respond as well to light changes as the left)
- nausea and vomiting (with headache, sometimes)
- changes in heart rate (sometimes)
- shortness of breath (slight)
- delirium (no)
Stuff I have that isn't mentioned:
- sinus pressure, ear pressure
- mild ear ringing
- headache on one side with aura and mild light sensitivity
- insomnia, anxiety
All of these symptoms are pretty vague and plenty of conditions have overlap. My hands tingle sometimes and of course one immediately thinks of diabetes, but I looked up diabetes and it's not a good match for me. I only experience the more serious symptoms during the worst part of my headaches. How do I know if this is copper toxicity, or adrenal fatigue or a thyroid issue or crohns? I don't know, they all sound similar and some parts fit and some don't. The internet is packed full of people with all sorts of oddball mystery symptoms looking for solutions.
All I know for certain is:
- taking potassium gluconate definitely helps
- taking magnesium helps
- eating low carb helps (probably due to lowered inflammation)
- it's based on my hormone cycle and I have one week that is DANGER WEEK and really sets me off, and roughly two weeks of normal
I've been taking a B complex so I thought I was already supplying thiamine and maybe there's no link - I looked at the label and turns out there's no B1 in there, jerks. The link between low thiamine, magnesium and potassium is interesting enough that I want to try all three together. So I am adding thiamine in a specific form, TTFD, in a product called allithiamine. This is the most exotic and expensive supplement I have added to the mix at 29 cents a pill. I'll try the small bottle first and see what happens.
I think I should cool it on messing with more supplements for a couple months. If you add too many new things you can't tell what is helping or making it worse, or if one thing is interacting poorly with something else.
I wonder if my headaches are the result of some sort of a domino effect of different mild deficiencies in the body, escalated by normal hormonal rise and fall. Supposedly, thiamine is needed to get rid of estrogen in the liver, and magnesium is needed to process thiamine. There's a link between low thiamine and potassium wasting. There's a link between potassium deficiency and PMS. There's a link between thiamine and PMS.
"Clinically, early detection of thiamine deficiency is a difficult task because symptoms can be vague and nonspecific such as frequent headaches, fatigue, irritability, abdominal discomfort"
Thiamine Deficiency and Delirium
The effects of vitamin B1 on ameliorating the premenstrual syndrome symptoms
So I'm thinking there's enough correlation to try thiamine/potassium/magnesium supplementation and see what happens. I enjoy being my own guinea pig. Why go to a real doctor and let them have all the fun, right?
Saturday/sunday was the real headache and despite supplementing with plenty of potassium and magnesium, the pain was reduced but the other symptoms were not. Saturday we went to the movie and grocery shopped. Sunday we went to a water lantern festival. The headache pain was limited to maybe a 2-4 (which is great), so I was aware of the headache but it didn't impair me. I felt cruddy but never got weak enough that I needed to sit for a bit. Sunday night the symptoms eased off. This morning I woke up with light symptoms and now a coffee and some potassium have me back to feeling normal. I should be past the hammer now.
I'm hoping adding thiamine might be the missing ingredient to stop the hammer. Now I get a chance to supplement for 3 weeks, fortify myself and see what happens.