Tuesday, July 03, 2007
I saw the Doc today and he put me on 400mg of vitamin B2 a day. This is an alternative to increasing my current dose of 100mg of Topamax to 200mg/day. The Doc. said that 50% of patients show an improvement in their headaches within 10 days. If this doesn't help the breakthrough headaches, then he'll increase the dose. I had also be cutting my 100mg pill in half and taking half in the am. and half in the pm. He said that the pill loses it effectiveness and that I should never cut these pills. I was told by a previous doctor that I could take half and half and then she prescribed me the 100mg dose, not the 50mg, so I thought I had to cut them. Oh well...
I am a 4rd year medical student and I can tell you what I know both from expereince with migraines and as a doctor (I'll be a doctor in 5 months but close enough)....
You are only suppose to be able to cut them i half when they are scored (have a line down the middle). I can tell you though that Topamax can usually be cut anyways but the vitamin B2 is absorbed over time and you shouldn't cut it. This is because when they have an enteric coating to them they are designed to dissolve in different parts of your GI tract over time so that you get small amounts over a longer period of time. You cannot take too much vitamin B2 so you should take the 400mg just once a day. It is water soluble and your body will absorb what it needs and discard the rest. An increase in your Topamax will have more side effects.
Basically take the full dose of the vitamin B2!
I have been taking B2 for over 10 years along with Magnesium for Migraine and have not has one in the 10 yrs of taking them. I am so happy that my Dr. told be about it cause I didn't like the way my other medications made me feel. I was so doped up I could not function.