A cluster headache is one of the most painful conditions known to man and their only saving grace is that they are fortunately fairly rare. For example, although about one person out of every ten of the population suffers from migraine, only about one person out of three hundred will ever experience a cluster headache.
A cluster headache often presents as what most sufferers describe as a hot and stabbing pain behind only one eye or in the area of the temple. Their chief characteristic however is that they run to a timetable and will appear at about the same time every day often for several days, or even weeks or months at a time. They also tend to appear without warning, unlike migraines which are often preceded by several different warning signs.
Noone is exactly sure what causes these particularly painful headaches though research tends to favor the theory that they are the result of abnormalities in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small gland which has an important part to play in regulating your body’s internal clock and this may explain why these headaches occur at roughly the same time each day.
Yet another feature of cluster headaches that distinguishes them from migraines is that are seen far more in men than in women. When it comes to migraines some three times as many women as men are afflicted but, with cluster headaches, studies show that they are seen up to eight times more often in men.
Standard treatments for normal headaches are almost always ineffective for cluster headaches and this is one sort of headache for which you need to seek advice from your physician.
One commonly used treatment is to breathe pure oxygen for a few minutes once the headache starts. This particular form of treatment does not work for everybody but usually works very well for those who do find that it helps. It cannot however be used to prevent a headache and only works in treating a headache once it has started.
Yet another very effective treatment is that of using a new class of drugs known as triptans which are presently being used for the treatment of migraine headaches. These drugs do however have to be taken in a fast acting form to be effective and this normally means using them as a nasal spray. However, in many cases cluster headaches can also cause inflammation of the nasal passages making this type of treatment difficult. When this happens, triptans can often be administered by way of aninjection.
At the moment there are no terribly effective preventative treatments available for cluster headaches though some sufferers find that calcium channel blockers work quite well. Additionally, in the most severe cases surgery might be considered as a treatment of last resort and several neurological procedures are available including procedures which block certain nerves and that remove a section of the brain.
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