Cluster headaches are arquably one of the most painful conditions known and their only saving grace is that they are fortunately reasonably rare. For instance, although roughly one person out of every ten of the population suffers from migraine headaches, only about one person in three hundred will experience a cluster headache.
A cluster headache generally appears as what many sufferers describe as a hot and stabbing pain behind just one eye or in the region of the temple. Their main characteristic however is that they run to a timetable and will appear at roughly the same time every day often appearing for several days, weeks or months at a time. They also tend to occur without warning, unlike migraine headaches which are often preceded by several warning signs.
Noone is quite sure what causes these extremely painful headaches though research favors the theory that they are the result of abnormalities in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small gland that plays an important role in regulating your body’s internal clock and this could explain why these headaches appear at approximately the same time every day.
Another feature of cluster headaches that distinguishes them from migraine headaches is that are far more commonly seen in men than in women. When it comes to migraines about three times as many women as men are afflicted but, in the case of cluster headaches, studies indicate that they are up to eight times more prevalent in men.
Treatments for ordinary headaches are virtually always ineffective for cluster headaches and this is one type of headache for which you have to seek advice from your doctor.
One commonly used treatment is that of inhaling pure oxygen for a few minutes once the headache starts. This form of treatment does not work for everyone but generally works extremely well for those who do find it helps. It cannot however be used to prevent a cluster headache and is only effective in treating a headache once it has begun.
Another extremely effective treatment is the use of a new form of drugs known as triptans which are at present being used to treat migraines. These drugs must however be taken in a fast acting form to be effective and this often means using them in the form of a nasal spray. However, in many cases cluster headaches can also cause inflammation of the nasal passages making this sort of treatment difficult. Here, triptans can occasionally be administered by way of an injection.
At the moment there are no really effective preventative treatments available though a few sufferers do find that calcium channel blockers work fairly well. Also, in very severe cases surgery might be considered as a last resort treatment and a number of neurological procedures are available which include procedures which block certain nerves and that remove a section of the brain.
