Cluster Headaches

Cluster headaches are extremely painful, but thankfully short-lived headaches.  Often characterized by a sharp burning pain around the eye area, these debilitating headaches might happen at the same time every day for a short period of time - usually under an hour but sometimes up to 3 hours in length.  Unfortunately, they come back every day at about the same time for weeks or months on end only to mysteriously disappear for some unknown period of time and then reappear which is why they are called cluster headaches.

While the cause of cluster headaches is not fully known, some experts believe that they stem from vascular channels in the head area, others think it is related to an abnormality in the hypothalamus gland.  Sometimes they can be triggered by environmental factors such as extreme temperatures or allergies, stress, or even the foods that you eat.  While just as painful as not more so than migraines cluster headaches have an interesting pattern because they affect men more than women where as migraines affect women more than men.

Over-the-counter medicines like aspirin and acetaminophen do little to relieve the pain of these headaches, but thankfully there are some medicines and treatments that your doctor can prescribe that might help.

One of the medications is something that they also give to migraine sufferers and are called triptans.  Triptans stimulate the production of serotonin, reverse the dilation of blood vessels and have anti-inflammatory properties all of which work to relieve cluster headache pain.  To work their best, they are usually injected but they also come in a nasal spray and can be taken orally.  The problem with using the nasal spray on cluster headaches is that oftentimes the nasal passages are inflamed and this can prevent the absorption of the spray. Triptans can have side effects and should not be taken by everybody so you need to discuss using them with your medical professional to see if these are right for you.

Another interesting treatment for cluster headaches is oxygen inhalation therapy. While no one is really clear on how this works to relieve the pain, it has been found that inhaling oxygen at a high rate at the onset of cluster headache can provide temporary relief and has been shown to work in between 50 to 85% of the people who’ve used this therapy.  It’s safe with no side effects, but of course requires access to oxygen and the proper administration.

Cluster headaches can really affect your quality of life and the symptoms might also be caused by something more serious so I you have them, you should talk to your doctor to get the proper diagnosis and find out what treatment options are right for you.