Cluster Headaches Are The Most Painful You Will Ever Experience

Cluster headaches are one of the most painful conditions known and their one and only saving grace is that they are fortunately quite rare. For instance, though about one person out of every ten of the population suffers from migraine headaches, only about one person out of three hundred will ever experience cluster headaches.

Cluster headaches often appear as what a lot of sufferers describe as a hot and stabbing pain behind just one eye or in the area of the temple. Their principle characteristic however is that they run to a timetable and appear at the same time each day often appearing for several days, or even weeks or months at a time. They also tend to appear without any warning, unlike migraine headaches which are often preceded by several warning signs.

Nobody is quite sure what causes these particularly painful headaches though research favors the theory that they result from abnormalities in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small gland which plays an important part in regulating your body clock and this could explain why these headaches occur at the same time each day.

Yet another feature of these headaches which distinguishes them from migraine headaches 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 however, in the case of cluster headaches, studies indicate that they are up to eight times more prevalent in men.

Standard treatments for normal headaches are almost always ineffective for cluster headaches and this is one sort of headache for which you have to seek the professional advice of your doctor.

One commonly used treatment is that of inhaling pure oxygen for several minutes once the headache begins. This form of treatment does not work for everyone but generally works very well for those people who do find that it is helpful. It cannot however be used to prevent a headache and is only effective in treating a headache after it has begun.

Yet another extremely effective treatment is the use of a new type of drugs called triptans which are at present being used for the treatment of migraine headaches. These drugs must however be taken in a very fast acting form to be effective and this normally means using them in the form of a nasal spray. However, in many cases cluster headaches can also cause inflammation of the nasal passages rendering this type of treatment difficult. In these cases, triptans can often be given by injection.

At the moment there are no really effective preventative treatments available for cluster headaches though a few sufferers find that calcium channel blockers work quite well. Also, in the most severe cases surgery can be considered as a last resort treatment and a number of neurological procedures are available including procedures which block certain nerves and that remove part of the brain.