Cluster headaches – the details

What are cluster headaches?

Cluster headaches are headaches where the suffer experiences attacks come in groups. The pain arrives with little, if any, warning, and this type of headache has been described as the most severe and intense of all headaches. Generally, it lasts from 30 to 45 minutes, though it might persist for several hours before disappearing. Unfortunately, it may reoccur later in the day. Most sufferers tend to suffer from one to four headaches a day during a cluster period. Cluster headaches frequently surface during morning or late at night and a cluster cycle can last weeks or months and then can disappear for months or years. The clusters most often occur during spring or autumn and, thus, are incorrectly associated with allergies. Approximately 10 percent of the sufferers have been found to experience chronic cluster headaches that occur all year long. It is also estimated that less than one percent of the population are victims of cluster headaches, and they encounter this headache between the ages of 20 and 45. More men (about five to one) than women experience cluster headaches.

Symptoms of cluster headaches -

The cluster headache was once considered a type of migraine as it is vascular. It is rather unfortunately that it is possible for a person to suffer from both migraines and clusters, though this condition is rare.

A cluster headache is mostly unilateral and rarely switches sides from one attack to another. One might feel the pain starting around one eye, like a nail or knife stabbing or piercing the eye, or as if someone were pulling out the eye; it may or may not be accompanied by a tearing or bloodshot eye and a runny nose on the side of the headache. It may radiate from the eye to the forehead, temple and cheek on the same side. Thus in all, the pain of a cluster headache has been described as piercing, burning, throbbing, pulsating, and so excruciating that most victims cannot even sit still and are compelled to rock in a chair, walk back and forth, or bang their heads against something.

Precipitating Factors of cluster headaches-

Unlike migraine headaches, cluster headaches do not result due hereditary factors. Sufferers have been generally found to have a history of chronic smoking, and alcohol frequently triggers a cluster headache. As the level of histamine increases in a person's blood and urine during a cluster headache, many researchers believe that histamines, which dilate or expand blood vessels, affect a cluster headache. However, antihistamines have not proven to be an effective therapy against cluster headaches.

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