What Cluster Headaches are All About
1 million people in the United States suffer from cluster headaches. Cluster headaches do not have a known cause but it is usually noted that any ingestion of alcohol during the period while you have this headache will lead to a severity in the exhibition of symptoms that you display. Of further note however is the fact that no studies exist which prove that the actual use of alcohol may lead to people developing cluster headaches.
What Is A Cluster Headache?
A cluster headache may often be as severe as a migraine in its true nature. They often start so quickly and unlike migraines they don’t offer much warning beforehand. Sometimes certain people claim that they felt a slight discomfort beforehand. At other times this feeling is a burning sensation that may be felt in your head or on one side of a persons face before the attack. Pain that is felt may occur for a period which is much less than an hour; it may also disappear and end up returning much later during the day or towards the evening.
Most people who suffer from headaches often report a large number of these short felt headaches in a day. Sometimes these short headaches may be experienced over a number of days or weeks when the headaches are very serious. Headaches may also last for longer periods of time and sufferers may have a break or gap from these headaches for months or even years. Most people who suffer from these headaches usually have most of the symptoms of these headaches occurring between the spring and fall seasons. Most times doctors may make a mistake and diagnose wrongly claiming that these headaches are as a result of allergies.
What Does A Cluster Headache Feel Like?
During the course of a cluster headache people suffering from such headaches tend to report only the pain that they feel on one side of the head or the face during these series of headaches. Pain can be felt on one side of the face and shift to another side of the face as soon as a series of headaches has finished and another set of headaches has started. Symptoms of such headaches usually start out behind the eyes and the pain that emanates from a cluster headache may circulate the areas of the face and course down the neck. The eye in question may develop additional symptoms and become swollen, red and teary. Sometimes during an attack a person may start sweating severely and end up with a flushed face.
How Do I Treat A Cluster Headache? Cluster headaches tend to occur continuously over a long period of time. A patient may not respond properly to the different forms of treatment used to resolve most headaches. Applying therapy which reduces the effect of these headaches and the times which they occur may prove effective on the other hand. Different forms of treatment also exist and these forms of treatment include: Histamine Desensitization, Oxygen Inhalation and Surgical Intervention.
Other treatments may also be equally effective as well. These types of treatments may involve the use of analgesics as well as massage therapy and certain relaxation techniques. By using certain headache medications used for the prevention of headaches you might also combat cluster headaches successfully.
Darren Williger is an over-caffeinated, low carbohydrate eating, winemaking enthusiast who writes for MedicalNeeds.com, DifferentMedicine.com, and RemedyZone.Com.
