What are Cluster Headaches and How are they Treated?
Cluster headaches are very difficult to deal with for the small number of people who get them. They can sneak up on you without any warning at any time which is why they are referred to as cluster headaches. These headaches can go away for years and then all of a sudden come back and stay for weeks.
No one really knows why people get cluster headaches but drugs and alcohol use are thought to be partly to blame. You just never know when you are going to get a cluster headache but you know when you have one because they have such severe and unique symptoms.
Cluster headaches are often focused behind one eye and it can feel like you are being stabbed with an ice pick back there. This can be an unbearable pain. A runny nose and watery eyes usually occurs with cluster headaches as well. These headaches can be so painful that people just can’t deal with the pain in a reasonable way. They are just desperate to stop the pain. People may react in a dangerous and extreme way to this pain. Often people have to take pain pills or sedatives to deal with the pain from cluster headaches. This is usually effective for the short term or at least another cluster headache comes on without warning.
It is difficult to treat cluster headaches because they come and go so frequently. You cannot treat these headaches with medicine every day of the patient’s life. People with cluster headaches often have to rely on themselves to make good choices to prevent the headaches from coming back. This includes avoiding drugs and alcohol. Prevention is important when it comes to cluster headaches and it is the patient’s job to monitor their lifestyle and avoid things that will contribute to their headaches. When the cluster headaches occur, you should have the pain medicine you need available to treat them.
If you get frequent attacks of cluster headaches,s you need to talk to your doctor to rule out a more serious neurological problem. It is possible that you have a more serious problem that will require treatment that is actually causing the headaches. Learning to manage stress is helpful for people with cluster headaches. Experts cannot say for sure that stress is related to cluster headaches but they believe it would be beneficial to reduce stress just in case.
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- Available Headache Treatments
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- Dealing with Hormonal Headaches
- Determining the Causes of Headaches
- Frequent Headaches Make Life More Difficult
- Headache Clinics: Help for People with Severe and Chronic Headaches
- Headache Medicines Available for Treating Headaches
- Learning About the Different Headache Types
- Pinpointing the Causes of Migraine Headaches
- What are Cluster Headaches and How are they Treated?