Ok so I'm going to do my best to make this long story as short as possible.

I have been suffering from cluster headaches since I was 17, so for about 10 years. They seemed to be getting worse and worse with time. By the time I was in my mid 20's, I was having a headache 5 out of 7 days. I would almost always get only one headache a day, that would last from 50minutes to 2.5 hrs, with the median probably being 1hr15mins.

I get oxygen delivered to my house weekly, and had used zolmitriptan in the past, which works wonderfully, but you cannot take this medication very often (my doc recommends no more than once a week max), so for the longest time I was basically afraid to go very far from my house, because I needed to be close to my oxygen tank.

While the oxygen works really well, usually getting rid of the pain in about 20 mins, I was SO sick of the routine of putting on my mask, then having to sit there with it on for hrs. I was sick of being out with friends, and having to run home to use the mask. I felt like a slave to my oxygen tank.

Recently, I began experiencing some troubling heart/chest symptoms for which I've went to the ER 3 times, doctors there would just run an ECG and tell me I'm fine, it's anxiety an send me home. My BP was consistently around 150/93ish, with some reading as high as 160/115. Again, doctors told me it was just anxiety, but I don't know if I buy it, so I went about completely changing my diet around in an attempt to lower my blood pressure.

I eliminated pop altogether(I used to drink at least 1 liter a day), fast food altogether, and started counting my sodium and added sugar.

Since I have changed my diet, I have not had a headache in about 3 weeks. This is the 3rd week in a row that I won't need any oxygen tanks, I still have the same ones from almost a month ago. I have not even really come close to having a headache in that same amount of time, i.e. no aura at all, no annoying feeling in the corner of my head anymore.

Before I switched my diet, one of my main triggers was taking naps. I absolutely could not take a nap, or else I'd get a headache. Since switching my diet, I can now nap when  need without headaches!

For a while, I thought it was maybe a fluke, or coincidence, and so I didn't want to get too excited, but now that it's been about 22 days since Ive had a headache, I'm feeling pretty confident about the change in diet being the reason.

So basically that's my story, so far. All it took for me, was eliminating fast food, pop, no added sugar, watching my sodium intake and I haven't had a headache in 3 weeks! That is at least 3 times longer than the second longest I ever went without a headache.

I am of course still somewhat nervous about the headaches returning, but as of now, I really feel good.

I'm sure most of you out there have tried changing your diet, so I don't know how much help my post will be, but I just wanted to let everyone know how huge an impact changing my diet has had on my headaches.

Now I just need to see what's wrong with my heart.........

Processed foods are known triggers for some folk, myself included, when in a cycle! Bacon, Sausage, Salami, Cold Meats, Cheese, etc.

Hoppy

Hey Mylifesucks,

Great to hear you are getting relief after suffering so long. I need not tell you about the general health benefits of a healthy diet and as for fizzy drinks, well you might as well give your money to charity and do some good, than spending it on that junk.

I noted you mentioned that you are not getting any "aura" anymore. I wonder would you elaborate on how that aura presents to you ?

Have you looked into the Vitamin D3 Regimen at all. Read all you can on it here, under Medication & Treatment, in the thread "123 days pain free..." It has done wonders for a lot of us.

Many thanks and stay pain free.

Peter.

It's most helpful if you keep all of you messages in one chain vs. having one message isolated from others.

No mention of how/who diagnosed you; who is in charge of your treatment? Cluster can be a quite complicated disorder and self-diagnosis/treatment can easily lead into blind alleys.

The first question is: do I have Clusters? It's not as neat and easy to answer as it appears. It too often takes years before someone finds a good doc who  knows the ropes.

I can echo Bobs sentiments there.....

colin

Good to hear...

My quick quess would be overgrowth of candida...which produce asetaldehyde...which cause "hangover like" experience (or at worst case trigger cluster headache)...

But who knows...

If it's candida overgrowth, then you should have probles /very difficult stop using sugar...