Hello all, I just joined the boards here but I hope to be an active member. I'm a 20 year old student, a creative writing major from the South-East. I also work as a lawyers assistant. I've had Cluster Headaches for about 4 or 5 years now. I generally have about 2 or 3 cycles a year and they last generally 2-5 weeks. My C-headaches don't occur at night like most peoples do I hear, I have mine at about 1:00-1:30 P.M. Anyways, it took me a number of years to find out that it was CH that I was afflicted with. Since then I have done a great deal of research on them and I even wrote a paper in Psychology about their affect on life-span development. So far I have taken Verapamil, which I stopped taking having read that it causes irregular heart functioning. I also take vicodin or loratab whenever I get a CH. I also have found that smoking marijuana helps alleviate the pain. I havent tried pure oxygen yet but I hear that sometimes it will only delay an attack.

Anyways, what do most of you find helps most with your Cluster Headaches?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome!  Pain medicine will not help with cluster headaches!  It will just cause another problem!  Life-span development?  What do you mean?  Have you been diagnosed by a headache specialist?  Tell us more about your headaches.  Verapamil is the lead Rx for CH.

Welcome!

I have O2 ready to go, but have yet to use it since i'm not in cycle.  Otherwise, rivea corymbosa seeds are my prevent.  Energy drinks with 1000mg taurine, 4-way nasal spray works sometimes and if desperate,  Imitrex injections.  Melatonin at night as a sleep aid.  I must be careful though because it states that sumatriptan and melatonin can interfere with how the LSA in the seeds work while in cycle. 

Just keep reading, you'll learn a ton real fast.  We are all here to help and answer questions.

Cheers,
Chad

jp783,
I have had clusters since 1977 and have been on just about every medication and treatment known to man. There hasn't been any drug that worked for me. Pure O2 is the answer, at least it is for me. It will abort 99% of my attacks.
These things have a mind of their own and not everything works for everybody. You need to find what works for you. Try O2 asap, and see if it is your answer too.
Post a link to your paper. I would like to read it.

O2 is great.......opiates are terrible......verap is helpful with ecg......Hmmmm.....let us critique your paper?

Here is my paper for those who wanted to read it.

A cluster headache is a neurological disease, which afflicts approximately 0.1 percent of the population today.  Originally named Horton’s Neuralgia after Dr. B.T. Horton, the cluster headache is also nicknamed the “suicide headache.” Statistically, men suffer more often from cluster headaches than women do. The term “cluster” refers to the tendency for these headaches to occur in a set period of time. These active clusters are then generally followed by sporadic remissions. Women who suffer from the condition will tell you that an attack is worse than childbirth, thus, experts suggest that cluster headaches could be the highest level of pain known to medical science. The direct cause of these excruciating unilateral headaches is unknown, although scientists believe it could be due to an abnormality or damage in the hypothalamus. In this paper I will assess the developmental issues associated with cluster headaches, I will also assess the symptoms, prognosis, and treatment options.
     Living with cluster headaches can be extremely difficult; the debilitating attack can often seem unbearable. Sufferers often experience extremely high levels of anxiety and depression. Cluster headaches can directly affect interaction with family, friends, productivity at work or in school, and your overall quality of life. Whenever an attack is imminent, sufferers generally seclude themselves from others. People who are experiencing an attack will often do anything to alleviate their symptoms. Common symptoms of a cluster headache include, reduced pupil size, stuffy or runny nasal passage in the nostril on the affected side of your face, drooping eyelid, excessive tearing, redness in the eye of the affected side, sweaty, pale skin around the face, swelling around the eye on the affected side, and an excruciating pain, which is generally located in or around the eye, but that may spread to other areas of the face, head, neck and shoulders. The duration of these attacks ranges from 15 minutes to three or more hours. Dr. Peter Goadsby, a leading cluster headaches researcher and, Professor of Clinical Neurology at University College London said, "a cluster headache is probably the worst pain that humans experience. I know that’s quite a strong remark to make, but if you ask a cluster
headache patient if they’ve had a worse experience, they’ll universally say they haven't.”
     Until recently, there was thought to be no link between heredity and cluster headaches. However, studies have suggested that genes do in-fact play a large role in the disease. Genetic epidemiological research has shown that first-degree relatives of those who suffer from cluster headaches are much more likely to have the disorder than those in the general population. Cluster headaches have also been reported in concordant monozygotic twin pairs. Currently, the type and number of genes that are associated with the disease are unknown.
     The impact that cluster headaches have on those who are afflicted is immeasurable. Those who experience an attack may have concerns for their immediate health. However, it is believed that cluster headaches will not harm you physically. Unfortunately, the nickname associated with the disease was rightly earned.  In Dr. B.T. Horton’s 1939 paper A New Syndrome of Vascular Headache: Results of Treatment with Histamine he claims, “Our patients were disabled by the disorder and suffered from bouts of pain from two to twenty times a week. They had found no relief from the usual methods of treatment. Their pain was so severe that several of them had to be constantly watched for fear of suicide. Most of them were willing to submit to any operation which might bring relief.”
Unfortunately, there is no cure for cluster headaches, although there are many treatment options. Treatments include a number of preventive, acute, and long-term medications. In extreme cases surgical procedures are used in an attempt to damage the nerve pathways, which are thought to be responsible for the pain. The surgical procedures that are available are all highly dangerous and can only be performed once.  Those who suffer from the disease have many options. The majority of those who are afflicted treat their pain with either pain-medication or with pure oxygen.

Effect on life-span development?

Has anyone ran out of O₂ and in desperation tried the acetylene?
(hope you know I'm not serious)

very novice paper

watch your personal attacks newbie.

jp7833 wrote on Mar 20^th, 2010 at 5:43pm:


Nice that a person makes 1 comment and you decide to insult a majority of the posters here.  I think you might want to take this back or take a hike.

It was funny though, I laughed pretty hard my fellow dickheads.  It was an undergrad paper, so cut JP a little slack.

Anywho, go to the clusterbusters website and see if any of that interests you.  Saved my ass for the last couple of years!

Good luck and don't let any of us looney tunes get you down.  People here really do care and we're better together than alone. 

--Shaggy

oh I forgot to ask....does anyone know of any long term side effects to Imitrex injections? They work sooo well for me I am just wondering why more people on this site don't seem to use them..they work almost instantly!