I know everyone's different, but I just wanted to share what 'cured' me.

Background:

I am a male in my early 30's, I have a very high pain tolerance, and am very stubborn about seeking help for pain/illness. I've had headaches for as long as I can remember, but they were almost always tolerable for everyday life. I started to get cluster headaches in the fall, when I was 30 years old. I was getting ~3 headaches a day, with peak pain lasting about an hour. Usually around lunch time, early afternoon, and late night. It was always behind my left eye, made my eye water and my nose get stuffy, and the pain was intense enough to make me feel nauseous. I did not want to take medication because I felt that it was treating the symptom, not the cause.

I was looking into my problem and saw a few theories linking cluster headaches to your circadian rhythm. So I thought that if I messed with my circadian rhythm enough, it would go away. I started to practice an alternative sleep schedule (3 hours sleep/night with 3x20min naps throughout the day). This seemed to work, but left me continually exhausted, was very inconvenient for a normal lifestyle, and observably reduced my mental capacity.

Solution

After talking with a relative about his wide range of allergies, he mentioned his gluten intolerance. This was when 'gluten free' was a new fad diet, but I thought I would give it a try. I cut out all gluten from my diet for 2 weeks to let my body get rid of the lingering effects, and amazingly it worked. Now, the only times I get a cluster-style headache are from eating foods with gluten in them. Unfortunately I no longer get to enjoy a lot of the foods/beer I love, I always have to be vigilant about what I eat, and can be perceived as an inconvenience to others; But it is a small price to pay to avoid that kind of pain.

Diet/allergies may not be the solution for everyone, but to me, it is worth the try. Every body is different, so I can't assume that all cluster headaches are gluten related. I would suggest trying an "Allergy Elimination Diet", and there are a lot of sites/methods to explain the process and provide a schedule. Make sure you are extremely strict about it, and see it through to the end before you dismiss the possibility that you have a food allergy. I've heard that your body can develop/change allergies throughout your life, so this may be the case if you started getting headaches when nothing seems to have changed in your lifestyle.

*Edit: I previously had not come across any treatments in regards to D3, so I thought I would cross check it. Apparently a gluten sensitivity/Celiac's reduces your stomach's ability to absorb vitamin D.

Glad you used your term, "cluster-style" headach.

Take a look at:


Link to: cluster-LIKE headache:

IN: "Medications, Treatments, Therapies --> "Important Topics" --> "Cluster-LIKE headache"