Posted by Ieuan (195.40.198.32) on May 28, 2000 at 20:50:01:
I have just discovered this site and have found just one reference to Acupuncture (from Dan in Cincinatti, who also had good things to say about it).
I've suffered for 25 years. For the first 5 years or so I would have 2-3 headaches per day (maybe severity 7 to 10) for 3 months, then maybe 6 months off. I went to one acupuncturist and had some reduction in severities. Later I found a pressure point below the ear (about 10mm along the jaw line on the same side of the head as the headaches). This can (usually) give immediate 80 to 95% reduction in severity of an acute headache or forestall a headache if caught early enough in the warning stage.
I then saw a second acupuncturist. After ONE session the severity of headaches in that bout IMMEDIATELY reduced to 1 to 3 with frequency reduced by about a half!!!
Subsequent bouts have ALL been similarly reduced - I think I have NEVER had above severity 5 since that one session. I've got the data plotted somewhere still - it is truly remarkable.
I am sure that thanks to Acupuncture I went from being "suicidal/in danger of losing job/wife" to being "inconvenienced by periods of lost sleep with some (not very bad) headaches". I was appalled to see the stats. on this web site - that 20 or 30% of us gain no relief!!! I'd assumed I was the norm - take Verapamil and the headaches die down; take Imigran (Sumatriptan) nasal spray for the acute attacks and be clear in 10 minutes; sleep in a chair to prevent a recurrence. Like I said, I'm new to this site and I've only met 2 other people with clusters.
I know Acupuncture won't magically cure you all, but it could help some and that's why I'm still typing this at 01:45 in the a.m. Take hope from my story, guys, you could find a decent management regime. Get on to your doctors to try new/different medications, try Acupuncture, then maybe try it again like I did. Maybe it needed some belief or faith like I had by finding an acupressure point that worked - there's also one in the eyebrow (again same side as headache); that works for pain relief but is too near the source and it's worse when I stop! Then there's one in the hollow below the knee on the outside of the leg (opposite side to headache this time). You can usually find them 'cos they hurt (quite a lot sometimes, but what's a little pain to a clusterhead?) when you've got a headache and the sites are "active".
Then again there are always those buggers of headaches that nothing will move, you can't touch anywhere near your head and the last thing you want to do is go prodding around your knee - don't think I don't know and am talking pure BS (anybody else make themselves throw up/vomit/chunder to clear a headache after 12, 18 or 24 hours of the bastard???).
Good luck, let us know if you've had any similar experience.
Ieuan (London, UK)
(Yes, that is 4 vowels in a row and an "n" - Welsh!)