Posted by David Rich on June 07, 1998 at 22:57:30:
I would like to explain how I suppress my cluster headaches. I do not know if this post will help anyone, but if this helps one person, it will have paid off a million-fold. I sincerely apologize if you find this post to be unhelpful to you personally.
When I had frequent cluster headaches, I would wake up at night in the type of seeting pain only a cluster headache sufferer understands. But I noticed that I only had attacks while I was sleeping (or drinking alcohol) and only had cluster periods while my nasal passages were stuffy. I do not know how I made the connection, but I believe that poor breathing during sleep, or a mild sleep apnea, was triggering my headaches.
When a cluster period begins, I unclog my respiratory tract with Breathe-Right strips, Sudafed, and most importantly, daily exercise. This simple regimen seems to be so entirely effective in suppressing my cluster headaches that I have stopped taking Verapamil and can even drink alcohol without getting headaches.
When individual headaches do occur, I have found that extremely intense exercise (e.g., weight-lifting, pushups) combined with very deep breathing eliminates the attack in approximately 3 minutes.
Again, I do not know if these suggestions will help anyone else, but all I can do is explain what has worked for me.