NCTV Episode 68

Continuing with the series of bitesize health tip videos which can be found here on my YouTube Channel, this episode, includes:-

  • The facts about them
  • Why they occur
  • Symptoms & warning signs
  • How to avoid them
  • Treatments available

Transcript

If you’d prefer to read the content within, rather than watch the video, then feel free to read the transcript, as follows:-

Hello and welcome to NCTV Episode 68 which is all about Cluster Headaches.

So a bit about them, cluster headache sufferers tend to report their pain as being the worst imaginable, and these are often considered the nastiest of the primary headache disorders. Although not a very common type of headache, approximately 1 in 1000 people suffer from them, they are severe, and the pain is enough to make some cluster headache sufferers feel suicidal. Cluster headaches are a series of relatively short but extremely painful headaches experienced daily for weeks or months at a given time. They tend to happen at the same time each year. They’re more common in men, with a ratio of 2:1. Cluster headaches may disappear completely for months or years, but they can come back without any warning.

So what’s happening when they occur? It’s not understood exactly what causes them, but a nerve in your face is involved, creating intense pain around one of your eyes. The nerve signal seems to come from a deeper part of the brain called the hypothalamus, where the ‘internal biological clock’ that controls your sleep and wake cycles lives. Attacks appear to be linked to the circadian rhythm, your body’s internal body clock. They happen so regularly, generally at the same time each day, that they’ve been called “alarm clock headaches.” One will often wake you up an hour or two after going to bed and night time attacks can be more severe than the day time ones.

What are the symptoms? Some of the main ones are:

  • Rapid pain onset reaching full force within 5 or 10 minutes
  • They’re normally short-lived 15 – 90 minutes but sometimes can last up to 3 hours
  • You may get one to three a day
  • Always one-sided and the same side
  • And they can be burning or piercing, throbbing or constant with the pain sometimes spreading to your forehead, temple, nose, cheek, or upper gum on that side.

Are there warning signs? Although the pain starts suddenly, you may experience a few subtle cues such as discomfort around the eye which might become swollen or drooping with a smaller pupil and sometimes redness or watering.

How can it be treated? Unfortunately, there is no cure for cluster headaches. The goal of treatment is to decrease the severity of pain, shorten the headache period and prevent the attacks. Due to the nature of cluster headaches, fast-acting medication and breathing oxygen through a face mask for 20 minutes can help. Some drugs prescribed by your doctor can reduce the pain as well as lessen the intensity and duration of the attack as well as be used to help prevent them. In extreme cases surgical procedures can be done to block the trigeminal or occipital nerve involved, or they may implant electrodes to interfere in the nerve transmission, although these procedures are very rare as they are considered high risk with potentially serious side effects or consequences.

So what can you do? The main thing is to be aware of the possible causes or triggers which you could avoid, including:

  • Cigarette smoke
  • Alcohol
  • Weather changes
  • Strong smells
  • Bright or flashing lights and
  • Hot showers

To help you avoid or better cope with an attack during a cluster cycle you should:

  • Stick to a regular sleep schedule as they can begin when there are changes in your normal sleep routine.
  • Melatonin has also shown modest effectiveness in treating night time attacks.
  • Additionally, something you may want to consider is joining a headache support group to help cope with them.
  • And finally, have a regular massage or therapeutic treatment. Although this may not relieve or change the pattern or intensity of your cluster headaches; during a headache cycle, be it weeks or months, the anxiety and stress can be severe so massage or manual therapy may help you relax and relieve some stress allowing you to better cope with it too.

That’s all for today, see you again next week for some more bitesize bits to help your health flourish. Bye bye for now.