Does anybody have any experience with verapamil for treatment of cluster headaches? I have suffered with them for 15 years untill my doctor gave me verapamil to prevent them. Now it seems the first day I start taking it my headaches go away. Just wondering if anybody else has had similar results especially in such a short time frame

What are the best treatment options for each?

I’m a 22yr old female and I get all kinds of headaches except migraines (thank God). I know how to handle my tension headaches and my hormonal headaches, but these darn cluster headaches defeat me every time. The best treatment I’ve found so far is caffeine. It tempers the pain a little but I still can’t bend over or sneeze without being blinded by pain.

I can’t take most pain medicine because of the heart medication I’m on, which is just as well since they don’t do anything for my headaches. But I’ve tried them all anyway, Excedrin, tylenol, even oxycontin (just makes me high), and the like. Any suggestions on how to handle these bad boys?

Before we can discuss the different possible treatments for cluster headaches, we need to make sure you know what cluster headaches really are. Cluster headaches are also known as “suicide headaches”, they are the most painful headaches you can have. The headaches will occur in clusters that can go on for up to 6 to 8 weeks. Sometimes even longer. When you have cluster headaches, you will recognize it with these symptoms: the headaches will be very severe and around one eye or the temple area. The duration can vary between fifteen minutes to three hours, up to 8 times a day and this for several weeks.

Cluster headache treatment options

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For a small segment of the population, cluster headaches can be a debilitating condition that strikes without warning. Cluster headaches can strike seemingly random intervals, for which they gain their name. Patients are known to live for years without a problem, and suddenly suffer them for a period of weeks on end. The exact cause of cluster headaches is not known, although it is thought that stress, alcohol, and drugs are all prompters of the condition. Even without these factors, however, a cluster headache can strike a patient at any time. A cluster headache is easy to differentiate from a normal headache because of its severity and distinct symptoms.

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Before using any of the cluster headache treatment available to you there’s a couple of thing you should be aware of. But first I think it would be a good idea to better inform you about what cluster headaches really are before going into the different cluster headache treatment. Don’t you think?

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The cluster headache has two main characteristics. First, the cluster headache is extremely painful. The pain is so intense that some sufferers even feel that the condition is life threatening, which it is not. The second characteristic is the cyclical nature of the cluster headache. They tend to come a certain times and then last for several weeks or months and then disappear, sometimes for years,only to return again. So, before seeking cluster headache treatment, be sure that it is indeed what you are suffering from.

The best cluster headache treatment available is abortive oxygen treatment. The patient inhales pure oxygen through a mask for several minutes until the pain is gone. This treatment is very successful for many sufferers. Often, through oxygen inhalation the pain will be gone after just a few minutes. For others the relief may only be temporary and return after the sufferer stops inhaling the oxygen.

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I suffer from chronic cluster headaches. Treatment helps a lot, but they are still very bad. I’ve tried contacting other “clusterheads” to talk to for support on websites like “clusterheads.com”, “O.U.C.H.”, but no one responded. Is there any body else who suffers from these?