7 Natural Options To Relieve Cluster Headaches By GreenMedInfo Research Group
If you suffer from the intense pain of cluster headaches, you don’t have to reach for narcotic pain relievers. Try these seven natural options to relieve cluster headache pain without addictive medications.
Cluster headaches are a type of cyclical headache that occur in groupings over a period of weeks or months. These cluster periods are characterized by sharp, stabbing pains that are generally present on one side of the head or around one eye. A cluster headache sufferer may experience one to eight severe headaches per day when a cluster cycle is in effect.
According to the American Migraine Foundation, cluster pain is often described as a “burning” pain, “like a hot poker in the eye,” and is considered one of the most painful of all headaches.[i] Shorter in duration than migraine headaches, a cluster attack typically lasts anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours.
Now is your chance to support Gospel News Network.
We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
While migraine pain is generally accompanied by the need to lie down in the dark, cluster pain makes lying down nearly impossible, with sufferers often pacing or rocking to try and distract from the pain. It is speculated that as many as 1 million people are living with cluster pain in the U.S.[ii]
Causes of Cluster Headaches
While cluster headaches may be misdiagnosed as migraine, a cluster headache is a unique type of primary headache disorder. Cluster headaches are signaled by the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for your biological clock and maintaining sleeping and waking cycles. The signal triggers a nerve pathway at the base of the brain called the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for sending sensations of heat or pain to the face.[iii]
The study of cluster headaches is still a relatively recent discipline, but it is believed there may be a genetic component to the disease, with some families passing down the tendency.[iv] Cluster headaches also tend to occur around the same time of year, causing sufferers to mistake them for allergy symptoms or work or life stress.[v]
Cluster headaches generally onset between the ages of 20 and 40 and affect men and women at about the same rates.[vi] Cluster headaches may go into periods of remission lasting for months or years, or these attacks may cease permanently for no known reason.[vii]
Natural Remedies for Cluster Headaches
When it comes to relieving headache pain, pharmaceutical options generally rely on highly addictive narcotic-based pain medications or steroidal drugs like prednisone. If you are a natural health advocate, you’ll be relieved to find multiple, non-addictive options that can help take the edge off the pain and restore you to normal functioning.
1. Melatonin
Melatonin is the hormone most associated with the sleep-wake cycle. As a supplement, melatonin has gained popularity for insomnia support, helping your body to fall asleep naturally, especially when issues like jet lag or late-night shift work disrupt your normal sleep rhythm.
Melatonin as an adjunct therapy for headache disorders has received scientific validation, including a 2006 study by the Brain Research Institute in Brazil. Researchers expounded on prior research that found decreased melatonin levels in sufferers of both migraine and cluster-type headaches.
They found that melatonin has numerous mechanisms that work to relieve or prevent headaches, including an anti-inflammatory effect, toxic free-radical scavenging, reduction of pro-inflammatory cytokine upregulation and opioid analgesia potentiation, meaning it can enhance the effect of other pain medications.[viii]
2. Thiamine
Also known as vitamin B1, thiamine is one of eight essential B vitamins that helps regulate the conversion of food into energy. Naturally present in certain foods, thiamine is absorbed by the small intestine and stored primarily in the liver, but only in trace amounts, making it crucial to provide a continuous supply from your diet.[ix]
One of the risk factors of thiamine deficiency is headaches,[x] leading researchers to explore what may link these phenomena. Headache pain may cause a person to experience nausea and therefore avoid eating, causing a mild thiamine deficiency.[xi] Further, B vitamins as a group have been shown to affect clinical symptoms of migraine headaches.[xii]
Continue Reading / Green Med Info >>>
*WARNING: Always consult a medical herbalist or your health care practitioner when using both natural and pharmaceutical medicines for any diagnosed condition. This article is for informational purposes only and not intended to be used as medical advice.
