Cluster headaches are one of the most painful conditions known to man and their one and only saving grace is that they are thankfully reasonably rare. For instance, while roughly one person in ten of the population suffers from migraine, only about one person in three hundred will ever experience a cluster headache.

A cluster headache normally appears as what most sufferers describe as a hot stabbing pain behind only one eye or in the area of the temple. Their principle characteristic however is that they run to a timetable and will appear at roughly the same time every day often appearing for several days, or even weeks or months at a time. They also have a tendency to strike without any warning, unlike migraine headaches which are frequently preceded by several warning signs.

Nobody is entirely certain what causes these very painful headaches although research tends to favor the theory that they result from abnormalities in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small gland that has an important part to play in regulating your body clock and this may explain why these headaches appear at approximately the same time each day.

Another feature of cluster headaches that sets them apart from migraine headaches is that are seen far more in men than in women. In the case of migraines some three times as many women as men are sufferers but, in the case of cluster headaches, studies indicate that they are seen up to eight times more often in men.

Treatments for ordinary headaches are virtually always useless for cluster headaches and this is one sort of headache for which you must seek professional advice from your physician.

One often used treatment is that of breathing pure oxygen for a few minutes once the headache starts. This particular form of treatment does not work for everyone but generally works extremely well for those people who do find it helps. It will not however prevent a headache and is only effective in treating a headache once it has begun.

Yet another very effective treatment is the use of a new type of drugs known as triptans which are currently being used to treat migraine headaches. These drugs must however be taken in a fast acting form if they are to be effective and this normally means taking them in the form of a nasal spray. However, in many cases cluster headaches can also cause inflammation of the nasal passages making this form of treatment difficult. Here, triptans can often be given by injection.

At the moment there are no really effective preventative treatments available for cluster headaches though a few sufferers find that calcium channel blockers work quite well. In addition, in very severe cases surgery may be considered as a treatment of last resort and several neurological procedures are available which include procedures which block certain nerves and that remove a section of the brain.

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