Hi all, I'm a 37 yo. male that has been suffering from cluster headaches since i was 25. I was first diagnosed with clusters around 30 yo. I have not until recently searched for a cause or cure on my own, although I have tried to find preventative measures and ways of coping when an attack comes, on my own throughout the years.

I ran into this site a couple of years ago in a desperate attempt to find some solution to my problem. From what I read on the clusterheadaches.com website 1 out of 1000 people suffer from clusters, with 301 million people in the US alone thats 301 thousand people suffering from clusters, ?!?!? 301 thousand people??? ...why is there no cure or even a diagnosed reason for what is the cause of cluster headaches?

When I was diagnosed, I was told usually men from 30 to 40, with masculine features and hazel eyes are more likely to develop clusters? Why? Perhaps I didn't read enough of the website here to find answers I am looking for, and perhaps the answers are not there.

Is there something that we all have in common that links us together to cluster headaches? There could be, there may not be ...does anyone know? Is it a geographical region? Living close to military installations? Living near power plants? High elevations low elevations? Have we all suffered from head injuries? Do we all suffer from anxiety or panic attacks? Do we have low blood oxygen levels?Are we all just so smart that our skulls cant hold the massive brains we have <--Humor. There has to be something?

I will share my life in a nutshell, of anything I could see causing my clusters and then again none of these things may have anything to do with it at all.

When I was 4 yo I was hit by a vehicle which cause a fractured skull, when I was 17 i was joining the army and was delayed for testing for 6 months and had cat scans and all the latest scans at the president's hospital (Bethesda Navy Hospital) to see if there were any problems with my head from the fracture ...everything came out fine. When I was 18 I developed a form of social anxiety and panic attacks that I still deal with until this day, drug treatment never seemed to help with this. At 25 I started having clusters, at the time I was trying hard to think of what I could have done or what could have happened recent to then that could be giving me a headaches. Three things that I could think of: 1) I was hit from behind in a car accident and probably had a slight form of whiplash. 2) Had a wisdom tooth pulled, which at the time felt like the dentist broke my jaw bone getting it out. and 3) Had a piece of metal fall in my ear while changing a transmission out of a car i was working on.

Considering that there are few people that have a piece of rust fall in their ear I doubt its the third. I have noticed within the past 3 years I have been getting clusters in the fall, from mid October to mid December. This year it started earlier, august. I thought It may be from eating microwaved food So I stopped for a year until the clusters came back. Try doing that in todays world for a year!

I do smoke a pack, a pack and a half a day and I do drink alcohol, usually beer. I would have to agree with what I have read that smoking and drinking do aggravate and enhance a cluster, but I don't believe they cause them. I can go from January to  August and drink a 6 pack a day and smoke 2 packs of cigarettes and not have any headaches at all. Anyway to quit smoking is as bad as telling a heroin addict to stop shooting up.

My clusters are on my right side, watering eye runny nose and all that good stuff. Its impossible to stay calm and lay down, I usually get hot flashes followed by cold chills and setting up in bed rocking or kneeling with my head on something is about all I can do until it starts subsiding. And you can tell...I can tell 15 minutes before it starts and 15 minutes before it goes away.

Well thanks for reading. A little humor a little wisdom and a little ranting from another cluster sufferer.

mezza wrote on Aug 20^th, 2008 at 12:12am:


Hell of a post.

      Potter

Please see my reply to "worst pain ever" in this section.